Report on the letter post monopoly (NZ)
On 12 November 1986 the Cabinet MCC/SOE Committee directed
officials to review the letter post monopoly by 1 April 1989.
This reporting date was subsequently brought forward to 31
October 1988 by Cabinet. The review is attached, and is
summarised in this paper. In compiling the review officials
consulted widely with interested parties, including New Zealand
Post.
The postal market
2 The Postal Services Act 1987 provides a monopoly to New
Zealand Post for the carriage of letters weighing 500g or less
unless a charge of $1.75 or more is made. There are a number of
other exemptions to the monopoly, the most significant being
unaddressed material (eg advertising material), self-delivered
letters, legal material, and transfers between document
exchanges.
3 New Zealand Post has a turnover of $502m (estimated
1988/89) employs 9800, and handles 820m items of mail a year (of
which are standard letters). It also provides a range of
agency services, including electoral roll maintenance, motor
vehicle registration and 230 PostBank branches. Turnover has
reduced compared with the 1987/88 year due amongst other things
to a reduction in agency services, the removal of the Government
subsidy and the rationalisation of shared facilities with
Postbank.
