NZ Post - A Dinosaur Business Model?

[Perry]

If you could, what would you do with NZ Post, to
improve its flagging fortunes? (Apart from putting
Comrade Commissar Cullen out to pasture.)

Businesses May Pay More For Mail

Businesses wanting mail delivered with a one day turnaround could
be facing higher charges if NZ Post convinces the Government
to accept a raft of changes to its deed of understanding.

The changes are part a bid to reshape the state-owned company's
business model, which has been trapped between mail volumes de-
clining due to the internet and entrenched service delivery terms
keeping costs high.

[halfempty]

Sell it to Trademe.

Think about it they will be the only people posting anything within a few years.
Imagine if you could drop you stuff at a NZ Post outlet and they would list it, sell it and ship it out when sold for a small fee.

They do this in the US with eBay, part listing service part storage, part fulfillment provider.

What other Physical service do they provide that won't be 100% online within 5 years?

[artemis]

Heard they are looking at no mail deliveries on Saturdays. Could also drop Wednesday deliveries, one day delay would not be an issue for the vast majority. I doubt whether people depending on a specific delivery day use NZ Post anyway (I wouldn't!).

It will be interesting to see how the new auto parcel posting service works. Noticed it is coming to Welly railway station soon. I agree with them moving more to the self service model, although I do wonder about the feedback they receive from the Kapiti trial of this. Anecdotally it is more expensive than current prices, and also more restrictive - surely it ought to be cheaper.

[donna]

They are offering delivery on US purchases I heard - it's obviously annoying local retailers but NZ Post are doing what you'd expect opening up their business to new revenue channels.

Retailers hit by online onslaught
New Zealanders are spending more on overseas online shopping but it comes at a cost to our economy.
NZ Post is under fire for launching a new service to help Kiwis shopping online in the US.

Source

[Perry]

The NZ Post page on the (YouShop) matter.

[Winston001]

How little we remember.

When I first started in business in 1985, it took a week to send a letter to Auckland. In 1988 we spent $1500 on the wonder of wonders - a fax machine. But there was no way of knowing if the fax was received. Then along came email...and still we couldn't be certain the message was received. But occasionally we got answers, sometimes, even signatures on a scan, but take that to court and you were on your own. Unprovable.

In an age when fraud is easy, signing of documents is almost forgotten, NZ Post with its overnight service up and down the country provides a crucial part in our commercial life.

[Winston001]

For those unbelievers, I had a client out on the strings of his testes (financially) because a buyer in Hamilton denied his faxed signature and it took two years and a court hearing to close the liar down. My man would have been bankrupt if he hadn't had a busy job and he nearly folded on pursuing his claim. All for want of a signed contract through the post.

[essence]

Ahhhh, New Zealand Post.

Before they "reconfigured" the Kapiti Post Shop, there were four tellers that could deal with car registrations, bills, rates, stamps etc. If you had a KiwiBank request, they had a little one room office tucked to one side that you could speak to a KiwiBank representative.

After they "reconfigured" -

a) Down to two NZPost tellers, who are new and don't know jack
b) Will only do stamps, some accounts, NOT car registrations
c) Have now introduced two KiwiBank tellers
d) self-service mail/accounts machines

The first time I went there after they remodelled the place, the queue was off the vinyl onto the carpet and halfway out the door. They couldn't handle the volume of customers, the tellers were new, none of the self-service machines were working.

They had two staff members walking down the queue directing them (hopefully) to the KiwiBank tellers. Almost nobody wanted them, they needed NZ Post.

I commented that the queue was getting longer (I was tenth in line) and the staff member turned around and said (and I kid you not!!) "Oh, there's no queue, you just think you're in a queue".

I lent sideways, looked forward, looked backwards and said "Ah, no this is an ACTUAL QUEUE and we'd like ACTUAL SERVICE". What an absolute idiot.

No wonder NZPost is losing business..... and with this level of service, they deserve to.

The business model is outdated, unfocussed and irrelevant.

[Perry]

Yes, Winston, those were the days . . .
But does the Electronic Transactions
Act come to your aid, much, now?
Were there 'solicitors certificates'
in common use, back then?

Way back, too, lawyers weren't al-
lowed to advertise, conveyancing
fees weren't competitive (if I recall
aright). Things have changed in all
spheres.

Look how so much stuff is now e-
transacted, even by govts, including
land transfers.

Horse-drawn carriages, blimps, gas
lamps in streets - nothing seems
exempt from change.

Essence seems to have encapsulated
the problem for NZ Post's tactics:

Service levels will keep declining and
charges increasing until profit improves.

The way of the dinosaurs?

[testking]

I am thinking to use either youshop or ship2u. Youshop is famous brand of company, but ship2u offers better services then youshop...