Monday mail blitz for rural postie
Planned changes by NZ Post to the weekend rural delivery service in Marlborough will shift the workload for rural delivery contractors from Saturday to Monday, a Picton contractor says.
Rural delivery contractor Dennis Wye said the changes, which would cut out personal mail and non-subscriber newspaper deliveries on Saturdays to his 300 rural customers, would mean a bigger amount of mail to deliver the following Monday. It would also mean a small drop in income, he said.
Wye delivers the Saturday newspaper, mail and magazines to residents along Queen Charlotte Drive, Anakiwa, and Whatamango Bay, near Picton. When the changes were brought in by NZ Post on April 1 only parcels and subscription newspapers would be delivered, he said.
‘‘The changes affect me in a way because I deliver everything at the moment on Saturdays,’’ he said. ’’Now I expect Monday to be really busy with the extra amount of mail that normally would have been delivered on Saturday shifted to Mondays.’’
Wye, who lived in Blenheim, normally began his six day-a-week delivery run around the Queen Charlotte Sound and Port Underwood at 5.30am and finished at about 4.30pm. His hours of work on Saturday are usually 5.45am to midday.
‘‘There will be less hours working for me on Saturday now which is alright but I expect my income will drop slightly as a result as I’m contracted by the number of deliveries and kilometres travelled. But what I lose in hours and travel on Saturdays will likely be made up with a bigger workload on Mondays with two lots of mail from Friday and Saturday to deliver. It was inevitable weekend mail deliveries would be cut back with more people using email but I hope Saturday deliveries are not stopped altogether.’’
Mail deliveries to rural residents in Marlborough were already a day late due to the closure of State Highway One between Kaikoura and Blenheim from an earthquake, he said.
NZ Post Blenheim Mail Centre manager Grant Sinclair said one million letters were posted a week. ‘‘Rural delivery letter volumes had decreased by about a quarter in the last four years, and parcel volumes increased by 23 per cent at the same time so we are maintaining a Saturday parcel delivery service for rural customers.
From April 1 rural customers, who were on a six day delivery would not have letter deliveries or mail pick-ups on a Saturday, only parcels and subscription newspapers, he said. Mail deliveries from Monday to Friday are unaffected. The changes will affect 2900 rural delivery customers in Marlborough.