Speedy mail service makes quiet times fly
An Oamaru taxi company, which has taken to delivering mail through the night, is ready to replicate its success by offering franchises across New Zealand.
Whitestone Post, a postal service which uses taxi company Whitestone Taxis, has operated in Oamaru for three years.
Whitestone Taxi and Whitestone Post owner Murray Bell said the business operated as a 24-hour mail service within the Weston and Oamaru area; anywhere outside was passed on to New Zealand Post or DX Mail.
They picked up mail at the door, sorted it, franked it, and delivered it the next day. The company usually delivered within 12 hours but guaranteed delivery within 24 hours, he said.
‘‘It’s a win-win situation – our taxi service is able to make a reasonable income from postal deliveries, during otherwise quiet periods, and customers receive guaranteed 24-hour mail delivery within the town’s boundary.’’
The company had a target to have mail delivered by 6am the next day and guaranteed to deliver by 10am. Not once had they missed a guaranteed delivery, he said.
Whitestone Post is now preparing to move into other regions, with franchises expected to be offered across the South Island in about two weeks.
The business started three years ago, when an obligation for his taxi company to run 24 hours a day was starting to cost him.
‘‘We had drivers on who had nothing to do.’’
In 2014 the company delivered 3500 items of mail in six months; in 2015 the number climbed to 6000. By 2016 deliveries reached 13,000 and in the first three months of 2017 the company hand-delivered more than 21,000 pieces of mail.
For residents and businesses there was a financial advantage of posting with Whitestone Post, he said.
‘‘We are 80 cents per envelope, NZ Post is $1, and we deliver it overnight.’’
He said in one case, a plant, which opened in Oamaru two years ago, had given the company 1000 letters to deliver.
All of the letters had been delivered by 10am the next day, to the amazement of the plant manager, he said.
‘‘A driver can deliver 120 letters per hour; on a 10-hour shift 1000 letters is not hard at all.’’
Now the company was looking to franchise and was already in negotiation with another taxi company in Palmerston North called Black and White.
He said it was ideally suited to taxi companies, but anyone could get involved.
‘‘It’s the structure we have as a franchise, we have spent a lot of time making sure it is efficient.’’