There as a 12 percent drop in the letters delivered in the last six months of 2023. File photo Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Fewer people are sending and receiving physical letters these days, but holding on to your letterbox can still send an important message on the vitality of the postal service.
While many New Zealanders still check the letterbox out of habit, they may only get one or two letters a week.
NZ Post says mail volumes are continuing to decline at a rapid pace, while the price to send standard mail hit $2 in July.
There were 95 million letters delivered in the six months to the end of 2023, compared to 108 million letters in the same period the previous year - a 12 percent decrease.
Australia Post has faced a similar decline, with chief executive Paul Graham telling the ABC the average household across the Tasman is getting less than two letters a week.
File photo. Photo: Mathyas Kurmann / Unsplash
"It sends less than 15 letters a year. More and more corporations are looking at how they they digitise that."
On the streets of Auckland, 78-year-old Janice says communication is mostly electronic these days, making it tough for people her age.
"There's a lot of people that don't go online, a lot of elderly people. I mean, I'm old, I've worked it out, but there's a lot that don't, and it's a comfort for people, I think.
Joanne told First Up that she did not think every house needed a letterbox these days, and that they quickly filled with junk mail.
"It would just be chocka, every day I'd be clearing it and throwing it all away, because it's rubbish."
She arrived in New Zealand in 1997 and was still surprised that potentially important documents could be left sitting in our letterboxes.
"What struck all of us - including my two young daughters at the time - was that the letterboxes are at the end of the garden or at the end of the property, and we all laughed saying that if this was England, they'd all be broken and stolen every day."
NZ Post announced a five-year plan last year that would cut 750 mail delivery jobs due to less mail.
But Posties Union Aotearoa president John Maynard said with the decline of letters and the rise of small parcels through online shopping, there was plenty of opportunity for staff to adapt.
He was worried NZ Post was going to lay off posties and let private contractors take the work, and said keeping your letterbox can be a statement of support for the workers out there on their bikes, getting things delivered.
"There is continuing work for the posties if they deliver many of the small packets and parcels that would otherwise go in a van, along with the mail that's left," Maynard said.
"So we have a counter proposal back to the company that we are saying you can keep the posties and we'll be fighting to make sure that happens."
Maynard said a postie on an electric bike or scooter was far more nimble and quick at delivering parcels than a big van.
"Now this means that we really are pushing the envelope on this, if you like. I'd say to people: hang on to your letterbox because that's almost like a symbol of support for some form of postal mail network that you've got a letterbox that mail can go in.
"Small packets, small parcels. The bigger ones will come to your door."
