New Zealand Post and CourierPost have announced that they have extended their parcel delivery options to their customers.

“We know how frustrating it is when customers miss delivery the first time and receive a card asking them to collect their parcels,” said Ashley Smout, Group General Manager of Customer Engagement at New Zealand Post.

“We’re working to reduce numbers of ‘cards to call’ by giving customers more choice about where and when they receive their parcels.”

There are two new services being offered. Parcel Leave allows a parcel to be left at an agreed place at a customer’s address even if they are not at home to sign for it.

The other scheme is called Parcel Redirect.If a customer knows that they will not be home when the parcel is due for delivery they can have it redirected to a number of New Zealand Post retailers and CourierPost depots and a number of participating Countdown supermarkets. In addition, a number of Z service stations are also piloting collection points in Wellington.

Currently, parcels can be redirected to 11 Countdown stores in Auckland and six Z stations in Wellington. Over the course of July, parcel collection locations will be extended to include an additional 27 Countdown stores in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin.

As letter mail volumes drop and parcel volumes rise, so postal operators are looking for new ways to meet customer demand. This is in turn a very competitive market and if the postal operator does not meet demand they can haemorrhage business as has happened in Canada during the ongoing pay and pension negotiations dispute between Canada Post and its union.