The " Need " Factor !

When the " Need " for a government service starts to shrink, the cost of providing it starts to rise  and the availability comes into question.    The writing has been on the wall for the Post Office mail delivery system as each years statistics show a steady decline in the number of items handled.

The New Zealand government has announced that - starting in 2015 - mail deliveries across the Tasman will be reduced to a three times a week service, probably on the basis of Monday, Wednesday and Friday in urban areas.

It seems quite reasonable to suppose a similar contraction will eventually take place here in Australia, because technology is fast making the physical delivery of paper items unnecessary.  More and more billing is by way of the Internet and the expanded use of tablets and smartphones, and the service providers are requiring direct debit as their only payment method.

There will always be a need for some sort of physical delivery to the homes of the Australian general public, but as the numbers dwindle it is likely that " mail delivery " will morph into something similar to a courier delivery service - with an appropriate cost structure.

Older Australians will fondly remember the " glory days " of nearly seventy years ago, when the mail service made a morning and afternoon home delivery - Monday to Friday - and single morning delivery on Saturday.  That was before the mail service invested in motor bikes to speed delivery, and the mailman toted a heavy bag as he trudged city streets.  He was eagerly awaited - at the time of someones birthday and in the days before Christmas.

Expect the New Zealand announcement to spur the Australian business community to further expand direct debit requirements to reduce overheads.   The days when accounts were paid by a cheque in the mail - and this was followed by a mailed receipt - are long over.    The jobs of payment received clerks have been replaced by the computer, which provides an instant financial analysis - and doesn't require a paycheque !

Of course, changing times have reverberations that affect employment statistics.  The mail service is a big employer of people to serve it's giant network - and less deliveries mean less people employed.  It seems that the quest for speed and efficiency in how we provide services is the antithesis of employment numbers.


The ever closing circle is making humans physically redundant !