NZ Post will no longer be delivering to rural addresses on Saturdays.

From 29 June, there will no longer be newspaper and parcel deliveries to rural addresses on Saturdays in the majority of rural New Zealand, with the exception of 17 rural delivery runs that will be phased out by June 2025.

There will be no changes to rural mail delivery, as NZ Post does not currently deliver mail on Saturdays to any address.

NZ Post chief operating officer Brendon Main said Saturday services to rural areas were not commercially viable.

"We deliver very low volumes of items on these days, and it costs us more to deliver on Saturdays than we earn from the products we deliver."

Main said impacted rural customers could expect to receive a written notification about the change from NZ Post, and rural customers who currently had newspapers delivered on Saturdays were advised to contact their newspaper subscription service.

This would also affect rural customers who were PO Box holders and received deliveries through the NZ Post Box Lobby service on Saturdays.

PO Box holders impacted by this change would also receive a letter from NZ Post.

There will be no changes to rural mail delivery as NZ Post does not currently deliver mail on Saturdays to any address, and Monday to Friday deliveries will also continue as usual.

Main said NZ Post was going through a period of transformation, responding to the ongoing decline in mail volumes and future growth in e-commerce, while charting a path towards commercial sustainability without government funding.

"We need to make some hard decisions about our future and the services we offer as we evolve to meet the needs of New Zealanders.

"We are continuing to invest in growing an unmatched delivery business, while managing a transition to a commercially sustainable mail delivery service as we move toward a single network for mail and courier delivery as announced on 26 March, 2024."

This story was originally published by RNZ