New Zealand Post and world-famous fast food company Kentucky Fried Chicken have teamed up in Tauranga to make a contract. NZ Post will handle the logistics of KFC‘s home delivery service.
A spokesman for NZ Post, Mike Stewart, said that the company was having to find new ways to survive, as the number of letters sent by Kiwis was becoming less week by week.
The number of letters sent in New Zealand has decreased over the last decade. To make up for the losses, in July the price of sending a medium-sized letter by FastPost will increase by NZ$0.50c, taking the cost from NZ$1.80 to $2.30.
Delivery days have also been cut in some of New Zealand’s rural areas, from 6 days a week down to 5.
“All post offices around the world are struggling with what to do when mail disappears, we want to survive for another 100 years but we urgently need to diversify our business,” said Stewart.
“People want their goods on-demand delivered to their home in 30-60 minutes, that seems to be where the world is going. So we’ve been experimenting with being the delivery service for the health sector, the construction sector and especially hospitality … it is an exciting time for us,” said Stewart.
With regard to home delivery of KFC, “about 30 delivery drivers have been recruited for this. NZ Posties are welcome to apply for the evening shifts, but main problem is that at this stage most of the new drivers are students. They will be using their own transport and smartphones to co-ordinate deliveries”, said Stewart.
Tauranga is the second New Zealand city in which KFC / NZ Post will offer home delivery, and the multinational company hopes to expand the service across roughly half of New Zealand.
