On time availability of missed delivery parcel pickups
B. White made this Official Information request to New Zealand Post Limited
The request was partially successful.
From: B. White
Dear New Zealand Post Limited,
I am seeking information on the design and performance of your network in relation to missed deliveries.
Your "Sorry we have missed you" card for missed deliveries directs customers to pickup parcels from PostShop locations.
On the card it says "From the next business day, your parcel will be ready to collect from:" and then states the location for pickup. Can you clarify the intent of the "from" in this sentence:
1 - That the parcel will be available for the customer to pickup at their convenience on the following business day (inclusive of the whole day).
2 - That the parcel will be available for the customer to pickup at some point that could start as early as the start of the following business day, but could be later.
If the intent is not the 1st point above - can you please explain if that reading was considered when designing the card, and why it was discounted.
I am also requesting data on how many parcels under this system are available for customers to pickup at the start of the following business day.
In particular can you supply data for the last 6 months by location (either at the store, or town level):
- The total count of parcels "Sorry we have missed you" cards issued
- The count of parcels which are otherwise redirected before being delivered to the pickup location (such as those redirected or redelivered)
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location before the opening of the PostShop on the following business day
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location after opening, but in the morning the following business day
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location after opening, but in the afternoon of the following business day
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location the business day that follows the next business day
If opening hours are not available, or are too complex to handle in your supplying this data - please assume that opening time is 09:00.
I believe this data will be available to you by way of your parcel scanning/tracking systems.
Please supply this data in either a CSV or XLSX format.
Thanks
B. White
From: Customer Advocacy - OIA Officer
New Zealand Post Limited
Kia Ora B.White,
This email is to confirm we have received the following request for
information on 15 May 2025:
I am seeking information on the design and performance of your
network in relation to missed deliveries.
Your "Sorry we have missed you" card for missed deliveries directs
customers to pickup parcels from PostShop locations.
On the card it says "From the next business day, your parcel will be
ready to collect from:" and then states the location for pickup. Can
you clarify the intent of the "from" in this sentence:
1 - That the parcel will be available for the customer to pickup at
their convenience on the following business day (inclusive of the
whole day).
2 - That the parcel will be available for the customer to pickup at
some point that could start as early as the start of the following
business day, but could be later.
If the intent is not the 1st point above - can you please explain if
that reading was considered when designing the card, and why it was
discounted.
I am also requesting data on how many parcels under this system are
available for customers to pickup at the start of the following
business day.
In particular can you supply data for the last 6 months by location
(either at the store, or town level):
- The total count of parcels "Sorry we have missed you" cards issued
- The count of parcels which are otherwise redirected before being
delivered to the pickup location (such as those redirected or
redelivered)
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location before the
opening of the PostShop on the following business day
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location after
opening, but in the morning the following business day
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location after
opening, but in the afternoon of the following business day
- The count of parcels that make it to the pickup location the
business day that follows the next business day
If opening hours are not available, or are too complex to handle in
your supplying this data - please assume that opening time is 09:00.
Please be advised we are treating this as a request for information
under the Official Information Act 1982 and a response to your
request will be provided no later than Friday 13 June 2025.
Regards,
OIA Officer
NZ Post
thread::A0QIkzG9epCRmN5muarYfjQ::
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From: B. White
Dear NZ Post,
Can I please have an update on my OIA request about on time delivery of missed parcels to pickup locations?
Perhaps ironically, the request is overdue per the expected timeframe as outlined in your email from 20 May.
Yours sincerely,
B. White
From: Customer Advocacy - OIA Officer
New Zealand Post Limited
Kia Ora B.White,
First and foremost I would like to sincerely apologise for the delay
in our response to you.
Due to the scope of the information you had requested we do require
an extension to ensure the information we will be providing you is
accurate. We also acknowledge the extension should have been
requested prior to the original due date which was Friday 13 June.
We aim to have a response provided to you no later than Wednesday 18
June.
You have the right under section 28(3) of the OIA to make a complaint
to the Ombudsman about this extension.
Kind regards,
OIA Officer
NZ Post
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From: B. White
Hi again,
The 18th of June has slipped by, so again I am left wondering when I will receive a response.
Can you please provide an update on this OIA?
Yours sincerely,
B. White
From: Customer Advocacy - OIA Officer
New Zealand Post Limited
Kia Ora B.White,
First and foremost, I want to express my genuine apologies, as the
data we have gathered needs additional reviewing before we can
provide you a response. I have contacted the appropriate team and
asked for confirmation regarding when this will be completed.
You can be confident that I will make every effort to provide you
with a completion date.
Kind regards,
OIA Officer
NZ Post
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From: B. White
Hi again,
It is now over a month since your latest response on this OIA.
Can you please give me an update on the expected completion date?
Yours sincerely,
B. White
From: Customer Advocacy - OIA Officer
New Zealand Post Limited
FINAL 29.7.25 Card To Call Analysis Jan 25 to June 25 Email OIA 12887874.xlsx
20K
Download
View as HTML
Kia Ora B.White,
We refer to your OIA request of 15 May 2025. Thank you for your
patience as we pulled this information together, which has been a
complex and time-consuming exercise. Please see our responses in red
against your email below and in the file attached.
Please note we refer to the cards you have mentioned as “Cards to
Call” or “CTC” for short.
Your query has prompted us to look more closely into operational
practices and the wording on our cards to call. We note that
customers can also check an item’s tracking information to check
whether it’s been scanned as ready for collection from the relevant
location.
Kind regards,
OIA Officer
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Original Message ---------------
From: B. White [[1][FOI #30980 email]]
Sent: 23/07/2025 9:26 AM
To: [2][New Zealand Post request email]
Subject: Re: NZ Post Case ID: 12887874
Hi again,
It is now over a month since your latest response on this OIA.
Can you please give me an update on the expected completion date?
Yours sincerely,
B. White
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B. White left an annotation ()
My initial thoughts on the info returned.
It was over a month late. July 29 delivery for a OIA that was due on 13 June.
The text formatting used for in-line responses has been lost by in the process - an unfortunate impact of using the FYI platform.
The level of data I requested was refused by NZ Post due to commercial sensitivity. While that level level of detail was refused, they still provided summary data, and in my view still tried to fulfil the spirit of the request which I respect and thank them for.
It does appear that they intend parcels to make their way to the pickup location from the start of the following day (with some exceptions).
It also appears that they expect parcel receivers to check it is ready before they head to the pickup location - which I would argue is not clearly asked of the receiver on the Card To Call.
Digging into the data...
74.7% of parcels make their way to the pickup location my interpretation of "From the next business day" (being before 9am the day after the CTC was left.
That leaves approximately a quarter of parcels (25.3%) that don't make it to the pickup location in time for the stated "From the next business day, your parcel will be
ready to collect".
Even worse... a 11.6% of parcels take more than 2 days to make it to the pickup location.
While their responses have many words like "small number
of exceptions", "vast majority", "some cases", and "rare cases" which seem to understate what I see to be significant levels of non-performance.
While I understand that this a hard industry to be operating in worldwide, I would like to see improvement of performance in this portion of NZ Post's service.
I would also like to see clearer instructions to be added to future CTC printings to recommend that receivers should check the location of a parcel before heading to the pickup location (and that the expectation of it being ready on the next business day may not be reliable).
Link to this