10 September 1999

Mail Delivery During APEC Meetings

New Zealand Post is working towards business as usual during APEC meetings but reminds customers that there may be some delays to mail and courier items in Auckland and other regions between Saturday 11 September and Thursday 16 September.

"New Zealand Post has developed extensive contingency plans for mail and courier deliveries during the APEC period," says New Zealand Post Security Adviser Wayne Kiely.

"We will have a communication network of drivers, Posties and other employees keeping a New Zealand Post command centre up to date with traffic and route disruptions via radio transmitters. This initiative, along with planning of alternative travel routes and spreading mail volumes across all mail centres will allow New Zealand Post and its subsidiaries to minimise mail and courier disruptions."

New Zealand Post has been working closely with APEC Police and is one of only two companies allowed vehicular access to the Auckland CBD. CourierPost and New Zealand Post subsidiaries XP Group, Smack On Time and Ansett Express, will also be able to deliver mail and courier items to the Auckland CBD using this vehicular access.

All mail and courier items entering secure locations, where APEC leaders meet and stay, are to be x-rayed and will carry a CourierPost 'track and trace' sticker, allowing Police to track each item via the Internet using latest scanning technology.

"Every day New Zealand Post handles around 1.6 million items of outward mail and around 1.4 million items of inward mail in the wider Auckland region alone. The security measures around APEC mean that much of the access to the Auckland CBD will be restricted and could potentially disrupt our distribution networks which transport these large volumes of mail," says Mr Kiely.

New Zealand Post has been in touch with all key customers about the likelihood of some mail and courier disruptions. If customers have specific enquiries relating to their mail or courier items they can call the customer service centre on 0800-501-501 or visit the New Zealand Post website on www.nzpost.co.nz.

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