The face of New Zealand Post will change over the next few years as the organisation moves towards a franchise model, and more self-service kiosks.
The Government has granted the postal operator some of the changes to the Deed of Understanding it sought.
From mid-2015 urban deliveries for standard mail will be able to be reduced to three days a week if necessary, but deliveries will stay at five days a week for rural areas.
The state-owned postal operator also has to maintain a retail network of at least 880 service points, although those points can be self-service outlets.
New Zealand Post Group chief executive Brian Roche says the changes to the deed give it the flexibility to change its business model.
He says New Zealand Post still sees a shop front where there is a strong community presence for the brand but the way the services are delivered will change.
Mr Roche says it will not need to own as many stores as previously, and a model will be adopted where New Zealand Post is co-located with another business, so they can utilise the foot traffic and redeploy the staff.
He says New Zealand Post is committed to having a nationwide network of stores and it is important to the brand.
Mr Roche says some people do not go near a store and do all their postal and banking services online, so it is a transition between an old and new world.
He says there will be hundreds of job losses across the business, not just the frontline, and the organisation will be in a position to give more clarity on this in the next few weeks.
