When I was in my early teens, I had little interest in the state-owned enterprise, New Zealand Post (NZ Post), other than when truck photo prints turned up in the mail from pen pals, or when a birthday card with money in it arrived in the post from relatives for birthdays. What NZ Post did have that was of interest, however, was, of course, trucks and their sizable transport division.
Domestically, transport has always had a big part to play in NZ Post, from ships and horses and carts in the late 1800s to trains, trucks vans and planes through to today.
The first ever truck in the NZ Post fleet was commissioned way back in 1909 and was a 20hp Abion petrol lorry that had a maximum speed of 12mph. This truck ran between the Wellington Wharf and the post office in the same city. By 1973, NZ Post had no less than 1600 TJ Model Bedford trucks.
Fast-forwarding to the 1980s, the first NZ Post truck I photographed was several well-known company-owned 113M Scanias, which ran overnight linehaul services between Christchurch and Invercargill. The livery on the trucks back then was red and white before becoming an all-encompassing red.
In 1989, NZ Post established CourierPost, and in 199,1 they acquired Speedlink Parcels, and by 1998, CourierPost had become the number one player in New Zealand’s express courier market. With this came plenty of private contractors and owner drivers from courier vans to full-size linehaul units.
In 2004, New Zealand Post formed Express Couriers Ltd (ECL), which was a 50:50 joint venture with courier company DHL.
Next month, we look at some trucks from this era, another acquisition, and we find out what happened to the DHL partnership.
Images by Dean Middleton