In the UK and New Zealand and I assume in most other places where there is access to the internet the number of people using snail mail is dropping drastically. Christmas cards alone were 20% down in 2012 as against 2011 for New Zealand Post and overall mail is predicted to be down between 6 and 8% year on year over the next few years. The upshot is that NZ Post intend to cut deliveries from 6 days a week to 3 days a week with effect from 2014.
Living as I do for 6 months of the year in a very remote part of the UK ie the Isle of Lewis I am very aware of the reliance of remote areas on the postal service for many things other than letters. I am also aware of the fact that serving remote rural areas is probably very unprofitable for mail and parcel services. It is not helped by the fact that competition and the removal of the Royal Mail's monopoly (in the UK - there is competition in NZ too) has meant that the profitable urban post has been diminished further.
I can forsee a time, however, when daily deliveries in the UK may be a thing of the past and regional pricing may well become standard without government subsidies.
I fear there are testing times ahead.
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