On the back of approval to increase postal prices in Australia and bring in a two tier delivery system, Tim Cox of ABC Local Brisbane and I caught up to look at the future of traditional postal services.

Some quick stats are that Australian’s post around 5.1 billion items each year, down 4.9% year on year or 1 billion items less than 2008, has 4,415 outlets and 34,400 employees and it operates its delivery services under Government legislation.

This is a living breathing example of an industry that at its hay-day was seen as being invincible, but with the march of time is becoming increasingly irrelevant as disruptors abound, culture changes and the need for speed increases.

The new price and service I think is a reasonable response to a government sanctioned monopoly that ensures that everybody is able to send and receive mail and as caller Jeff, who lives in far north Queensland and totally off the grid, said that he travels over a half an hour to get or send mail and it is his only physical contact with the outside world and without it he would be totally disconnected.

The other issue is that individuals only account for 2.1% of all mail sent, with business to business mail accounting for 45.4%, business to consumer accounting for 36.2% and government communication accounting for 16.3% and it is the increase in  us receiving our bills, statements and notices online that is causing the decline and will ensure its eminent irrelevance.

The future holds a time where digital mail will abound and snail mail will be a curiosity used for special occasions and relegated to the romantic days which include the sending and receiving aerograms and telegrams.

In this new space of communication, email is no certainty either as we live in an era of fractured communications where instead of one preferred way to communicate we move in out of tools like email, SMS, DM, What’s App, Pinterest and many others using each as appropriate to the person or group we’re speaking to and then moving to another format for other conversations.

The lesson here is that romance and nostalgia don’t pay the bill, that society does move on even from the giants and that we need to constantly recognise and confront what’s truly happening and evolve our thinking and products before we too become extinct.

Have a listen now (12 minutes)..