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No. 37261
4.4.2
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24 JANUARY 2014
Communications and distribution market segments
The distribution market includes the transport and delivery of goods to a specified address.
Postal delivery is a specialised sector of the distribution market, especially the distribution of
individual parcels.
According to the South African Express Parcel Association (SAEPA), a courier service is any
company that transports/ships time-definite parcels. The amount of time required to deliver
couriered parcels varies from one day to three days. Therefore SAEPA sees courier as any
service that delivers items that have a maximum of three days for delivery and are more than
1kg in weight.
4.4.3
The letter and parcel market segments
The parcel distribution market caters for all material falling outside the definition of a letter.
Services are offered by companies on high-volume and localised routes which demonstrate
the practice of "cherry-picking".
4.4.4
Individual and business customer segments
Customers in the postal services sector are segmented according to individual consumers
and business consumers living or operating in the rural or urban areas of South Africa.
Urban areas are characterised by heavy postal traffic, whereas rural areas are characterised
by light postal traffic.
4.4.5
The Postbank
The Postbank was established in 1910 as a savings bank. It may not provide loans or
overdraft facilities to its customers. It is, however, a member of the multinational financial
services organisation VISA, and participates directly in the National Payments System
(PASA). In its 2012 Annual Report, SAPO reported that deposits grew by 6.9% in the year,
bringing the total savings under management by Postbank to R4 258 million. As at 31
December, 2012, there was an industry total of R151 816 million in 'savings deposits' of
which the Postbank deposits represent 2,6%. However, with over six million customers, the
Postbank ranks in the top five banks and has a formidable customer base to launch new
services and products in the lending, borrowing and investment sectors and thus provide
much needed competition in the sector.
The Postbank is currently undergoing the necessary legal and regulatory processes to
become a fully-fledged bank.
4.5 Postal Universal Service and Access
4.5.1
The postal address system
According to the Universal Postal Union (UPU), an address is a basic human right. To this
end member countries adopted a White Paper during the 2012 Doha Plenipotentiary
Congress of the UPU, at the heart of which is a call for member countries to commit to the
development of address infrastructure and the provision of an address to everyone.
Notwithstanding the declining mail volumes,. SAPO has managed to roll out millions of
addresses over the recent past. The target of providing addresses to first-time address
owners supports SAPO's mandate of ensuring the right of every citizen to be connected
socially and commercially, at an affordable cost. In the 2012 Annual Report, SAPO
committed to rolling out an additional 3,6 million addresses between 2011-2013. The
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