Latest news with #PostNord
Time Out
3 days ago
- Business
- Time Out
Postboxes will no longer exist in this European country by next year
Have you sent your significant other a love letter recently, or posted a postcard to a long-distance friend? No, neither have we. The truth is that classic physical mail has been on the decline for decades, but not just because of a lack of letter-writing. While plenty of people still receive bank statements, bills, and local news on paper around the world, you can opt to do all that online, and Denmark, one of the planet's most digitalised countries, is officially calling time on its state-run postal service. PostNord has seen a 90 percent decline in letter volumes since the year 2000, and a 30 percent decrease in the last year alone – overall, that's a drop from 1.4 billion to just 110 million annually. So, after 400 years of service, it will no longer be delivering letters, and we can expect the country's 1,500 post boxes to gradually disappear from this month onward. The operator will still be available for parcel deliveries, and if you've already bought your stamps, those can be refunded. But, is there anything else to blame for this shift in habit? According to the BBC, the Postal Act 2024 opened up the letter-sending market to private operators, meaning the cost of postage leapt up. PostNord Denmark's managing director Kim Pedersen told local media that 'when a letter costs 29 Danish krone (€3.90), there will be fewer letters.' Fewer, but not none. While 95 percent of Danes use Digital Post, around 271,000 people still rely on physical mail. It's thought that elderly people, and those who live in remote areas will be impacted the most by the change. But PostNord (which also operates in Sweden) isn't the only European operator facing tough times. Germany 's Deutsche Post announced earlier this year that it planned on axing 8,000 jobs.
Business Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Should SingPost stop delivering letters?
MY APOLOGIES to arborists, but every two weeks, I make a disgruntled trek from my mailbox to the nearest rubbish bin. Directly from box to bin goes not just unsolicited flotsam – property agents' fridge magnets and handyman's flyers – but legitimate mail that I simply don't need in hard copy, like dividend statements, utility bills and government missives. Come next year, the Danes will be spared these mailbox-rubbish bin sojourns because Denmark's state-run postal service, PostNord, will no longer deliver letters. Instead, it will start phasing out the nation's 1,500 post boxes this month and focus on delivering parcels. This isn't a seismic development – since the turn of the century, Denmark has seen a 90 per cent decline in letter volumes. Even so, those who prefer to send a ransom letter the old-fashioned way still can, since the nation's letter market was opened up to private firms last year. Laidback kidnappers aside, fewer people are posting letters, globally. In Singapore, total domestic mail volume fell more than 40 per cent from 2020 to 2024. The overseas travails of our national postal service, Singapore Post (SingPost), are confounding, but there is some low-hanging fruit on the domestic front. Today, SingPost's post office network remains unprofitable, while operating profit from its local postal and logistics segment is down. So, it wouldn't be unfathomable for SingPost to get out of the local letter business entirely, given Singapore's high rate of technology adoption and a national system that has digitally consolidated the vital government services that citizens need. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Currently, nationalisation has been ruled out, but tweaking the postal network and raising postal rates remain options. If rates are merely marginally raised, though, it would be challenging to strike a balance between the resulting fall in letter delivery demand and other costs that might not fall proportionately. SingPost's monopoly on basic mail services ended in 2007, and perhaps, other private players might be better equipped to sustainably price or subsidise local letter delivery. But if moving bits of paper around the country is financially or logistically unviable no matter which company attempts it, then this service should be treated like a public good and be funded publicly, or cease entirely. Truly important bits of paper could still be couriered like parcels and priced accordingly. When that happens, I suspect that many businesses will reconsider the need for hard-copy documents in a hurry. 'When a letter costs 29 Danish krone (S$5.69) there will be fewer letters,' PostNord Denmark's managing director said earlier this year. Indubitably, this change will require drastically reshaping SingPost's obligations as a public postal licensee. It would be a timely opportunity to re-examine what constitutes critical infrastructure in 2025. One might find that this nexus of national security has moved on to other infrastructure such as fibre-optic subsea cables and semiconductor plants. Consider how most of us were notified of Covid-19 vaccinations during the pandemic. During that pathogen-laden time, touching your mailbox would actually have been counter-productive. There is every chance that this measure might not adequately move the needle on the larger scale of SingPost's woes. If that were the case, that would also be instructive. For if the albatross and mispricing of letter delivery are not the biggest of SingPost's problems, it probably has other bigger and more intractable ones.
Winnipeg Free Press
28-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
The community is not just the majority
Opinion Know your audience — every member of it. The City of Winnipeg is planning to remove its parking purchase stations, making those who want to park in the downtown use a smartphone app instead. But what if you don't have a smartphone? You can buy vouchers for parking in a limited number of locations — hardly an ideal solution. What's also important to think about in that equation is not who, like you, has a smartphone and the ability to use a parking app, but those who don't — and what it would mean to them. BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS The City of Winnipeg will remove its parking pay stations between July 2 and Aug. 31. That's worth thinking about, not only for parking, but even as people think about the future of the public service of Canada Post. Our national mail carrier is once again in labour trouble — and critical financial trouble as well — and is shedding users as a result of the variety of hurdles it's facing. As customers leave, the financial picture grows even more dire. An industrial inquiry into the service has come up with a variety of potential solutions to the fiscal problems, among them, ending daily delivery to residential customers (but keeping it for commercial customers). The belt-tightening would mean more community mailboxes, different delivery schedules and a resumption of small postal office closures, among other things. On the face of it, it probably looks attractive. After all, much more written communication is dealt with now over email than with paper, envelopes and stamps, and the vast majority of Canadians would probably respond to the loss of door to door delivery with little more than a shrug: flyers and direct advertising mail probably outnumbers arriving first-class mail by a handy margin. But that's not the case for everyone. There is still a significant minority that depends on paper mail as a public service — and just like removing credit card access to parking stations — see a critical loss in losing regular mail service. The national mail carrier for Denmark and Sweden, PostNord, plans to stop all lettermail in Denmark by the end of 2025, because users are dwindling and most services — including government services — are primarily available digitally. But that leaves a remarkable number of Danes — 270,000 people, or 4.5 per cent of the population — who still depend on lettermail out in the cold. As The Parliament Magazine points out, 'this includes the chronically ill, the elderly and people with disabilities. These groups are already at risk of social isolation, and cutting mail service could add one more factor.' Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. The effect is much the same as the fallout from Winnipeg's parking app decision — yes, you can go to one of three locations and buy paper parking vouchers, so there is at least lip service to a workaround. But that hardly provides an equal opportunity of access to everyone who may need to park at places like the downtown Manitoba Clinic for a diagnostic medical procedure. Instead, the marginalized, quite simply, grow even more marginalized. And feel even more like they are not considered as a part of decisions that are meant to reflect the needs of the entire community, not simply what is the majority of a community at any given time. There's a clear message in that about lettermail, and about parking apps, and about any number of other decisions that may be made with the majority in mind, and the minority ignored. When you make changes to a public service, you have to consider not only the people that are happy to be under the new umbrella, but also the number that you're leaving out in the rain. Access means that you don't build more hurdles for those who already have them. The community is everybody.
Calgary Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Canada Post urged to end door-to-door mail delivery. What other countries have considered it?
Article content Denmark is the only country, at present, with firm plans to stop door-to-door postal delivery of letters. Article content Denmark's state-run postal service, PostNord, has announced it will stop delivering letters entirely by the end of 2025, terminating a 400-year tradition. It will include the removal of all post boxes and the cessation of all letter deliveries, meaning there will be no door-to-door postal delivery of letters anywhere in the country. Article content As digital mail services became established, the use of letters fell dramatically in Denmark, says PostNord. Letter numbers have fallen from 1.4 billion in 2000 to 110 million last year. Article content Public services send communications via a Digital Post app or other platforms. Bank statements, bills, and correspondence from local authorities are sent electronically, says PostNord, making the letter market unprofitable. Article content Article content So, instead, PostNord is switching its focus to parcel deliveries. It means 1,500 workers out of a workforce of 4,600 face losing their jobs. Article content What is the U.S. doing to increase post office efficiency? Article content The U.S. considered the end of door-to-door delivery around the same time that Canada started to ponder it, the Associated Press reported back in 2013. But the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to deliver mail directly to homes in places where this service is feasible and well-established. Article content However, more centralized delivery is increasing, mainly through the use of cluster box units or curbside mailboxes in new developments. These centralized mailboxes serve multiple residences and are designed to reduce delivery costs and improve efficiency. Article content Meanwhile, the USPS is refining its service standards and delivery operations to improve efficiency and reduce cost. That includes allowing postal carriers to travel greater distances and consolidating processing centres, but these changes have not equated to ending door-to-door delivery completely. Article content Article content In the U.K., the Royal Mail is drawing attention to the courier option as a potentially better means for package delivery abroad, while also promoting a new service to send British-themed gift boxes that include a range of popular food items.
Vancouver Sun
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Ending door-to-door mail delivery in Canada. What other countries have considered it?
Canada Post needs to end door-to-door mail delivery, according to a recent report by the Industrial Inquiry Commission (IIC). The seismic shift is one of the key tactics the post office can undertake to modernize, while maintaining solvency without being heavily subsidized by the taxpayer, writes the Commission. The recommendation comes as the union representing Canada Post workers threatens to go on strike at the end of this week. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. It's not the first time the end of door-to-door mail delivery has been considered in Canada. Canada Post announced back in 2013 that it would be phasing out door-to-door delivery of regular mail to urban residents. Back then it cited financial losses due to declining mail volume and increased online/digital communication. Two-thirds of Canadians were already receiving mail through alternative means, such as rural mailboxes, group mailboxes, or centralized postal service points. Ultimately, the plan was to end all urban door-to-door mail service to five million Canadians within five years, replacing it with community mailboxes. The transition began in 2014. The first phase affected about 74,000 addresses in ten communities , including Winnipeg, Calgary, the Ottawa suburb of Kanata and several northern suburbs in Montreal. But the plan came to an abrupt end due to public outcry and political pressure . Seniors and disabled people who relied on the service argued that having to trek to community mailboxes would create hardship. Postal workers protested potential job losses. Then the federal opposition parties campaigned against the Harper government's decision to overhaul the service during the 2015 election. When the Liberals won, the Trudeau government halted the plan , suspending the shift to community mailboxes. Meanwhile, the recent IIC report also recommended the end of moratoriums on rural post office closures and community mailbox conversions. The moratoriums were adopted by the federal government in 1994 and prevented Canada Post from closing or franchising nearly 3,600 rural post offices. Denmark is the only country, at present, with firm plans to stop door-to-door postal delivery of letters. Denmark's state-run postal service, PostNord , has announced it will stop delivering letters entirely by the end of 2025, terminating a 400-year tradition. It will include the removal of all post boxes and the cessation of all letter deliveries, meaning there will be no door-to-door postal delivery of letters anywhere in the country. As digital mail services became established, the use of letters fell dramatically in Denmark , says PostNord. Letter numbers have fallen from 1.4 billion in 2000 to 110 million last year. Public services send communications via a Digital Post app or other platforms. Bank statements, bills, and correspondence from local authorities are sent electronically, says PostNord, making the letter market unprofitable. So, instead, PostNord is switching its focus to parcel deliveries. It means 1,500 workers out of a workforce of 4,600 face losing their jobs. The U.S. considered the end of door-to-door delivery around the same time that Canada started to ponder it, the Associated Press reported back in 2013. But the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to deliver mail directly to homes in places where this service is feasible and well-established. However, more centralized delivery is increasing, mainly through the use of cluster box units or curbside mailboxes in new developments. These centralized mailboxes serve multiple residences and are designed to reduce delivery costs and improve efficiency. Meanwhile, the USPS is refining its service standards and delivery operations to improve efficiency and reduce cost. That includes allowing postal carriers to travel greater distances and consolidating processing centres, but these changes have not equated to ending door-to-door delivery completely. Some countries (e.g., Afghanistan, Libya, Russia, Sudan, Yemen) have experienced temporary suspensions of international mail delivery due to transportation or security issues, but these instances have not resulted in permanent policy changes regarding domestic door-to-door service. A principal source of post office competition comes from private courier companies, which deliver packages directly to homes or centralized locations. In the U.K., the Royal Mail is drawing attention to the courier option as a potentially better means for package delivery abroad, while also promoting a new service to send British-themed gift boxes that include a range of popular food items. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
