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BBC News
4 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Denmark's state postal service calls time on letter deliveries
Sorting through bundles of letters, small packages and magazines, Herman Moyano is getting ready for his early morning post bikes and vans stream out from the depot, just north of Copenhagen, as Herman departs on his the past seven years he's been delivering mail for Denmark's national postal service PostNord."I used to think that all the people are waiting for something, a special letter, a special communication, a special package," he Herman has noticed the loads getting lighter, and rather than letters, these days it's mostly bills and bank statements."I have seen the mail going down gradually. But that's picked up pace over the last couple of years," he adds. "Nowadays, it seems… it's going really, really down." The steep decline in letter volumes has been driven largely by digitalisation, and PostNord announced in March, that it will cease letter services at the end of the will bring to an end four centuries of letter deliveries by the state-owned operation.A third of its workforce is being let go, as it sheds 2,200 positions in its loss-making letter arm. Instead it will focus on its profitable parcel business, creating 700 new roles."Danes hardly receive any letters anymore. It's been going down for years and years," says Kim Pedersen, chief of PostNord Denmark. "They're receiving one letter a month on average, it's not a lot.""On the contrary, Danes love to shop online," he adds. "Global e-commerce is growing significantly, and we are moving with it."Fifteen years ago, PostNord operated several enormous letter-sorting facilities, but now there's just one on the western outskirts of 2000 the volume of letters the business handles has declined by more than 90%, from around 1.4 billion, to 110 million last year, and it continues to fall rapidly. As PostNord prepares to cease letter deliveries, 1,500 of its red post boxes are being removed from Danish streets. However, few locals in the capital appear to use them resident Nikolaj Brøchner Andrès says he cannot recall when he last sent a letter. "I don't think I've sent a letter in years... I'm not even sure how to do it anymore, to be honest."From email and cashless mobile payments, to digital health cards carried by smartphone, there's an app for almost everything in Denmark, and it's one of the world's most digitalised government has embraced a "digital by default" policy, and for more than a decade correspondence with the public has been carried out to the OECD's 2023 Digital Government Index, it ranks second only to South Korea."We are facing this natural evolution of a digitalised society, earlier than maybe some other countries," Mr Pedersen explains. "In Denmark we are maybe five or 10 years ahead." The high cost of sending a letter in Denmark is also a contributing factor behind its 2024 a new law opened up the postal market to private competition, and took away its exemption from the country's 25% rate of VAT, so the price of a PostNord stamp jumped to 29 Danish krone ($4.55; £3.35) per letter."That made [volumes] drop even further faster," Mr Pedersen points big fall in the number of letters being posted is replicated Europe-wide, says postal sector expert Hazel King, editor of the magazine Parcel and Postal Technology International."Letters across Europe have been declining for years," she says. "I think PostNord's decision is a reflection of how the whole market has gone, and the way the consumer is moving."Physical mail has dropped by 30% or more from its historical peak, across all major global markets, according to a report by consultancy firm Europe, Germany and Switzerland have seen the slowest [letter] decline, says Florian Neuhaus, who co-authored the study. "It's only 40% there, but everybody else sees around a 50 to 70% decline [since 2008]."There's a similar pattern in the United States, where mail has also declined 46%."Clearly this is driven by digitalisation and how people communicate in general," adds Mr Neuhaus. "Overall, the economics in letters are just getting worse and worse." In March, Germany's Deutsche Post said it was slashing 8,000 jobs, and cost-cutting efforts at the UK's 500-year-old Royal Mail will see it scale back second-class letter deliveries to only every other weekday, while targets for first class delivery times have also been lowered."I do think that we will see the end of letters in the mainstream," says Ms King. "However, I'm not sure we'll ever see zero letters, pointing to a necessity to protect medical letters, and services for the elderly, disabled and rural Denmark letter deliveries won't actually come to an end. Instead private delivery firm DAO is to step into the gap with its own nationwide DaneAge, an advocacy group for the elderly, fears that older people may struggle with the changes to letter deliveries."Most elderly live in small towns and in the rural places," says Marlene Rishoj Cordes, one of its senior consultants. "When there's not as many post boxes around, they will have a harder time delivering mail. "Meanwhile, the trade union that represents postal workers, 3F Postal Union, has voiced concerns that rural services may worsen. DAO strongly disagrees with these fears. It's historically a newspaper and magazine distributor with nationwide reach, and has become one of the country's major parcel couriers.A recent survey found DAO's deliveries were faster, with more letters arriving within five days than PostNord."We are coming to all households, and we are in the rural areas in the whole country," assures its chief executive Hans Peter year it handled 21 million letters and, from 2026 following PostNord's exit, DAO expects to take on 30 to 40 million staff will deliver letters directly, while doing newspaper and parcel rounds, Mr Nissen explains. Meanwhile, post is collected from mailboxes inside affiliated shops, though doorstep pick-ups can be booked online or over the phone, for a small additional plans to install a new sorting machine, and add around 250 more staff, to its 2,500 physical letters decline across Europe, Denmark's experience perhaps offers a window on the this increasingly digital world, however, there are still many who find joy in sending and receiving personal letters, including Copenhagener, Jette Eiring Williams, who writes to her daughter overseas."I think the young generation wants that old school feeling," Ms Williams says. "She loves the physical touch of something, so not just an email or a text anymore."
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: Privatize Canada Post and end its monopoly
Last year, Canada Post's deficit hit $841 million. Its deficits over the past decade totalled more than $3.6 billion. This year the federal government had to provide it with more than $1 billion in funding so it could continue operating. The core of Canada Post's business is its legal monopoly over first-class mail. But that business has collapsed. In 2006, Canadians sent a record 5.5 billion letters. Last year, only about two billion. By contrast, the parcel business is booming. But Canada Post's market share has fallen sharply — from 62 per cent in 2019 to 24 per cent last year. The company has run into a brick wall. Things clearly have to change. This is not the first time a government postal service has been in trouble. At the end of the 1980s, Deutsche Post, Germany's postal service, faced similar difficulties as a result of ingrained inefficiencies. Instead of reforming its sclerotic structures, the public monopoly covered its continuously rising expenses by simply raising the price of stamps year after year. Consumers saw regular price increases but no improvement in services. Sound familiar? Recognizing things had to change, the German government launched a series of reforms that first opened the postal market to new players and then privatized the postal service. Reforms were timid at first. By 1997 just three per cent of the postal market was open to competition. But things soon accelerated, with Deutsche Post losing the last vestiges of legal monopoly in 2008. At the same time, the government gradually privatized the company, selling shares tranche by tranche, so that the German government now holds just 16.99 per cent of the shares. The effect of these reforms has been dramatic. Today German consumers are served by nearly 400 different companies offering the entire range of postal services and more than 11,000 companies that offer partial services. Deutsche Post has maintained a dominant position in letter mail but its competitors exert pressure that keeps it from increasing prices. Adjusting for inflation, sending a letter today costs 10 per cent less than in 1989. In contrast, under Canada Post's monopoly, sending a regular letter today costs nearly 50 per cent more in real terms than in 1989. As for service, in terms of delivery speed postal services in Germany rank better than in most of Europe. Canada should learn from these successful reforms and adapt them to our own context so our postal service meets the realities of the 21st century. Such an approach would gradually open up Canada Post shares so that its employees and Canadians in general could become shareholders. If postal workers were given a portion of the company's shares or could buy them on a preferential basis, they'd have a stake in the enterprise and every incentive to identify and eliminate inefficiencies, since they would benefit from the savings that resulted. Ottawa should also gradually eliminate Canada Post's monopoly over regular letter mail, allowing the country's consumers and businesses, small and large, to enjoy the lower prices that would result from the pressure exerted by the arrival of new competitors. Terence Corcoran: Canada's competition agencies are anti-competition Opinion: Free Ontario's beer market from the grip of monopolies The world has changed and so have our postal service needs. If Canada Post is to survive, it needs to get with the times. Gabriel Giguère is a senior policy analyst at the Montreal Economic Institute. Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Inicia sesión para acceder a tu portafolio Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Se produjo un error al recuperar la información Se produjo un error al recuperar la información
CTV News
07-08-2025
- General
- CTV News
Canada Post will no longer raise mailbox flags in rural communities
Video Raising the iconic red flag that goes up and down when there's mail inside a rural resident's box is apparently no longer part of the carrier's job description.
CTV News
07-08-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Canada Post no longer raising flag to indicate mail in rural areas
Some rural residents say they've been told by Canada Post that mail carriers won't raise the flag on their mailbox anymore. CTV's Katie Griffin reports.
BBC News
30-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Views sought on plans to close some Guernsey post boxes
Islanders are being asked to give their views on reducing the number of roadside post boxes in use in Post has announced the proposal in response to a "significant decline" in Executive Steve Sheridan said the company had been undertaking a review internally and analysis showed it was handling fewer than five items a day at two thirds of its post said: "The analysis we have derived is that at two thirds of the post boxes, we are only handling less than five items per day, and there are many boxes which are empty two to three times a day." "This initiative is to try to better align our service provision with a demand of customers," said Mr said the consultation process was part of a wider business efficiency review showing how the company remained sustainable and was aligning services to consumer Sheridan said the company was inviting people to give "constructive and meaningful input" into the consultation period starting on 15 August."This public consultation is an important part in making sure we have that balance absolutely right," he said. Mr Sheridan said there were no immediate plans to remove the post boxes but this would be reviewed in time."We just need to carefully consider which ones we are closing and whether we look to remove them or retain them," he consultation is due to end on 12 September when the company will consider the feedback. "We will clearly communicate our final decision that we intend to take with the community," added Mr part of the wider efficiency review, he said the company was also identifying rationalisation savings and reductions in head Post said each post box identified for potential closure would carry a notice advising of the proposal and how to provide feedback.
