In the debate about the reform of the outdated postal law, a head of the agency indicated that he was in agreement with the deletion of Monday as the letter delivery day. “The post office is still obliged to deliver six days a week. But our society and our communication behavior have changed,” said the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, of the Funke media group. In other countries, delivery times of two, three or four days are normal. “I’m open to something like this also being possible here,” said Müller. But the decision rests with the Bundestag.
The head of the authority said this with a view to the upcoming reform of the outdated postal law, which is to be comprehensively amended this year for the first time in a quarter of a century and adapted to the digital age.
Just a few years ago, the Post had let it be known that it would see a reduction in delivery days from six to five per week as a positive thing. Relatively few letters are delivered on Mondays because companies do not normally send anything out at the weekend and the postman’s pockets are therefore quite empty at the start of the week.
The parcel carrier is coming anyway
In the meantime, however, the situation has changed somewhat, as Swiss Post is increasingly relying on so-called combined delivery. Here the deliverer brings not only letters, but also parcels. In view of the competition in the parcel market, Deutsche Post DHL should also want to deliver parcels on Mondays in the future. A cancellation of the letter delivery on Mondays would therefore do little for the Post, after all, the deliverers are in many places on the road with the parcels anyway.
The Post reacted cautiously to Müller’s statement. “A change in the legally prescribed number of delivery days per week is currently not the focus of our demands,” said a company spokesman. At the same time, he emphasized the importance of changing another regulation: Currently, at least 80 percent of the letters posted must be delivered on the next working day. If this value were lowered, Swiss Post would have less time pressure – which would probably be bearable with many letters, the receipt of which is no longer time-critical in the digital age. With a new requirement, the letter network could be used more efficiently, according to the Post. This in turn would counteract price increases. Letter postage
Post aims to raise postage before January 2025
Separately from the postal law reform, the Bonn-based group has initiated proceedings with the Federal Network Agency in order to be allowed to increase the postage before January 2025. The company justifies this with higher costs in times of inflation. On this subject, the head of the authorities, Müller, referred to the large number of complaints that the Federal Network Agency has received since last summer. Although the number has recently fallen, it is still above the level of the same period last year. “You have to check carefully whether you increase the postage in this situation,” said Müller. “There are legitimate interests of Swiss Post, but we also have to keep an eye on the customers.”
As part of the reform debate, the Verdi trade union underlined the importance of six-day letter delivery. If there were fewer delivery days, collective bargaining jobs would be lost, Verdi warned.
