PostNL is seeking €80 million in compensation from the government for the coming year because of rising costs linked to its statutory postal delivery obligations.
“The costs arising from a statutory obligation cannot be passed on to the company. This uncertainty places unacceptable pressure on the postal company and our employees,” PostNL warned on Tuesday.
The company says “outdated rules” on postal delivery will cost it more than €148 million in total in 2025, 2026 and 2027. At the same time, politicians continue to delay decisions on a new Postal Act.
PostNL has already applied for subsidies for 2025 and 2026. Legal proceedings over these applications are still ongoing.
“The new Postal Act has been before the House of Representatives since 2020 and, six years later, has still not been debated,” said Maurice Unck, Director of PostNL’s postal division in the Netherlands.
“In the meantime, the volume of mail has decreased significantly. At the same time, we must continue full Saturday delivery, even though we deliver very little mail that day. Furthermore, the law stipulates, for example, that we must retain a large number of letterboxes that are becoming increasingly empty.”
In July, the delivery standard for regular mail changed to within two delivery days. “This was a necessary first step to adapt the postal service to the sharply decreased volume of mail,” Unck said.
He said three-day delivery is needed to keep postal services reliable and affordable. According to Unck, this would require a major change to the logistics system.
“As long as political clarity is lacking, PostNL cannot start with that,” he said.
@anp | NEWS BRAINPORT
