Starting July 12, PostNL will no longer guarantee next‑day delivery for standard mailbox mail. Instead, letters covered by the Universal Postal Service (UPD) will be delivered within two days. The postal company says the shift is necessary to keep the national mail system reliable and financially viable amid steadily declining mail volumes.
According to PostNL, the new delivery window will make the postal network less vulnerable and easier to plan. “Even though the number of letters is decreasing, everyone must be able to continue to rely on mail delivery”, says Maurice Unck, Director of PostNL’s mail division.
“At the same time, we are facing increasingly high costs for a service for which there is a continuous decline in demand. With a little more flexibility in the delivery timeframe, we can organise the work more efficiently. It is a necessary step to keep quality high and mail affordable”.
Priority mail
While standard mail will slow down, parcel deliverers will take on additional tasks. From July 12, they will deliver bereavement mail and other priority items every day. Consumers and businesses can still opt for next‑day delivery, but only at a higher rate.
Schedules adjusted
To prepare for the transition, PostNL is overhauling approximately 20,000 work schedules and modifying nearly a quarter of its walking routes. “We will speak personally with all 20,000 postal colleagues to discuss what the change means”, Unck says. “We expect there will remain sufficient work for our employees, though locations and working hours may change”.
Three‑day delivery
From 2027, PostNL will be permitted to take up to three days to deliver all UPD mail. The company intends to use that flexibility, though it has not yet announced when the next transition will occur.
Under current law, PostNL must deliver 95 percent of UPD mail within one day. PostNL considers this requirement outdated. With Dutch consumers sending fewer letters and relying more on digital communication, PostNL has repeatedly urged the government to modernise the Postal Act. The company has often pointed to other European countries where delivery standards have already been extended to two, three, or even four days.
@anp | NEWSBRAINPORT
