Deutsche Post has rejected criticism of its mail delivery performance during recent summertimecutbacks designed to reduce operating costs in response to lower volumes, and has stressed its
commitment to high quality services.In a widely-publicised test by German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, only60 of 99 letters (61%) reached their recipient on time, leaving the delivery standard far below thelegal minimum of 80% next-day delivery. Only 3 of 33 letters posted on a Saturday to nearbyaddresses arrived on the Monday, while 86% of letters sent on a Monday and a Tuesday arrived thenext day.
In response, Deutsche Post said that 99 letters out of the 70 million items sent each daywere not representative, and had also been sent during the ongoing test when the usual sorting anddelivery routes had been changed on account of lower seasonal volumes.
The German postal operator stressed that it remains one of the fastest postal companies inthe world, delivering 95% of domestic letters on the next working day, as measured by independentquality tests of up to 70,000 letters every month.
Mail chief Jürgen Gerdes stressed: “We have used the weak volume months of July and August tolook for customer-friendly ways to make savings. We are now evaluating the results, but we willcontinue not to make any compromises over quality in the future.”
During the summer time network reductions, Deutsche Post scaled down weekend and Mondaysorting and deliveries. In many of the 82 mail sorting centres only regional post was sorted onSundays and nationwide letters were held back for sorting on Mondays. Some delivery rounds weremerged into enlarged districts on Mondays.
Deutsche Post saved €180 million in mail operating costs in the first half of 2009 and aimsfor full-year savings of €300 million through a range of savings, including sorting centreclosures, the termination of the night airmail flight network and optimising the mail and parcellinehaul network.
