Dutch mail operator PostNL will delay closing down 300 delivery centres across the country underan agreement with unions and following quality problems earlier this year.
The company said it will implement the previously announced reorganisation of its mail businessin a more phased manner avoiding closures of delivery centres this year except for the offices inZaltbommel and IJsselstein while postponing the opening of new central preparation locations (CPLs)to next year.
In January 2012, PostNL announced that it started the shutdowns of its 300 delivery centres withall offices due to be closed in phases between early 2012 and the autumn of 2013 in response tochanging customer needs and the sharp decrease in postal volumes.
Under the new agreement with the Works Council, however, the company has developed an approachfor a controlled implementation to be tested in various pilot studies.
In autumn this year, PostNL will decide on the rollout of the restructuring measures. Earlier inApril, PostNL postponed the reorganisation of its mail operations at the request of the WorksCouncil due to quality problems.
Pieter Kunz, Director Operations, PostNL, said: “Good quality will remain our point of focus.Thus we will only resume rolling out the reorganisation once we are sure that we can limit theimpact of the reorganisation on our customers. Our attention is especially focused on obituarynotices and medical mail. The agreements we have now made are a good basis for the follow-up stepswe will be taking.”
PostNL emphasised that the other current reorganisations will proceed according to plan. Thisincludes the transfer of all small transport (collection, pickup services for business clients andmail delivery in rural areas) to a separate unit in PostNL (Auto Unit), moving the Business Pointsand post boxes from post offices to retailers.
PostNL processes 8.7 billion addressed postal items (including 106 million parcels) every yearand delivers to addresses in the Benelux, Germany, the UK and Italy. The company also providesservices in the area of data and document management, direct marketing and fulfilment. PostNLemploys some 65,500 people. In 2011, the company generated a turnover of nearly €4.3 billion.
