Swiss Post has dropped plans to increase prices for international parcels shipped by privatecustomers by about 15% following intervention by the national price supervisor.
In April, the Swiss postal operator adjusted prices for several selected products to improve itscost-effectiveness and competitiveness under plans initially announced last December.
However, the price supervisor Stefan Meierhans opposed the proposed price increases of around15% to international parcels for private customers which were aimed to generate additional revenueof CHF 3.4 million for Swiss Post. Maierhans explained that Swiss Post not only covers its costs inthe field of international parcels but even generates a reasonable profit. The suggested priceincrease would thus lead to an “excessive profit”.
Responding to the supervisor’s objection, Swiss Post said it has now definitely decided againstreducing the number of country zones from five to three in terms of international parcels forprivate customers. This was intended to simplify the product range and would have led to priceadjustments.
Under the new agreement, the “Maxi letter international” for private customers will be offeredonly in combination with the “Registered mail” additional service option, as originally intended,with effect from 18 June onwards.
Nothing will change, however, with regards to the additional charges at post office countersthat have been recently introduced and already heavily criticised. To authorise another person topick up a letter on one’s behalf, for example, now costs CHF 36. The price supervisor defendedthese increases claiming they were not abusive but the decision was not definite yet due to the newproduct. “After one year, we will evaluate the price again based on the figures,” Meierhansadded.
