Deutsche Post is testing mail delivery in Germany to selected customers on fewer workdays per week, due to declining letter volumes in recent years, to save costs while the German trade union Verdi is heavily criticising the tests.
As part of the pilot project that started in July, customers can choose if they want to receive their letters as a combined delivery one day per week, three days per week or five days per week to their work place.
In the last few weeks, 18 trained postmen have been recruiting customers across Germany who were willing to do without daily delivery in the trial phase. Registered mail, document dispatch and express letters, which are delivered immediately, are excluded from the trial.
A Deutsche Post spokeswoman confirmed the tests to CEP-Research, saying: “Since July, Deutsche Post has been offering customers in selected delivery districts a test as part of which they can try alternative delivery options on a voluntary basis within a limited period of time. The only aim of this test is to learn more about the needs of today's customers when it comes to receiving letters. The test period ends automatically after three months.
“At the end, the results will be evaluated by Deutsche Post. It is not planned to transfer the tests to regular operations. It goes without saying that Deutsche Post will continue to fulfill its legal mandate to deliver mail to its customers six days a week,” she added.
The lower delivery frequency trial is taking place in consultation with the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) as the overall postal regulator in Germany.
But the services union Verdi said in a press release that it is strongly opposing the attempts by Deutsche Post to “undermine the obligation” defined through the universal service to deliver letters on a daily basis.
"The letter market in Germany is extremely stable. This is also due to the high quality requirements imposed by the government, according to which letters must be delivered on each working day and 80% of the letters have to reach their recipients the next day. If Deutsche Post now offers customers to do without this service, it undermines the requirements of a nationwide basic supply and bites the hand that feeds it,” said Andrea Kocsis, Verdi deputy chairwoman and head of its postal and logistics section.
"While the two major parties CDU and SPD are campaigning for fast and affordable mail and parcel deliveries for the population – especially in the context of digitalisation – Deutsche Post seems to be heading in the opposite direction,” she claimed. Kocsis stressed that this endangers an important component of the infrastructure and thus also the jobs of its employees.
Florian Gerster, chairman of the German Parcels & Express Logistics association (BIEK), also criticised the delivery tests: “The strategy of Deutsche Post is to provide less and less service for more and more money.” A reduction in the delivery costs would urgently require a re-evaluation of the approved letter postage. “It cannot be that Deutsche Post benefits from the advantages of its universal service contract with the exemption from VAT but doesn’t fulfill the obligation to deliver on six working days at the same time.”
Deutsche Post’s mail business has been steadily declining over the last few years as letters and transactional mail are replaced by digital alternatives.
In 2006, 70 million letters were delivered on average per working day. Ten years later, the number has declined to 59 million. In 2016, letter volumes declined by 3.5% to 8.2 billion letters compared to the previous year.
