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A DHL warehouse
Photo: Fabian Bimmer / REUTERS
The Federal Ministry of Economics is considering delivering letters as well as parcels to Packstations in the future.
This is one of a number of measures aimed at eliminating the chaotic situation surrounding mail delivery.
This emerges from an internal paper that serves as the basis for an amendment to the postal law that is to be presented in the coming year.
In the future, citizens should be able to complain to a common point about problems with letter or parcel delivery.
The Federal Network Agency should serve “as a central contact” and “the resilience of the postal networks” should be strengthened, the paper says.
The three traffic light parties are also working on a joint catalog of demands with which the delivery of the mail is to be made more reliable and the working conditions of the deliverers are to be improved.
If the SPD postal expert Sebastian Roloff has his way, there should be fast delivery on the following working day in the future, but at the same time a slower one.
Swiss Post currently has to deliver 80 percent of all letters on the following working day.
"Less than this rate is conceivable," says the Munich SPD MP, "however, the slower post must then become cheaper and not the actually punctual more expensive." A slow standard letter should therefore cost less than 85 cents postage.
Lighter packages, thus relieving postmen and women conceivable
Roloff hopes that the two speeds will also mean fewer night flights by the post office.
The postmen and women are to be relieved in the future when they deliver heavy packages in addition to the letters.
The current limit of 31.5 kilograms for individual shipments is too high for occupational safety reasons.
"In my view, a maximum of 25 kilos is sustainable in the long term," says Roloff.
In the future, service providers will have to apply for a license for the delivery of parcels.
In this way, Roloff wants to curb the proliferation of subcontractors.
“It has to be about working conditions and adherence to collective bargaining agreements,” he says.
This year, the Federal Network Agency has already counted more than 37,000 complaints about letter and parcel services, more than twice as many as in the previous year.
At the same time, Swiss Post is expecting record earnings (EBIT) of around EUR 8.4 billion for this year, particularly as a result of DHL's parcel business.
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