Several changes are planned at Deutsche Post - first details for 2023 known
Created: 12/23/2022, 10:49 am
By: Marcus Giebel
Post-Revolution: Will fewer letters arrive in Germany in one day?
© IMAGO / Michael Gstettenbauer
Letter deliveries in Germany could be divided more clearly into two groups in the future.
Apparently the government agrees.
With regard to the prices, however, there is a need for discussion.
Munich – The days around Christmas are the time for making good resolutions for the next year.
Apparently also in the Federal Ministry of Economics, which wants to counter the chaos of letters at the post office with some innovations.
As
Spiegel
reports, Robert Habeck (Greens) is considering having letters delivered to packing stations in addition to parcels in the future.
This proposal can therefore be found in an internal paper that is to be used as the basis for adjustments to the Postal Act.
It also stipulates that in the future citizens will have a common office for complaints about parcel or letter deliveries.
The Federal Network Agency is to become the central point of contact, and it is also about increasing “the resilience of the postal networks”.
Postal Act: Will fast letters become more expensive or slower letters cheaper?
The SPD postal expert Sebastian Roloff has his say in the report.
He gives an insight into a joint catalog of demands by the traffic light government with the aim of more reliable deliveries of the post and better working conditions for the delivery staff.
In the future, fast delivery on the following working day and a slower delivery will be offered.
It is currently stipulated that 80 percent of all letters must have arrived at their destination on the following working day.
The Munich social democrat considers a lower rate to be conceivable, "however, the slower post must then become cheaper and not the actually punctual more expensive".
The plan: A slow standard letter costs less than 85 cents postage.
Roloff hopes that the two delivery options will mean fewer night flights from the post office.
Swiss Post wants to make priority letters more expensive: Austria and Switzerland are already using a two-part offer
At the beginning of December, Post board member Nikola Hagleitner advertised in the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
that customers could decide "whether a particularly fast delivery is worth a surcharge".
According to the company, such a two-tier society has proven itself in mail delivery in many other European countries.
In Switzerland there is A Mail and B Mail, where a standard letter up to 100 grams costs 1.10 francs (1.11 euros) or 0.90 francs (91 cents), depending on the priority.
The fast and more expensive post is delivered on the next working day and also on Saturdays, the B-Post takes up to three working days and is not delivered on Saturdays.
Austria offers the priority letter and the eco letter as options.
The former can weigh up to 20 grams, costs one euro and reaches the recipient the next day.
The alternative for 81 cents usually arrives after two or three working days.
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Post plans provoke criticism: consumer advocates see "signal in the wrong direction"
In Germany there is already the so-called priority letter with a surcharge of 1.10 euros.
According to the Post, this will be “delivered with a higher probability on the next working day”.
However, since normal letters are no longer on the way in many cases, this service is used relatively little.
Consumer advocates have criticized the postal plans, which apparently correspond to politics.
"Until now, the rules have been that 80 percent of all letters have to be delivered the next day, and 95 percent by the second day.
Saying now that we want to go down on the claim and make it more expensive is of course not in the interests of consumers," complained Iwona Husemann from the NRW consumer center, who speaks of a "signal in the wrong direction".
Mail and new package cap?
SPD politician wants “maximum 25 kilos permanently”
According to the
Spiegel
report, another idea in favor of the Post employees revolves around the weight of the parcels.
So far, there has been an upper limit of 31.5 kilograms for individual shipments, but this is set too high for occupational safety reasons.
Roloff thinks: "In my opinion, a maximum of 25 kilos is sustainable in the long term."
He also envisions that service providers will have to apply for a license to deliver parcels in the future in order to curb the increase in subcontractors.
Roloff wants to focus on "working conditions and collective bargaining".
Post in front of a record profit: high sick leave and difficult job market as reasons for problems
The Federal Network Agency has already counted more than 37,000 complaints about letter and parcel deliveries this year.
That is more than twice as many as in 2021. Letter deliveries by Deutsche Post, the clear market leader in this country, were often criticized.
The Post spoke of "local problems", citing a high level of sick leave and a difficult situation on the labor market as reasons.
However, the company also expects record earnings before taxes of 8.4 billion euros for 2022.
At the same time, Deutsche Post is facing a collective bargaining dispute.
The Verdi union is demanding 15 percent more wages for the company's employees.
The Post called the numbers “remote from reality”.
Negotiations are scheduled to start in January.
Most of the current postal law has existed for more than two decades.
It comes from a time when letters and postcards were not yet competing with e-mails and chat messages.
(mg)
