Increase the rate of stamps? Analyst sees another solution: ‘Abolish this service!’ | Home

The price of a stamp will increase by 5 cents to 1.14 euros as of July 1, PostNL announced on Monday. The last time the rate rose was on January 1, the usual time for price changes. Then the price went from 1.01 to 1.09 euros. The latest adjustment means that from the summer onwards the rate for a domestic letter will be 13 percent higher than last December.

Maurice Unck, Director of Mail at PostNL, blames the high costs that the postal company has to incur. “Personnel costs, around 80 percent of our total costs, have risen sharply in recent years at a time when fewer and fewer letters are being sent. This together puts enormous pressure on maintaining postal services.”

The PostNL director says he does not like having to confront consumers with this interim rate change. “However, it is necessary because we still deliver the mail five days a week, but there is much less mail and the costs are increasing.”

Can PostNL actually just increase the price of the stamp? The answer is: yes, but in moderation. Watchdog Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) checks whether the increase in the stamp price fits within the rules. The government ensures that consumers do not pay too much for postal delivery, but that the postal company can continue to deliver the mail.

A spokesperson for the ACM explains that the annual total room for PostNL to increase rates depends on the number of mail items and inflation. Because the number of mail items decreases annually, there is more room for tariffs. Added to this is the high inflation of recent years.

In addition, the increase in the price of stamps does not take up the entire ‘tariff space’, but is only one aspect of a series of products. In this way, PostNL can ‘play’ with the individual rates and increase the stamp price additionally, as long as other products become relatively less expensive, do not increase in price or even become cheaper. “Then there is still a big achievement to be had,” said the watchdog spokesman.

A spokesperson for the postal service says that increases are ‘always very moderate’, but does not answer the question of whether all rate space has been used up with the interim increase. She does indicate: “With this interim rate change, we can only partially absorb the increased costs, which shows that the need for change is very urgent.”

The competition for parcels is terrible and costs PostNL a lot of money, so they just raise the postal rates

Analyst Jos Versteeg

In the past ten years, the price for sending a letter within the Netherlands has risen from 0.64 euros (January 2014) to 1.14 euros (July 2024). Online customers are not happy with PostNL’s decision. ‘So if you as a company make a mess yourself, you simply increase the price of your product. So that the customer you want will bleed for it’, is one of the many negative reactions to X.

This is a vale of tears, says analyst Jos Versteeg. “The competition for parcels is terrible and costs PostNL a lot of money, so they just raise the postal rates because the government has to keep delivering letters! For whom? We are now all paying the price for those few people who still want to send a card. Abolish this service! If it doesn’t come from the length, then from the width.”

Post indeed seems like a thing of the past. Ten years ago, PostNL still delivered three letters per day per household, now only four letters per week. “Even though there is less and less mail, we still empty around 11,000 street mailboxes every working day and we still walk and cycle through every street in the Netherlands every day, which requires 15,000 postal workers,” said the spokesperson.

At the beginning of this year, the postal company argued for amending the postal law to get costs under control. In this way, the increase in rates could be kept within limits. Instead of delivering letters five times a week, two to three times a week would better suit consumer needs. Discussions about this adjustment are currently taking place with the Minister of Economic Affairs and the unions.

In 2022, another large-scale investigation into the legally required postal services took place. This showed that users generally have no problems with postal services. Three quarters are satisfied with the delivery frequency and the distance to service points and mailboxes.

Small and medium-sized businesses are disappointed with the rising stamp price. Nearly three-quarters of SMEs find the current price of a stamp (very) expensive. These entrepreneurs say they will send less mail if rates are increased further and see the stamp price as the main stumbling point.

PostNL was among the big losers on the Damrak on Monday. The postal and parcel deliverer saw turnover fall by 2 percent last quarter and the operating result was 9 million euros negative.

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