News item | 30-06-2025 | 15:00
The mail delivery in the Netherlands is under pressure. That is because we are sending fewer and fewer letters and cards. Since 2009, the number of letters sent by around 7% per year has fallen. At the same time, the costs for delivering mail have risen. The Netherlands currently has one of the strictest rules in Europe: a letter must be delivered within 24 hours. That is expensive and increasingly difficult to sustain for PostNL. If nothing changes, the postal facility will deteriorate, especially outside the big cities. To keep the mail delivery reliable, the government therefore adjusts the outdated postal law.
The Council of Ministers decided this on the proposal of Minister Karremans of Economic Affairs. The most important change is that from July 2026 a letter will no longer be delivered within 24 hours, but within 48 hours. If you then do a letter on the bus on Monday, this Tuesday or Wednesday will be delivered. Post continues to come just five days a week, from Tuesday to Saturday. And the agreement remains that 95% of the post must be on time.
If we do not change anything, the postal facility in smaller villages and regions threatens to decline further and further. Another option would be that the government must help PostNL financially, but the government does not think it is necessary to give PostNL a government subsidy. That is why the government is choosing to adjust the delivery rules based on research by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), just as has already happened in other European countries.
The delivery time will probably be slightly wider in the long term. If the number of letters continues to fall, PostNL can have a maximum of 72 hours from 2028 or 2029 to deliver a letter, just like in Germany, France and the United Kingdom. But that is only allowed if the reliability of the delivery improves. Nothing changes for mourning post and medical post. Just like now, that mail remains delivered within 24 hours six days a week.
Minister Karremans: “The postal law that we now have is outdated and no longer fits the current postal market, because we have simply all started sending many fewer letters and cards. That is why we will adjust the law. That means that if you do a letter on the bus on a Wednesday, this will be delivered on Thursday or Friday. Even if you take the rules for the Randstad. Mail delivery continues throughout the Netherlands. “