From February, PostNL will empty most mailboxes earlier than after 5 p.m. in order to save costs. This is reported by the ANP news agency. The affordability of PostNL is coming under “increasing pressure” and with the measure the postal service hopes to save “millions of euros”: during the day, parcel deliverers driving through neighborhoods would also be able to pick up the mail.
“The mail in all mailboxes is now collected after 5 p.m., which means that thousands of mailboxes are emptied within a short period of time,” director Maurice Unck of PostNL’s Dutch postal division explained to the ANP news agency. “This requires a lot of deployment of vans, drivers and kilometers, which is expensive, inefficient and not sustainable.”
75 percent of all mailboxes, approximately 10,000, must be emptied during the day from next month. This does not apply to letterboxes at busy locations, such as stations and shopping centers. Buses that can accommodate funeral and medical mail will also only be emptied after 5 p.m.
To lose
PostNL is facing various problems. The company suffered significantly more losses last year than in 2023. PostNL lost 19 million euros in the first three quarters of 2024. For comparison: in 2023 the counter stood at a loss of 4 million euros after nine months.
According to PostNL, the increasing losses are caused by the “unsustainable” business model for mail delivery in the Netherlands. Fewer letters are sent and labor costs are high. The company is also having difficulty finding enough delivery people.
To limit the loss, the company wants to extend the standard delivery period for letters and letterbox packages in the Netherlands from 24 hours to two days. PostNL announced this at the beginning of last year.
This cannot simply be done, because that period is a legal obligation. A proposal by Minister of Economic Affairs Dirk Beljaarts (PVV) to amend the law met with great resistance from the House of Representatives, after which the minister withdrew the plan.