Letter postage
The postage is increasing
The stamp for a standard letter still costs 85 cents. At the turn of the year it will be more expensive, possibly 95 cents. A hefty price premium that the post office is happy about? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.
Anyone who sends a letter will have to pay more money for it next year. The Federal Network Agency announced a decision according to which postage may be around 10.5 percent higher from January than before. This is more than the last postage increase in 2022, when it went up 4.6 percent.
The reason for the relatively high increase is the recent sharp decline in the volume of letters and the inflation-related increase in the logistics company’s costs in recent years. The post office is by no means satisfied: From their point of view, the postage increase should be more significant because the cost increases were much greater.
Federal Network Agency President Klaus Müller says that he cannot understand this demand. This will enable the postal service to “significantly increase postage,” said the head of the authority. “The costs that the post office presented to us do not reflect that.” If the Federal Network Agency were to follow the postal service’s request, consumers and companies would be burdened too heavily.
Exact postage still unclear
The authority had already proposed the so-called price increase margin of 10.5 percent in September, and has now set this requirement. In the next step, the postal service must say how exactly it wants to apply this leeway to the different types of mail, whether standard letter, maxi letter or postcard.
Post boss Tobias Meyer has announced that the price increase will be “roughly even”. As a result, postage for a standard letter could rise from the current 85 cents to 95 cents. Old postage stamps will remain valid next year, but the items will have to be franked additionally.
Post reacts by shaking his head
The postal group DHL, whose mail business is called Deutsche Post, reacted disappointedly to the authority’s decision. “Increasing letter prices by around 10 percent for the next two years initially sounds like a lot – but ultimately the letter fees remain too low,” says a company spokesman. The price increase approved by the authorities for postage for the years 2022 to 2024 was already too low.
The post office argues that German letter postage is low compared to other EU countries. In other European countries, postage for a standard letter costs an average of 1.46 euros and not just 85 cents as in Germany, i.e. around 70 percent more. In the opinion of the network agency, this comparison is flawed, also because the products are defined differently and the shipment volumes abroad are declining significantly more than here. That’s why the price per letter is higher there.
Postage applies to 2025 and 2026
The new postage is valid for two years. Parcels from the Bonn-based group, which operates as DHL in the parcel division, are also becoming more expensive; the Federal Network Agency has set an increase margin of around 7.2 percent for this area. This only concerns packages that private customers send and not packages that an online retailer sends to a consumer.
Urgent letters are also becoming more expensive
Things are also becoming more expensive for consumers in another area of the letter business: Deutsche Post decided to discontinue the special product, the so-called Prio letter, at the turn of the year and thus at the same time as the postage increase.
With a priority letter there is a higher probability that it will arrive the next day. Anyone who sends a birthday greeting to a relative or a cancellation from the gym at the last minute and wants the recipient to receive it tomorrow will have to send a registered letter from 2025.
For priority letters and registered mail, consumers pay a surcharge: a standard letter sent as a priority letter currently costs 1.95 euros (as an additional charge of 1.10 euros), while a standard letter sent as a registered letter costs 1.95 euros It is 3.20 euros – the surcharge is currently 2.35 euros, but from 2025 it will probably be more due to the postage increase.
The postal service justified the end of the product by saying that “letters no longer have the same urgency as they did 20 years ago, when there was not yet widespread competition from electronic media.” The reform of the postal law also plays a role, which will take effect at the beginning of 2025: VAT would then be due for priority letters, but this is not the case for registered mail.
Demand for fast letters could increase
Despite this tax aspect, the discontinuation of the Priority letter is a surprise. The postal law reform is actually a tailwind for fast delivery services. Finally, the delivery of letters will slow down from next year: According to a government regulation, the post office will no longer have to deliver 80 percent of the letters on the next working day, but rather 95 percent of the letters will only have to be there on the third working day.
dpa
Source: Stern
