Letters and shipments of goods
Postal shipping is slowing down and becoming more expensive
If you check your mailbox every day, you will find it empty more often in the future. Because the post office is changing its delivery system: its postmen will show up at the mailbox less often than before.
Anyone who sends a letter in Germany will have to exercise a little more patience from the new year than before – and spend more money because of a postage increase that will take effect at the same time.
At the turn of the year, a legal regulation comes into force, according to which Deutsche Post must only deliver the vast majority of letters – 95 percent – to the addressee on the third working day after the letter has been posted.
The old mandatory value, according to which 80 percent of the amount thrown in today had to be there the next working day, is history. Deutsche Post, as the mail business of the logistics giant DHL is called, can reduce costs due to the reduced time pressure.
The Bonn-based group is not slowing down its delivery processes immediately, but gradually until the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027 – only then should the processes comply with the new requirements, so the vast majority of letters will only have arrived after three days.
Sending letters initially takes two working days
On the way there, 2025 will be a year of transition for Swiss Post. “We will not yet exhaust the minimum requirements of the new postal law for letter delivery times,” says Deutsche Post’s product manager, Benjamin Rasch. “In the future, letters will generally reach the recipient on the second day after they are posted, i.e. one day later than before.”
The manager emphasizes that customers are primarily concerned with reliability when sending letters and not with speed. All in all, not much will change for consumers when it comes to sending letters in 2025.
Separate from private mail, there is corporate mail. In this market segment, certain corporate customers continue to have contracts according to which their documents – such as important insurance documents or bank documents – are usually delivered to the recipient on the next working day. Other company mail, which is less time-critical, takes longer.
Mailboxes will often be empty
For consumers, the changes mean that their mailboxes will be empty on average more often in the coming year than before. The postal service is making its delivery system more flexible: If its IT system detects that a consumer should receive a letter on a Tuesday, for example, and another letter on the following Wednesday, the first letter will be held back and only delivered with the second letter on Wednesday.
This means that the postman can save himself a trip to the mailbox – so he has to invest less time in posting these two letters. This flexible delivery will be gradually expanded.
According to the new legal regulation, it is permitted for one letter each on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to be delivered bundled as three letters on the same day – in this example on Thursday.
Urgent letters are sent as registered mail
Anyone who is in a hurry, for example with a late birthday post, will still have a good chance of a speedy delivery despite the system change. To do this, however, he has to send a registered letter, which in most cases should reach the recipient on the next working day.
This costs 2.35 euros more than a normal letter, so a total of 3.30 euros: The postage for a normal letter weighing up to 20 grams – a standard letter – increases from 85 to 95 cents at the turn of the year.
The price for sending other types of letters and DHL packages also increases. Anyone who still has old stamps can continue to use them – they remain valid, but the items must be additionally franked.
dpa
Source: Stern
