Postman and postman: Post strokes 8,000 jobs

After a drop in profits, Deutsche Post pushes the cost brake and strokes 8,000 jobs by the end of the year. The job cuts are regretted, but in view of the decline in the amount of the letter and the high cost pressure, this is necessary, said the CEO of the logistics group DHL, Tobias Meyer, in Bonn.

Job reduction concerns the Post & Package Germany area, which had 187,000 employees at the turn of the year and whose brand is called Deutsche Post. It is about sending letters and packages.

CEO Meyer spoke of the fact that the personnel expenses for post & package Germany are currently at nine billion euros a year. With a job reduction of around four percent, this results in a saving of 300 to 400 million euros per year. The red pencil is also scheduled in other group areas, and DHL with its worldwide around 600,000 employees wants to save more than one billion euros a year by the end of 2026.

The mining at Post & Package Germany should be socially acceptable and via the “natural fluctuation”. This means that employees voluntarily leave the group – for example because they retire or change to another company and their jobs are then not filled.

The board presented annual figures for 2024 that were mixed. Last year, the logistician was able to increase his sales by 3 percent to EUR 84.2 billion, but the operating result (EBIT) decreased by 7.2 percent to 5.9 billion euros due to increased costs.

In the Germany business, the shoe presses

According to company, the Post & Package Germany area – the business of Deutsche Post – came to sales of around 17.3 billion euros, which was an increase of 2.7 percent. The operating result fell by 5.6 percent to 821 million euros. In the digital age, the letter has been shrinking for a long time, last year the decline was eight percent, especially the loss of advertising mail was clear- some companies did without advertising letters and instead relied on email or internet advertising. The package quantities, on the other hand, increased by 4.7 percent.

The post office in Germany is more of a problem child for the global group, other business areas are more lucrative – such as the express programs. Lief chain services and the freight business also bring more profit. When looking forward, DHL management is careful. You continue to expect “a steamed macroeconomic environment,” it said.

Letter shipping should not slow down

In Germany, Swiss Post was allowed to raise the posting at the turn of the year, the mail was shipped by 10.5 percent. That wasn’t enough for the post, she wanted to turn the price screw more strongly. The Federal Network Agency did not allow this.

Since the beginning of the year, Swiss Post has less time pressure in the transportation of letters due to a legislative reform. Now she must have only delivered the vast majority of letters three working days after throw -in; Before that, she had to have delivered a large part of the programs the next working day.

However, the management had said that the additional scope would not be used immediately – most letters should initially be delivered two working days after throw -in and not only after three days. Only in the course of about two years should the new scope for the “terms” – the time of the letter shipping from the throw -in to delivery.

Does something change now because the post will have fewer postman and parcel messenger because of the savings program? “We gradually use the term options,” said manager Meyer. This does not change due to the now announced job cuts.

CEO Meyer: “There will still be a very long letters”

A message from Denmark also makes the tart change in the mail business: The State Postal company Postnord will post its letter delivery there at the end of this year. The reason is the rapid sunken need for letters in the digital age.

When asked when, according to his assessment, the post office will deliver its last letter in Germany, Meyer said: “I think there will still be a very long letters – especially with regard to certain communication events such as elections, you may also get back back that one or the other may not work so safely.” He would probably be retired if the 49-year-old said. “Deutsche Post will still deliver many letters in Germany.”

Salaries up, number of employees down

The job removal in Germany is announced only two days after a tariff with Verdi for around 170,000 postmen, package messengers and other logistics employees. The two-year collective agreement provides for a fee of two percent and in the second year by another three percent. After the agreement on Tuesday, the DHL board announced that “cost reduction measures would be consistently expanded and accelerated”. Now the management of this project concretized the job reduction.

Postal headquarters Thomas Held called the job cuts “totally frightening”. According to his assessment, the end of the flagpole could not yet be reached. “We fear that this will only be the top of the iceberg and that further thousands of jobs will be eliminated,” said the employee representative. That could happen this year.

The reason for this could be the postal law reform, which according to the mail is released from VAT. So far, this tax advantage has only had the post as a so -called universal service provider, which has to carry letters all over Germany. The competitors who only work do not have to. Held appeals to politics to end the “unfair price competition” initiated by the reform and to grant the old tax advantage again, after all, it also has significantly more costs than the competition.

Verdi-Vice Andrea Koscis saw it similarly. “The intended job cuts is the result of an unfairly unfair competition funded by politics in an ever faster shrinking letter market,” said the trade unionist. It is not due to the collective bargaining, she emphasized. The savings plans were well received on the stock exchange, the share price increased significantly.