PostNL asks the government for €68 million to help deliver post

PostNL has once again asked the government for financial support. The postal service said it needs 68 million euros to keep delivering the post as per law this year and next year. The Ministry of Economic Affairs immediately responded that extra money “is not an option now,” NOS reports.

PostNL has been struggling with declining mail volumes for years. Revenues are falling along with the number of letters, but postal workers still have to cover the same routes and costs continue to rise.

The company believes that the current law, which states that PostNL must deliver mail to private individuals and companies within one day and that five days a week, is an obstacle to healthy business operations. It has pushed for less strict delivery times for some time.

Last year, Minister Dirk Beljaarts of Economic Affairs agreed with PostNL’s wish to increase the legal delivery time to 48 hours. But parliament quickly scrapped that plan, saying that the Minister was speaking out of turn.

In the meantime, PostNL is stuck in the same situation and needs support to meet its obligations. “Political decision-making on the future of the postal market is still pending, while the costs for the current service continue to rise,” the company said.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs immediately rejected PostNL’s request for support. The Ministry said it was still considering what the future of the postal market would look like and added that state aid “is not preferred in any case.”

PostNL responded that it was not asking for state aid but for compensation. “We perform a legal task for the Dutch government. That has become loss-making. Then you can ask for compensation based on the law,” Maurice Unck, director of MailNL at the company, told ANP.