Regulator reports sharp rise in complaints about mail delivery over the last year

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has reported that the number of complaints about the quality of postal delivery has increased significantly in the last year. There is an increasing amount of complaints regarding mail being delivered too late or not at all. This is while the market regulator has also seen a drop in the number of mail being delivered, while the amount of packages being sent is increasing.

According to the ACM, 86 percent of the mail last year was delivered the next day. This puts timely mail delivery below the legal target of 95 percent, as was the case in previous years. There has been a decline in this since 2020.

The regulator stated that both business and consumer mail delivery rates have declined, but that the decline was strongest in the latter segment. Consumer mail only makes up 5 percent of the total mail in the country. The other 95 percent of the letters sent are business mail, including letters sent by government institutions.

The number of packages sent increased last year. The ACM has noticed that the number of international parcels is increasing faster than the associated turnover. The regulator explained that the difference is due to the popularity of Asian web stores like Shein and AliExpress. Many packages come from these stores with cheaper price rates.

The ACM only supervises the quality of the Universal Postal Service (UPD), which PostNL must perform. This includes approximately 15 percent of all national and international mail.

PostNL has noticed a trend of fewer people in the Netherlands sending and receiving letters. The company’s mail division is under financial pressure as a result of this.

For this reason, PostNL requested temporary financial support from the government to be able to maintain mail delivery in the country. The company has said that the financial support will be needed for as long as the Postal Act is not altered to give PostNL more time to make their deliveries.