PostNL will likely be permitted to take an extra day to deliver mail from 2026

The Cabinet wants to give Dutch mail delivery service PostNL permission to take an extra day to deliver letters. Currently, the company is supposed to get letterbox mail to the recipient within 24 hours, but that could rise to 48 hours starting in 2026, according to the proposal by Economic Affairs Minister Dirk Beljaarts.

If the Cabinet’s proposal passes Parliament, it will mean a is sent by post on Monday must be delivered by Wednesday at the latest, Beljaarts said. However, he acknowledged there were some conditions to give this breathing space to the company.

PostNL must also comply with legal rules, and will not receive any financial support from the government. Medical mail and bereavement cards must continue to be delivered within a day. Earlier this year, PostNL already decided it would increase its maximum time to deliver business mail to a 48-hour period starting next year.

PostNL also requested that the legal term for regular letters be extended to two days, as the company has been struggling for some time now. Fewer letters are being sent by post, while wages and other costs are rising.

The company would ultimately prefer a delivery term of three days for mail. Beljaarts does not want to approve that at this time, he said.

Beljaarts, like his predecessor, has not been happy with the poor quality of mail delivery. This is “no longer acceptable,” he believes. The plan to give PostNL a little more time for letters can help improve the quality. He pointed to research that shows that consumers and companies find reliability more important than delivery speed.