USO Around the World
Continuing our series of articles looking at how other countries have adapted their Universal Service over time. This series comes after we submitted our proposal to Ofcom for reform of the Universal Service. In the fourth in the series, we look at Netherlands.
Case study: The Universal Service in Netherlands
In the Netherlands, PostNL is pushing for changes to the law that would see letters delivered within three days, as opposed to next day.
The company has also said that declining letters volumes, together with rising costs, mean the current requirement to deliver five days a week ‘no longer fits the way we live’.
PostNL has reported that, compared to 20 years ago, 70% less letters are sent and, every year, the amount of letters is decreasing between 7 to 9%. Further, it says from delivering an average of three letters a day to each household in 2003, it now delivers just four letters a week.
Herna Verhagen, CEO of PostNL, said: ‘We strongly believe the time has come to transform the delivery framework to better fit the needs of our customers and consumers and the current labour market.
‘We intend to transition towards a service level for standard mail to be delivered within two days, moving towards within three days over time.
‘We keep offering priority delivery, at a higher price. All this is already common in many other European countries.
‘To achieve this, adjustment in regulation is necessary, comparable with changes already implemented in regulation in other European countries. So that a financially viable postal service in the Netherlands, that provides job security to thousands of people, can be secured, now and going forward.’
In 2014, PostNL moved from a six-day to a five-day (Tuesday to Saturday) service, following a request for a subsidy.
Have your say
Visit myroyalmail.com/universalservice to share your feedback and ask questions around our own proposal, which we released on 3 April and you can read here.
Catch up on others in this series:
