Denmark's Main Postal Carrier Ends Letter Delivery (nytimes.com) 41
PostNord is ending letter delivery in Denmark after a 90%+ collapse in mail volume. It marks the first known case of a national postal carrier abandoning letters entirely -- a symbolic milestone of a fully digitized society that's sparking nostalgia even among people who stopped sending mail years ago. The New York Times reports: Denmark has had a postal service for more than 400 years. But a steep decline in its use has led the Nordic country's longtime postal carrier to stop letter deliveries entirely, a change taking effect on Tuesday.
Danes have seen it coming for months: The carrier, PostNord, has been removing its red mailboxes, once a ubiquitous public fixture. The disappearance of the mailboxes is "what actually made people emotional," said Julia Lahme, a trend researcher and the director of Lahme, a Danish communications agency, "even though most of them hadn't sent a letter in 18 months."
Letter writing in the country has declined by more than 90 percent since 2000, according to PostNord, which is owned jointly by the Danish and Swedish governments. Next year, in Denmark, it will only deliver packages, although in Sweden it will continue to deliver letters.
The change comes partly as a result of a drop-off in government mail. Denmark is one of the world's most digitized countries. Only 250,000 people, or less than 5 percent of the population, still receive their official communications in the mail. "People simply do not rely on physical letters the way they used to," Andreas Brethvad, the communications director of PostNord Denmark, said in an emailed statement. He said that because nine in 10 Danes shop online each month, the change "is about keeping up with times to meet the demands of society. It's a natural evolution." The report notes that snail mail lovers will still be able to send and receive letters through Dao, a private company. "While some Danes are quietly mourning a service that, for the most part, they had largely stopped using, the transition feels like a sign of the times," reports the Times.
Danes have seen it coming for months: The carrier, PostNord, has been removing its red mailboxes, once a ubiquitous public fixture. The disappearance of the mailboxes is "what actually made people emotional," said Julia Lahme, a trend researcher and the director of Lahme, a Danish communications agency, "even though most of them hadn't sent a letter in 18 months."
Letter writing in the country has declined by more than 90 percent since 2000, according to PostNord, which is owned jointly by the Danish and Swedish governments. Next year, in Denmark, it will only deliver packages, although in Sweden it will continue to deliver letters.
The change comes partly as a result of a drop-off in government mail. Denmark is one of the world's most digitized countries. Only 250,000 people, or less than 5 percent of the population, still receive their official communications in the mail. "People simply do not rely on physical letters the way they used to," Andreas Brethvad, the communications director of PostNord Denmark, said in an emailed statement. He said that because nine in 10 Danes shop online each month, the change "is about keeping up with times to meet the demands of society. It's a natural evolution." The report notes that snail mail lovers will still be able to send and receive letters through Dao, a private company. "While some Danes are quietly mourning a service that, for the most part, they had largely stopped using, the transition feels like a sign of the times," reports the Times.
Can the USPS be next? (Score:2)
Nearly everything delivered by USPS is junk mail. There has to be a better option than a failed organization surviving solely off spam and subsidies.
Re:Can the USPS be next? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Can the USPS be next? (Score:1)
It's not strictly required, it's merely allowed.
That said, things like legal documents (real estate tax bills, jury duty summons, health insurance cards, etc) go through the mail as letters. And while a lot of their revenue is junk mail, they also do a lot of Amazon's deliveries for them. Especially the 3rd party stuff.
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You're correct about the Constitution. However, as it relates to packages, Denmark isn't shutting down package delivery, just letters. For those who *must* deliver a letter, they could still ship it as a package, it just might cost more.
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They even can out with their own stamps.
Th old(?) PostNord will limit itself to packages, the stuff DAO did before.
And I wonder why I often call them DOA...
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But yes, I understand your plan.
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The King is married, though. Technically we have two Queens as Margrethe relinquished the throne, not the title.
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Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says that "The Congress shall have the power...To establish Post Offices and post Roads;"
https://www.archives.gov/found... [archives.gov]
This doesn't require Congress to do so, it only gives it the authority to do so.
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The USA is no Denmark. Lot's of unconnected between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast. Postal is a service they rely on.
Denmark is 50% the size of US state of Maine (Score:2)
Something to keep in mind when the inevitable European country does it better than the US comment is made.
Under 5 hours to travel across Denmark by train versus driving 11 hours from far east Texas to far west Texas.
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Stop propagating the Republican myth that the USPS is a failed organization - it is not, and the only reason the Republicans push that bullshit is to further their control over it, and justify selling it off.
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I'm Republican and form my opinions by observation, not necessarily what a party member or leader says. I've been saying to anyone who will listen, for a long time, that the Post Office gets a bad rap, and are very good at what they do. Several years ago I even had the situation where I ordered similar items to be delivered as packages from the same source. Said source put one in USPS and one in UPS on the same day. USPS beat UPS in that instance. Otherwise, I don't have instances of lost mail. I r
Re:Can the USPS be next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Furthermore, USPS provides essential services not provided by any other entity, government, SGE, or private. The handle passports and offer general delivery for people who don't have fixed residences or who need something in another area.
So, before you throw the baby out with the bathwater from anecdotal evidence, consider that maybe you need to do something to stop most of it at its source [ftc.gov].
Re: Can the USPS be next? (Score:1)
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USPS is the most reliable and universal delivery service. It works. UPS and FedEx are true shit.
I've had more problems with my packages due to USPS than either of those carriers. UPS hands off small packages to USPS and this makes them take longer to be delivered. If you want to see how incompetent USPS is, put a very wrong zip code on a small package and watch it bounce between states multiple times because they have no logic to detect that.
None of this necessarily means the USPS should be dissolved, but your idea of their competence is wholly unwarranted. Further, they scan and track every single ma
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I've had more problems with my packages due to USPS than either of those carriers. UPS hands off small packages to USPS and this makes them take longer to be delivered. If you want to see how incompetent USPS is, put a very wrong zip code on a small package and watch it bounce between states multiple times because they have no logic to detect that.
Interesting that you blame USPS for: 1) UPS not completing their job by handing off the expensive part to USPS, and 2) incompetence by the customer by not providing correct routing info. Do you also blame your ISP when you type "www.gooey-gle.com" into the address bar and don't get Google's homepage?
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Not interesting at all that your reading comprehension is shit
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You must live in a different place than I do. The USPS has terrible hours, long lines, and when it's lunchtime (a peak time to go to the Post Office) workers go on lunch break, rather than scheduling lunch breaks around peak times. By contrast, UPS and FedEx stores have hours that accommodate their customers, and shorter lines.
I personally do NOT have the same warm, fuzzy feelings about the USPS that you do.
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USPS is NOT reliable in my semi-rural area
The local post office is tiny, overcrowded and understaffed
It was designed for letters and now it's overwhelmed with packages
People who work there are not happy
A few facts (Score:5, Informative)
Some commenters here seem to be in need of some factual information.
PostNord AB is a private company and has been for some years, so the idea that this is a government service being withdrawn is untrue.
Danish law requires everyone to have access to postal services for letters. Therefore another private company, DAO, will provide postal delivery to everyone in Denmark and the ability for everyone in Denmark to send letters from DAO service points (in shops, etc).
A significant subsidy is being provided to DAO to enable a universal delivery service.
DAO will be the national postal service for international treaty (UPU) purposes, enabling letter and small parcel post between Denmark and other countries according to UPU agreements.
Re: A few facts (Score:3)
Fun fact for you - slashdot doesn't care as long as title is clickbaity and text irrelevant enough...
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Re: A few facts (Score:2)
Postnord is owned by Swedish state and Danish state
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Is this another case of "private company that is actually wholly or mostly owned by the state" like it is here in Finland?
Or is it an actual proper fully privatized company?
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With the explosion of delivery, postal services should be swimming in cash. Sounds to me like the profitable bits were sold off while the taxpayers end up paying for the rest.
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Some commenters here seem to be in need of some factual information.
PostNord AB is a private company and has been for some years, so the idea that this is a government service being withdrawn is untrue.
Danish law requires everyone to have access to postal services for letters. Therefore another private company, DAO, will provide postal delivery to everyone in Denmark and the ability for everyone in Denmark to send letters from DAO service points (in shops, etc).
A significant subsidy is being provided to DAO to enable a universal delivery service.
In their defense, the summary does state "PostNord, which is owned jointly by the Danish and Swedish governments ." I think most people would call services provided by such an entity as "government services". Plus, it seems counterintuitive for Scandinavian countries to subsidize, "significantly" apparently, a private monopoly. <shrug>
The End is Nigh (Score:3)
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No tears being shed here.
Digital mail (Score:2)
At least here in Finland, there's an option to receive a lot of mail electronically. For example official mail, a lot of billing services etc just send it electronically to Finnish Post, who informs you you have digital mail and you can read it via a browser or an app.
Granted government also has their own app that covers most of the communications you will have with national bureaucracy. Everything from taxation related mail to things like car registration can be handled there directly.
This is the page that
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I am Dutch and there we also get most official mail via 'the net' on mijnoverheid.nl.
The one EU country still massively lagging is Germany, they say it's because they are a federation and every state has their individual system(s)...
It became ridiculously expensive in the end (Score:2)
It became too expensive in the end. I got a few until last year, I would get a 2-3 Christmas cards, and I would send the same. We kept it up for the nostalgia but decided to skip it last year because the price of a letter was just stupid.
I know of people who would send out wedding invitations, but spend a day driving around and delivering themselves instead of mailing them and only us the post for those too far away.
IIRC the price was in the end over 5$ pr letter as a minimum. Where I live it looked like th
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Living in the south we mailed all our Christmas cards and letters from Germany, even those addressed to Denmark.
Weekly Delivery (Score:2)
I don't need mail to come every day.
Deliver it every second day, 1/2 the letter carriers required.
I understand that there are other costs: sorting equipment, etc. But it's all scalable.
As we have discovered in Canada, the biggest impediment to rationalizing the postal service is...the union.