Revamped postal regulations - In the future, letters will require three days for delivery and may become more costly.
Mail delivery times in Germany are set to increase as the traffic light factions in parliament have finalized the details of the new postal law. Currently, 80% of mail must be delivered within the next workday, while 95% must be completed within two workdays.
From now henceforth, the postal service will have three days to deliver 95% of standard letters. On the fourth workday, they must achieve 99% of this target. According to the draft law, emphasis will be placed on reliability rather than speed, hence the new 99% requirement for the fourth day.
Goodbye Night Flights
The postal service can officially end its domestic delivery night flights, with the last regular post flight scheduled at the end of March in anticipation of this decision.
"Night flights are now a thing of the past," commented the Green parliamentarian Sandra Detzer. "And up to 80% of emissions can be saved." Reinhard Houben from the FDP said that the new law would promote competition in the parcel market and benefit consumers.
Tighter regulations on parcel suppliers
The controversial issue of whether subcontractors of postal and parcel services can in turn employ subcontractors has been a point of contention in the coalition. This often leads to poor working conditions for delivery workers. A ban on sub-subcontractors, previously demanded by the SPD and the Greens, is now no longer on the table. Instead, the factions are focusing on more stringent control obligations. "The most important thing in the law is to strengthen labor protection in the parcel sector and take measures against abuse in parcel delivery," says the Bundestag member Sebastian Roloff (SPD).
Parcel companies must register with the network agency as suppliers and their subcontractors will be checked for reliability after three months and every twelve months, preventing any circumvention of labor rights through subcontractors. The requirement is stricter than what was initially proposed in the government's December 2023 cabinet resolution.
German Parliament to ratify the postal reform by the end of the week
The agreement should be confirmed in the Bundestag this week. The Bundesrat will then vote on it on July 5th. Deutsche Post welcomed the deal. "The draft law takes into account the essential realities of the changing post markets and a more and more digitalized society," it said. but also has "significant weaknesses." Deutsche Post welcomes the decision and aims to complete the procedure for increased letter rates from next year.
Deutsche Post is the market leader in Germany and employs around 190,000 people in its letter and parcel business. However, most of their profits come from the parent company DHL in its international express or freight business and in the warehouse services.
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- Under the revised postal regulations, Deutsche Post AG, the parent company of German Post DHL, may need to increase postage costs to cover the extended delivery time for standard letters, as the Bundestag aims to deliver 95% of letters within three days and 99% within four days.
- Alliance 90/Greens parliamentarian Sandra Detzer praised the decision to end domestic delivery night flights, mentioning that this move could save up to 80% of emissions, while FDP representative Reinhard Houben agreed that the new law would promote competition in the parcel market, benefiting consumers.
- The new postal law includes stricter regulations for parcel companies, requiring them to register with the network agency, ensuring that subcontractors are checked for reliability every three months to prevent violations of labor rights in the parcel delivery sector, as advocated by SPD member Sebastian Roloff.
