The Federal Network Agency received around 3,200 complaints about postal service providers in July, more than in the previous month. Consumers often criticize waiting times or missing shipments.
Delayed parcels, letters thrown in by neighbors or items that have disappeared entirely continue to cause anger among the population. In July, around 3,200 complaints about postal service providers were received, the Federal Network Agency said at the request of the dpa news agency. That was around 200 more than in June and 100 more than in the same month last year, i.e. July 2022.
The possibility of making a complaint is directed against the entire postal and parcel industry in Germany. In most cases, it is about the market leader Deutsche Post AG or its parcel counterpart DHL Paket GmbH. However, the frustration is also directed at some of the Bonn-based group’s competitors.
Low level compared to autumn 2022
However, compared to autumn 2022, when the Federal Network Agency received an unprecedented wave of complaints, the level is currently low. In October last year there were around 9,400 critical requests to speak. At that time, staff shortages meant that the post office had problems delivering letters and parcels. After countermeasures, the problems weakened.
Consumers often complain that they had to wait a long time or that shipments did not arrive at all. “Every complaint is one too many, and we regret if customers are not satisfied with our service,” said a spokesman for Deutsche Post. “Even though the number of complaints is in the per thousand range compared to the billions of shipments we transport each year, we continue to do everything we can to improve our quality.”
This is one of the reasons why Swiss Post submitted an application in May to be allowed to increase the postage as early as 2024 – i.e. a year earlier than originally planned. The company justified the project with higher costs, for example for personnel and energy. After examining the data submitted, the Federal Network Agency finally announced that Swiss Post had not sufficiently proven the cost increases and was making profits in the mail sector. The regulators therefore rejected the application.
Will the post no longer come on Mondays?
Overall, fewer and fewer letters are now being delivered in this country because people are relying more on digital communication. According to figures from the Federal Network Agency, the Post in Germany transported 12.9 billion items in the mail sector in 2017, five years later it was only ten billion – a drop of 22 percent.
Because the volume of shipments is shrinking, the cost pressure on transport and delivery is increasing. That is why the President of the Bonn authority is also open to reducing the days of letter delivery at the post office. The Post is still obliged to deliver six days a week, Klaus Müller recently told the newspapers of the Funke media group. However, society and communication behavior have changed.
There has long been a discussion about ending letter deliveries on Mondays, as most authorities and many companies do not work on weekends. Accordingly, there are fewer new posts for Mondays. In other countries, delivery times of two, three or four days are normal, says Müller. Ultimately, however, the decision rests with the Bundestag.