Status: 09/18/2022 07:56 a.m
This summer many people in Germany complained about late or lost letters and packages. The Post explains this with illness-related absences, holidays and a shortage of skilled workers.
This summer, a particularly large number of people in Germany were annoyed that their letters or parcels had not arrived. In July and August, the Federal Network Agency received 6,500 complaints about Deutsche Post. In the six months of the first half of 2022, 8,900 complaints were received via the post office. Throughout 2021 there were 15,100 complaints.
The critics complained about delays, losses or misses. The latter means that a letter initially ends up in the wrong mailbox and only later reaches the correct addressee.
Corona-related absences and shortage of skilled workers
Berlin, Nuremberg and Munich were particularly affected, but also smaller cities such as Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg, Ingelheim in Rhineland-Palatinate and Northeim in Lower Saxony. The Federal Network Agency has now initiated 14 ad hoc checks and asked Deutsche Post DHL to rectify the deficiencies.
The group justified the problems with the fact that a particularly large number of employees were ill due to the corona virus and that there was also a shortage of skilled workers at the post office. “In addition, many of our employees have completed their summer vacation from July 2022,” said a company spokeswoman. In the meantime, the operational situation is stable again.
Other postal services are also being criticized
The Federal Network Agency, on the other hand, said that many complaints were still received in September. Other postal and parcel services have also come under criticism, but Deutsche Post DHL is by far the market leader. Around one billion letters are sent in Germany every month.
Criticism came from politics: Other companies in Germany also had corona-related personnel problems without their service quality deteriorating as much as was apparently the case with the post office, said the FDP member of the Bundestag Reinhard Houben. He hopes it’s just a temporary problem. “Should the quality of the letter services be permanently poor, the legislature should consider granting the Federal Network Agency sanctions and thus a sharper sword in their hands,” said the Liberal. This would create more pressure for the post to improve.
The SPD member of the Bundestag Falko Mohrs showed a certain understanding for the difficulties of the postal service – with a view to the shortage of skilled workers and the corona-related failures. “Nevertheless, Swiss Post is and will continue to be called upon to take the complaints seriously, because what it offers is a building block in the nationwide service of general interest,” said Mohrs. He has the impression that the group takes the complaints “largely” seriously. The social democrat is rather skeptical about legally anchored sanction options.