As of: 10/6/2021 2:03 p.m.
Postage is increasing: standard letters will cost 85 cents from January, five cents more than before. Other letter products are also expected to increase in price.
Deutsche Post is planning higher prices for letters and postcards at the turn of the year: According to the Post’s plans, sending a standard letter will cost 85 cents instead of the previous 80 cents, and postcards will cost 70 cents instead of 60 cents. The prices for other letter products such as the maxi letter, registered mail and book and merchandise mailings are also expected to rise “moderately” on January 1, 2022. The post announced this today in Bonn.
The basis for the planned price increases is the room for maneuver that the Federal Network Agency published today. The margin is 4.6 percent – Swiss Post is allowed to raise its prices by this percentage. The Federal Network Agency still has to approve the planned price increase at the post office.
First price increase in almost three years
After the publication, the Post announced to the Federal Network Agency that it wanted to use the leeway. The company justifies the price increases with increased costs: Thus “only part of the cost inflation” is offset with the higher prices. The approved leeway is “less than the compensation of the wage cost increases that have occurred in the meantime and certainly no compensation for the increase in unit costs to be expected in the next few years”.
Most recently, the Post increased postage in mid-2019, when a standard letter went up by ten cents to 80 cents. This makes the planned increase the first in almost three years in which the prices at Swiss Post have been stable. In order to keep the letter business lucrative, the state approved the price increases. Because the mail market has been shrinking for a long time. People write significantly fewer letters than before and instead increasingly use emails, chats or social media in their communication.