Denmark ending letter deliveries is a sign of the digital times

By sorting bundles of messages, beams and small magazines, Hermann Moyano is preparing for his early morning tour.

Cargo bicycles and trucks flow from the warehouse, north of Copenhagen, while Hermann leaves a scooter.

Over the past seven years, it has been providing mail for national postal service in Denmark after Nord.

“I used to think that all people are waiting for something, a special speech, a special connection, a special package,” he says.

However, Hermann noticed that the loads become lighter, and instead of messages, these days, it is often bills and bank data.

“I have seen the mail gradually decline. But this has risen for the past two years,” he added. “Nowadays, it seems … it’s really, really.”

A sharp decrease in the sizes of messages was largely pushed by digitization, and posnord announced in March that it would do so Stop messaging services At the end of the year.

Four centuries of delivery of messages will end by the state -owned process.

A third of its workforce is abandoned, 2,200 jobs fall into the loss of the loss speech. Instead, you will focus on profitable parcel works, creating 700 new roles.

“The Denmans hardly receive any messages anymore. It has been going for years and years,” says Kim Pedersen, post -Denmark president. “They receive one speech average on average, it is not much.”

“On the contrary, Danish loves to shop online,” he added. “Global e -commerce grows greatly, and we move with it.”

Fifteen years ago, Postnord has run many horse messages facilities, but now there is only one on the western suburbs of Copenhagen.

Since 2000, the volume of messages dating back to the work handles has decreased by more than 90 %, from about 1.4 billion to 110 million last year, and continued to decrease rapidly.

While postnord is preparing to stop deliveries, 1500 of its Red Post boxes are removed from the Danish streets. However, it appears that a few local population in the capital are using it a lot.

Nicolage Bricner Anders, a Copenhagen resident, says he could not remember when he sent a message last time. “I don’t think I have sent a message for years … I am not even sure how to do this anymore, to be honest.”

From e -mail and non -monetary mobile devices, to the digital health cards carried by the smartphone, there is an application almost everything in Denmark – one of the most digital countries in the world, second after South Korea, according to the 2023 digital government index in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The Danish government adopted a “default digital” policy, and more than a decade has been implemented electronically.

“We are facing this natural development of a digital society, early in perhaps some other countries,” explains Mr. Pedersen. “In Denmark, we may have five or 10 years.”

The high cost of sending a message in Denmark is also a contributing worker behind her retreat.

In 2024, a new postal market law opened for private competition and took its exemption from the value of 25 % value -added tax, thus the post -Nursed seal price jumped to 29 Danish Crohn ($ 4.55; 3.35 pounds) per message.

“This made [volumes] He decreased faster, “Mr. Pedersen notes.

The postage expert Hazel King, editor -in -chief of Parcel and Postal Technology International says that the significant decrease in the number of messages that are published is repeated in Europe.

“The messages around Europe were declining for years,” she says. “I think Postnord’s decision is a reflection of how the entire market is transferred, and the way the consumer moves.”

Physical mail decreased by 30 % or more than its historical peak, in all major global markets, According to a report By McKinsey Consulting Company.

In Europe, Germany and Switzerland witnessed the slowest decreases in messages, says Florian Newhaus, who participated in composing the study. “There are only 40 %, but everyone sees about 50 to 70 % decrease [since 2008]”

There is a similar pattern in the United States, where the mail also decreased by 46 %.

“It is clear that this is driven by digitization and how people are generally communicating,” says Mr. Newhaus. “In general, the economy in messages is getting worse and worse.”

In March, Deutsche Post, Germany, said it reduces 8,000 jobs, while cost reduction efforts in the 500 -year -old royal mail will witness the expansion of the delivery of second -class messages to all days of the week only, while the goals of the first degree delivery were also reduced.

“I think we will see the end of the messages in the main current,” says Ms. King. “However, I am not sure that we will see zero letters, pointing to the need to protect medical messages, services for the elderly, disabled and rural areas.”

In Denmark, messages delivery will not actually end. Instead, DAO will enter the gap with its service at the country level.

However, Danege, a group of advocacy for the elderly, fears that the elderly will fight the changes in delivery operations.

“Most of the elderly live in small cities and in rural places,” says Marilyn Richej Cordes, a senior consultant. “When there are not many publishing boxes, they will have more difficult time to provide mail.”

Meanwhile, the labor union, which represents the postal workers, the 3F Postal Union, expressed fears that rural services may get worse.

Du does not agree with these concerns. It is historically distributed to magazine and magazines with the National Reach, and it has become one of the main parcels of the country.

A recent survey found that DAO delivery operations were faster, as the messages reached within five days more than postnord.

“We come to all families, and we are in the rural areas of the entire country,” CEO Hans Peter Nissen confirms.

Last year, I dealt with 21 million messages, and since 2026, after postnord exit, DAO expects to take 30 to 40 million others.

Mr. Nissen explains that her employees will take direct messages, while carrying out newspapers and expulsion. Meanwhile, post from the mail boxes are collected inside the affiliated stores, although transient captures can be reserved for a small additional fee.

DAO plans to install a new sorting machine and add about 250 additional employees to its 2500 working power.

As material letters decline throughout Europe, Denmark’s experience may provide a window over the future.

However, in this growing digital world, there are still many who find joy in sending and receiving personal messages, including Copenhagen Jet Iring Williams, who writes to her daughter abroad.

“I think the young generation wants this feeling of ancient school,” says Williams. “She loves the physical touch for something, so it is no longer just an email or text anymore.”