Denmark that stop the delivery of the letters – is a sign of digital times

Sorting bundles of letters, small packages and magazines, Herman Moyana is preparing for an early morning round.

Cargo bicycles and minibuses flow from the depot north of Copenhagen when Herman is sent to the scooter.

For the last seven years he has delivered mail to the national postal service of Denmark.

“I used to think that all people were waiting for something, a special letter, special communication, a special package,” he says.

However, Herman noticed how the loads became lighter, not letters, these days are basically accounts and bank statements.

“I have seen the mail gradually declining. But this has been raising the pace in the last couple of years,” he adds. “Nowadays, it seems like … it goes really, really down.”

A sharp decrease in the volumes stop the letters At the end of the year.

This will give the end of four centuries the delivery of letters through a state operation.

Her third labor is released because it pursues 2200 positions in a hand that loses the letters. Instead, it will focus on its profitable parcel business, creating 700 new roles.

“The Danes are unlikely to receive more letters. It has been going on for years,” says Kim Pedersen, the Chief of the Postnord Denmark. “They get one letter per month on average, it’s not much.”

“On the contrary, the Danes like to shop online,” he adds. “Global e -commerce is growing significantly and we are moving with that.”

Fifteen years ago, Postnord managed several huge foliage, but now there is only one on the western outskirts of Copenhagen.

Since 2000, the volume of businesses has decreased by more than 90%, from about 1.4 billion to 110 million last year, and it continues to fall quickly.

As Postnord is preparing to stop the delivery of letters, 1500 their red mailboxes are removed from the Danish streets. However, few locals in the capital appear to use a lot.

Copenhagen resident Nikolai Brahner Andres says he cannot remember when he last sent a letter. “I don’t think I sent a letter for the years … I’m not even sure how to do it, honestly.”

From e -mail and non -cash mobile payments, to digital medical cards carried out by a smartphone, there is an application for almost everything in Denmark – and this is one of the most digital countries in the world, the other only in South Korea, according to the 2023 digital index.

The Denmark government has adopted the “default digital” policy, and more than a decade, public correspondence was conducted electronically.

“We face this natural evolution of a digitized society earlier than perhaps some other countries,” Mr. Pedersen explains. “In Denmark, we may be five or 10 years later.”

The high cost of sending a letter to Denmark is also a factor behind its decline.

In 2024, the new law opened the postal market for a private competition and took away its release from a 25% VAT rate in the country, so the price for the Postnard brand jumped up to $ 29 (4.55 dollars; 3.35 pounds) per letter.

“This (volumes) is reduced even faster,” Mr. Pedersen notes.

The large drop in the number of emails is repeated in Europe, says Haisl King, Postal and Postal Technology International.

“Letters across Europe have been declining for years,” she says. “I think the Postnord solution is a reflection of how the whole market has passed and the consumer movement is.”

Physical mail decreased by 30% and more from its historical peak in all major world markets, According to the report From the McCinsey consulting firm.

In Europe, Germany and Switzerland observed the slowest declines of letters, says Florian Noihaus, who co -co -established the study. “There are only 40% there, but everyone else sees approximately 50 to 70% of the decline (since 2008).”

In the US, a similar picture is where the mail also decreased by 46%.

“Obviously, this is due to digitizing and how people speak at all,” Mr. Noihaus adds. “Overall, the letters are only worse and worse.”

In March Deutsche Post in Germany, it stated that it lowers 8,000 jobs, while the cost of reducing the 500-year royal mail in the UK will see it in the second grade, only every second day, and the first-class delivery time was also reduced.

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

Denmark does not really run out in Denmark. Instead, the DAO private delivery firm will join the space with its nationwide service.

However, Daneage, a propaganda group for the elderly, fear that the elderly can fight changes in the shipping.

“The most elderly people live in small cities and in rural places,” says Marlene Rishi Cordes, one of the senior consultants. “If there are not many mailboxes around them, they will be more difficult to deliver the mail.”

Meanwhile, a union representing postal workers, 3F Postal Union, expressed concern that rural services could deteriorate.

Tao strongly disagree with these fears. It is a historically newspaper and a magazine distributor from Nationwide Reach, and it has become one of the main couriers in the country.

A recent poll showed that DAO deliveries were faster, and more than Postnord was received in five days.

“We come to all households, and we are in rural areas of the whole country,” says his executive director Hans Peter Nissen.

Last year, he was engaged in 21 million letters, and since 2026, after the post -release, Tao expects to take 30 to 40 million more.

Mr. Nissen explains his staff directly by conducting a newspaper and parcels. Meanwhile, Post is going from mailboxes inside daughter stores, although the techniques on the doorstep can be book for a small additional fee.

Dao plans to install a new sorting machine and add another 250 employees to 2500 labor.

As physical leaves decrease across Europe, Denmark’s experience may be offered by the window in the future.

This is increasingly digital world, however, there are many more in the joy of sending and receiving personal letters, including Copenhagener Jet Eiring Williams, who writes a daughter abroad.

“I think the younger generation wants this feeling of an old school,” says Ms Williams. “She loves a physical note of something, so no longer just e -mail or text.”