It is the first postage increase for standard postage letters in 15 years. The post office had justified the request in mid-september with, among other things, cost increases and declining letter volumes. Nevertheless, the post office is the only company to provide flat-covering basic services six days a week, said jurgen gerdes, member of the board of directors of the deutsche post group. The post office also points to collectively agreed wages and social benefits above the competitive level for 180,000 employees in the mail and parcel sector alone.
The increase is "moderate," the federal network agency said in justifying its approval. In the past, the post office has exhausted its efficiency reserves and demonstrated higher costs. The private letter writer will be affected by an average of less than ten cents per month. This is acceptable, especially as germany is in the middle of the european league in terms of letter prices, said the president of the federal network agency, jochen homann.
In addition to the standard letter, the price of the maxi letter will increase from 2.20 to 2.40 euros, and there will be price increases for international letter mail. Overall, the increase in prices is on average 2.8 percent, according to post calculations.
55-cent stamps can still be used for letters next year, according to a press release. The post office issues 3-cent stamps in time for the turn of the year. In addition, 3-cent or 58-cent stamps can already be withdrawn from the vending machine now.
As a former state monopolist, deutsche post continues to dominate the domestic mail market after liberalization with a flat-covering delivery network. It must obtain approval from the network agency for part of the postage – for standard letters, for example. More than a year ago, frank appel, head of the post office, had already advocated a higher postage rate. The background is that the german postal service is earning less and less money with the classic letter business.