The Hague, the Netherlands, 6 May 2024 – PostNL will adjust prices for sending letters with effect from 1 July. The price of stamps for letters in the Netherlands will change to €1.14 from €1.09 today – a necessary interim price increase as less and less mail is being sent and costs are rising steeply. The new domestic stamp price as well as other price changes are within the scope granted to PostNL by the government every year.
Maurice Unck, Director of Mail at PostNL, said: “Every day, we at PostNL make sure that everyone across the country is able to send and receive their mail, with some 25,000 postal workers doing everything in their power to make that happen. Labour costs, which account for around 80% of our total costs, have surged in the past few years, at the same time as fewer and fewer letters are being sent. In combination, this makes for a great deal of pressure in terms of keeping our postal service going. We don’t like confronting consumers with interim price rises, but we must, as we’re still delivering post five days a week while there’s a lot less mail and costs keep on rising.”
The price for a stamp on letters in the Netherlands is going up by €0.05 to €1.14, while the basic rate for letters abroad will be €1.80, up from €1.75. Prices for sending regular parcels will remain unchanged.
Registered mail will cost €1 more. To safeguard the quality of registered mail, PostNL has set up a separate network for delivering these items, which is a more costly service to operate.
In 2024, the price of PostNL’s December stamps will be €1.06, 8 eurocents less than regular stamps. A sheet of 20 December stamps will sell at €21.20 and will be available to buy from 18 November via postnl.nl, or at post offices, parcel points or other designated stamp outlets.
PostNL is looking for a change to the postal service that better reflects customer and consumer expectations as well as today’s current labour market. At the moment, a card or letter posted today must be delivered tomorrow. PostNL wants to move to a situation where post mailed today will be delivered within two days and, in time, within three. This requires a change to postal rules and regulations to help PostNL adapt its network further and keep the postal service future-proof and financially healthy.