Denmark stops dealing cards

BarcelonaChristian Bækgaard gets on his bicycle, wearing his vest and carrying the parcels, just like every day, and prepares to deliver the mail as he has done for the past twenty years. But this Tuesday is different; he will deliver his last letter. The Danish public postal company, PostNord, is ceasing mail collection and delivery, thus ending a tradition of more than 401 years. "It's sad, but new times are coming," Bækgaard told the public broadcaster Danmarks Radio. Denmark is the first European country to make such a decision, driven by falling demand: over the past 25 years, the volume of letters has decreased by 90%. Since 2000, when a record 1.5 billion letters were sent, the number of letters sent by Danes has plummeted to 122 million last year. The Danish state has been moving toward this goal for some time. In 2014, it was decided that all communications between authorities and citizens would be issued digitally. The definitive step came in 2023, when a new law ended the universal service obligation in Denmark (which required postal companies to provide service at an affordable price), and de factoThe market was privatized after PostNord accumulated losses in the millions.

"The letter market is no longer profitable," says Kim Pedersen, CEO of PostNord. And the fewer letters that are sent, the higher the unit cost of handling them. "The Danes hardly receive any letters anymore. It's been declining for years and years," she says.

A global trend

Post offices around the world have long seen letter volume plummet and be replaced by emails, text messages, and social media. However, parcel delivery is skyrocketing. "Danes love to shop online," adds Pedersen. "Global e-commerce is growing significantly, and we're keeping pace."

Denmark is not an isolated case. In 2022, 161 billion parcels were shipped worldwide, and this figure is projected to reach 256 billion by 2027, according to [source missing]. The EconomistFaced with the shift to digitalization, many state-run postal services are registering enormous losses. The United States Postal Service reported annual losses of $9 billion this November. The Dutch postal service is also accumulating losses and described its model as "unsustainable" without external support. Therefore, many traditional postal services are opting to change their model and adapt to the new times, incorporating logistics services, diversifying their offerings, and reducing staff.

Denmark will undergo another transformation: PostNord has removed the 1,500 red mailboxes that were distributed throughout the country. 1,000 of the mailboxes that have already been dismantled went on sale at the beginning of the month for 2,000 kroner and sold out in just three hours.

Another way

However, Danes will still be able to send and receive letters. They will, however, have to go to branches of the private company Dao, which will take over letter distribution nationwide starting on the 1st. Dao, which has been delivering newspapers, magazines, and packages for years, estimates that the number of items delivered will increase from 150 million to 210 million in 2026, with approximately 70 million of those being letters.

"We hope that the remaining letters will be for citizens who want to continue receiving them this way," Dao's director, Hans Peter Nissen, told the Danish news agency Ritzau. He pledged to streamline the service and not neglect rural areas.

Of PostNord's 2,200 employees, 1,500 will be laid off, and the rest have been offered positions in other parts of the organization, the company announced in March. One of them is Christian Bækgaard, who, after New Year's, will swap his bicycle for a car and deliver packages in Gladsaxe.

"These days I mainly deliver bank statements, bills, and reminders. Before, there were also many personal letters and more Christmas cards," says Bækgaard, adding that he will miss the people he delivers letters to by bicycle.