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Denmark’s postal service doubles losses

Postnord, the company responsible for distribution of Denmark’s post, has doubled its losses during the first half of 2017.

Denmark’s postal service doubles losses
Photo: Henning Bagger/Scanpix

The company’s turnover has also fallen, reports broadcaster DR.

The company, which has 60 percent Swedish and 40 percent Danish ownership, lost 748 million Swedish kronor (78 million euros) during the first hald of 2017, more than double the amount 304 million Swedish kronor (32 million euros) loss from the same period last year.

“The result is affected by strong digitalisation in Denmark, which has not been balanced by increased logistical turnover and turnover adaptations in delivery operations.

“We continue to work to implement an economically sustainable production model, which during the next few years will give Postnord Denmark the capability of being profitable,” the company wrote in relation to its Danish operations as it reported results.

Turnover for the company has dropped by ten percent to 4.3 million Swedish kronor (450,000 euros) during the first half of 2017, according to DR’s report.

Postnord cites digitalisation, with both private customers and businesses turning to email and Denmark’s secure digital mail system Eboks, as the basis for the decrease in turnover.

“In Communication Services [post, ed.] comparable turnover fell by 27 percent, since the amount letters delivered by Postnord Denmark fell by 23 percent due to increased digitalisation,” the company wrote.

In addition to the decline in mail, Postnord still employs several thousand numbers of civil servants who are very difficult to lay off, reports DR.

The company was merged with its predecessor, the originally state-owned Post Danmark, in 2009, and in 2016 much of Denmark’s postal services switched from the traditional red and mustard colours to Postnord’s light blue.

The company’s problems are likely to lead to political intervention, according to the report.

Over 1,600 employees in Denmark will be made redundant by the company by the end of the autumn, according to DR.

READ ALSO: Denmark's postal service just got even worse
 

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Can you rely on Sweden’s Postnord to deliver cards and presents on time?

Wednesday marks the last day you can send first class letters or parcels in Sweden and still hope they'll make it in time for Christmas Eve. But how reliable is PostNord, the company which runs Sweden's postal service?

Can you rely on Sweden's Postnord to deliver cards and presents on time?

What can you still send and hope for it to be delivered by Christmas? 

The Christmas deadline for letters and parcels outside of Sweden already passed on December 12th, as has the deadline for ordering anything online and hoping for it to arrive on time, with most e-commerce companies advising customers that anything ordered later than December 19th will not arrive in time. 

But if you’re sending first-class letters, pre-paid parcels, and small packages for delivery through the letterbox, you can still send them up until December 21st. The same goes for other parcel services such as Postnord MyPack Home, PostNord MyPack Home small, PostNord MyPack Collect, and Postpaket parcels.  

And if you’re willing to pay a bit extra, you can send express mail letters, express parcels, and first class ‘varubrev’ small parcels up until December 22nd. 

“Those dates still apply. We have written in a press statement that if you send by those dates you can be pretty sure that they will arrive in time,” Anders Porelius, head of press at PostNord, told The Local on Tuesday. 

But can you trust Postnord to deliver when they say they will? 

Not entirely.

The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority, Sweden’s postal regulator, ruled on December 8th that the company was failing to meet its regulatory target of delivering 95 percent of all letters within two working days, with 28 million letters delivered late between June and November. 

An investigative documentary by TV4’s Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts) programme, was sent pictures showing huge piles of late, undelivered letters in one of PostNord’s terminals, and interviewed postal workers who said that they were unable to complete their deliveries now they had been moved from daily to every other day, as they had twice as many letters to deliver on the days when they worked. 

“You get yelled at by the customers, and rightly so, you get yelled at by your bosses, and you scold yourself because you feel like you’re not able to do enough,” said Emilia Leijon, one postal worker. “We pretty much never manage to deliver a whole satchel. There’s too much post and too little time.” 

What is PostNord doing about the delays? 

The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority has given the company until January 30th to carry out an analysis into why it is not managing to meet its targets, and to draw up an action plan of how it is going to improve. 

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