Our response to the extension of the delivery time for PostNL

As an e-commerce company, we unfortunately must acknowledge that the recent decision by Minister Beljaarts to extend the delivery time for mailbox post from 24 to 48 hours will have serious consequences for our services and customer satisfaction. While the minister advocates for a greater focus on reliability, this measure seems more like a response to the already declining quality of postal delivery, which we experience daily as a business.

The decision to extend the delivery time, despite the fact that PostNL itself has requested longer delivery times, raises questions about the government's effectiveness in ensuring adequate postal services. It is concerning that consumers and businesses now have to accept slower mail delivery, while they rely on it for their communication and transactions. For e-commerce companies, which depend on fast deliveries to ensure customer satisfaction, this change is unacceptable. We continuously invest in our logistics and customer relationships, and a decrease in postal speed leads to customer dissatisfaction, which could harm our competitiveness.

Moreover, it is important to realize that the argument that reliability outweighs speed does not provide us with much benefit in practice. Customers expect a combination of both; they want their orders not only on time but also quickly. The minister's assurance that 95% of mail must be delivered on time offers little reassurance for now, especially since the current reality already shows that much mail does not arrive within the existing time frame.

It is disappointing that no government subsidies are available to support PostNL in improving its delivery capacity. This places the burden entirely on the company and, in our case, on businesses that depend on their services. The policy choices being made now not only seem to be a step backward but could also hinder the development of a future-proof postal service.

Finally, the minister advocates for a "reliable, affordable, and accessible postal service," but without concrete measures to improve the efficiency and speed of delivery, we fear that this vision will remain just on paper. We therefore urge the government to actively work on solutions that ensure both the speed and reliability of postal delivery, so that e-commerce companies and their customers are not the victims of policy decisions that fall short in practice.