FEPA News

FEPA NEWS 45 51 Developments in Philately Chris King RDP, Hon FRPSL has been investigating changes being introduced by the Danish Postal Service as it adapts to the digital world and his discoveries are of interest to philatelists across Europe. His article was originally published in Vol 133 No. 1513 of the London Philatelist in March 2024 and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Editor of the LP. Post Danmark in its present form was founded in 2009 after merging with the Swedish postal company Posten AB. Following the merger, a holding company PostNord AB was created, which is jointly owned by Sweden with 60% of the shares, and Denmark with 40% of the shares. Voting rights are split equally. Until 31 December 2023 the company held the universal service obligation to deliver post under license from the Danish State. This obligation required the company to “ensure accessibility to all universal postal services, including e.g. the delivery of letters up to 2 kg and that of parcels up to 20 kg, at affordable prices, throughout the whole territory of Denmark for at least five days a week.” Between 2017 and 2019, the Danish and Swedish authorities had granted Post Danmark about €160 million (£138m or US$175m) to support change and to deliver the Universal Service Obligation. From 2020 the company received compensation from the Danish state to cover the losses due to the universal service obligation. For 2023, the compensation is estimated to be DKK 150m (£17.3m or US$22m). Letter mail in Denmark has fallen by more than 90% since the millennium. So said a PostNord press release dated 30 November 2023. One reason for this is the national adoption of a common digital mailbox accessed through a digital identity (MitID - MyID) which all Danes over the age of 15 possess. The Danish Parliament adopted the Act on Public Digital Post in June 2012, which stated that citizens and businesses must have a digital letter box for receiving digital messages, letters, documents, etc. from public authorities rather than receiving paper-based letters by traditional postal service. It came into force on 1 November 2013 for businesses and on 1 November 2014 for citizens and enables communication between government at all levels and for all services with businesses and citizens, and vice-versa. Throughout the public sector paper communication is the exception rather than the norm with digital communication expected to be above 80% of the total at the end of 2023. However, there are on average still 600,000 letters posted every day. Post Danmark guarantees delivery of domestic letters within five days, meaning that most Danish households receive deliveries only twice a week at best. On 27 June 2023, the Danish three party coalition government, supported by five opposition parties, proposed a change in the postal law in which “the universal service obligation will cease, which specifically means that neither PostNord nor any other company is obliged to deliver mail throughout the country.” The Minister for Transport, Thomas Danielsen, also said that he expected the Danish public to get cheaper postal services as a result. He said, “I do not do pricing for any private companies, but I have an expectation that the competition will ensure better and cheaper prices and service, just as we have seen in the parcel area, the telecommunications area and much else.” He added, “It is very important that we make it equally attractive for all letter and parcel deliverers to provide this service - also in rural areas. The alternative is that we end up with an A and B team between rural and urban areas, where you cannot experience the same service in rural areas.” At present (May 2024), with no new contracts let, Denmark has probably the highest postal rates in the world, both domestic and international. The legislation was finally approved on 30 November 2023, giving only one month to implement this radical change which came into effect on 1 January 2024. At the same time inland postage became subject toVAT which has caused Danish Postal Reform: Something is shocking in the State of Denmark