Editor in chief at IamExpat Media
From the summer onwards, sending a letter in Germany will become more expensive, as the way has been cleared for the biggest-ever increase in Deutsche Post prices.
The Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) - the German regulatory organisation for electricity & gas, telecommunications, railways and post - announced that Deutsche Post had been given clearance to increase its postage costs by 10,63 percent.
Deutsche Post is now free to determine how the price increase will affect various letter sizes, postcards and other delivery services. The price increase will come into force on July 1, at which point the cost of sending a standard letter could rise from 70 cents to as much as 90 cents.
The Federal Network Agency and Deutsche Post have been arguing for some time over the price increase. Despite the online shopping craze causing a boom in postal volumes, in June 2018 Deutsche Post issued a profit warning and began a restructuring programme. In January this year, the regulator permitted a price increase of 4,8 percent.
However, this was deemed insufficient to meet rising costs and Deutsche Post warned that postal workers might lose their jobs or be pushed into early retirement if they weren’t allowed to increase their prices. Their promise to hire an additional 5.000 delivery workers eventually swung the regulator in favour of the price increase.