Danish postal service to stop delivering letters after 400 years
"The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter on 30 December, ending a more than 400-year-old tradition.
Announcing the decision earlier this year to stop delivering letters, PostNord, formed in 2009 in a merger of the Swedish and Danish postal services, said it would cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark and remove 1,500 red postboxes amid the “increasing digitalisation” of Danish society.
Describing Denmark as “one of the most digitalised countries in the world”, the company said the demand for letters had “fallen drastically” while online shopping continued to increase, prompting the decision to instead focus on parcels.
It took only three hours for 1,000 of the distinctive postboxes, which have already been dismantled, to be bought up when they went on sale earlier this month with a price tag of 2,000 DKK (£235) each for those in good condition and 1,500 DKK (£176) for those a little more well-worn. A further 200 will be auctioned in January. PostNord, which will continue to deliver letters in Sweden, has said it will refund unused Danish stamps for a limited time."
Personally I think that it's a step in the right direction and that other countries should follow suit. Paper mail is a relic of the past. It's slow (hence the nickname 'snail mail'), costs money, and is a waste of paper and transportation fuel. Furthermore it requires people to check their post box every day, even though there may not be anything in it most of the year. In my case most of the things I get in my post box are junk mail (even though there is a sticker 'no junk mail'). It's a horrible system. If all companies were obliged to communicate by email people could get rid of their post boxes and maybe have only a package box for deliveries like Amazon.
"The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter on 30 December, ending a more than 400-year-old tradition.
Announcing the decision earlier this year to stop delivering letters, PostNord, formed in 2009 in a merger of the Swedish and Danish postal services, said it would cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark and remove 1,500 red postboxes amid the “increasing digitalisation” of Danish society.
Describing Denmark as “one of the most digitalised countries in the world”, the company said the demand for letters had “fallen drastically” while online shopping continued to increase, prompting the decision to instead focus on parcels.
It took only three hours for 1,000 of the distinctive postboxes, which have already been dismantled, to be bought up when they went on sale earlier this month with a price tag of 2,000 DKK (£235) each for those in good condition and 1,500 DKK (£176) for those a little more well-worn. A further 200 will be auctioned in January. PostNord, which will continue to deliver letters in Sweden, has said it will refund unused Danish stamps for a limited time."
Personally I think that it's a step in the right direction and that other countries should follow suit. Paper mail is a relic of the past. It's slow (hence the nickname 'snail mail'), costs money, and is a waste of paper and transportation fuel. Furthermore it requires people to check their post box every day, even though there may not be anything in it most of the year. In my case most of the things I get in my post box are junk mail (even though there is a sticker 'no junk mail'). It's a horrible system. If all companies were obliged to communicate by email people could get rid of their post boxes and maybe have only a package box for deliveries like Amazon.
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