Fewer letters

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More and more parcels, fewer and fewer letters - this has been the trend on the postal market for some time now, and 2023 was no exception. 

Around 388 million parcels were transported in this country last year, 9.4 percent more than in 2022, Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH (RTR) announced on Friday. The corresponding infrastructure, such as pick-up stations and parcel boxes, is also being massively expanded.

"Upward trend continues"
"This means that the upward trend we have seen for many years in shipment volumes is continuing unabated," said RTR Managing Director Klaus Steinmauer according to the press release. Since the end of 2021, the number of pick-up stations has more than doubled to 1,592.

Fewer letters and postcards
Meanwhile, the number of letters and postcards is falling: 541.6 million letters were sent in 2023, 9.6 percent less than in the previous year. The reason for this is the decline in advertising mail, the substitution of letters by electronic services such as emails and the expansion of e-government applications.

In future, RTR intends to provide further data, for example on lost items, CO2 emissions per item or the fleets of postal service providers. The postal survey ordinance is to be amended for this purpose.