11-11-2020
In the 2000s, the number of letters has fallen by over 60% because of digital communications. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has further reduced the volume of letters especially. Nowadays, a household will only receive 3.5 addressed items per week.
“When it comes to mail delivery, the Christmas season is by far the busiest time of the year, with the Christmas mail sent by consumers multiplying the volume for a few weeks. We are really looking forward to creating Christmas together with our customers. The demand for our services always drops off a bit after the season so, together with our personnel, we prepare for that well in advance. The COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t seem to be going away, which has an effect on the volume of items,” says Sami Reponen, Director, Postal Services.
In November–December, Posti will deliver tens of millions of newspapers, letters, magazines, advertisements, Christmas greetings and parcels to homes and companies. Traditionally, the busiest delivery days are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. However, During the season, there are enough different types of items to deliver on Fridays, and also on Tuesdays, if necessary, in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Posti will also deliver parcels to pick-up points on Saturdays.
The plan is to return to the lightened Friday delivery in January 2021
If the volume of mail requires it, the plan is to return to the lightened Friday delivery in January 2021.
“We’re planning to return to the lightened Friday delivery in January 2021. Our personnel and customers are already familiar with it from the summer and fall this year. It’s good to keep in mind that Posti operates entirely without public funding. These measures are aimed at keeping our operations profitable so that we’re able to ensure continuous postal services for citizens and companies at all times,” says Sami Reponen.
For senders and recipients, the return to the lightened Friday delivery would once again mean that items scheduled for Friday delivery would mainly be delivered already on Thursday. The earlier deliveries are made possible by the fact that the lower volume of mail can be sorted faster.
“We will sit down with our personnel again to go through our plan and all the measures we can take to adapt to the situation. Potential part-time layoffs in our production will not affect our customers as the layoffs will be timed such that we will maintain our ability to produce services,” says Sami Reponen.
The cooperation negotiations regarding potential part-time layoffs, maximum 30 days in 2021 only apply to the basic delivery by the Postal Services business group, not Posti’s other operations.
The lightened Friday delivery does not apply to either the early delivery of newspapers or parcel deliveries. The newspapers delivered on Fridays in the basic daytime delivery would continue to be delivered on Fridays. Posti's service points and customer service will also be open normally on Fridays without any changes.
Source: Posti