Haven’t received mail for several days? Expecting a package or letter that doesn’t arrive? You are not alone. French mailboxes are empty. With the dematerialization of payslips, invoices and bank statements, postal mail is becoming rarer in favor of e-mails. Same thing for personal correspondence: less postcards, more social media posts. In 2010, a French person sent an average of 45 letters per year, in 2020 it is only five annual letters.
For Philippe Dorge, deputy general manager in charge of mail at La Poste, the finding is clear. “The volume of mail has gone from 18 billion in 2008, to 6 [in 2002], and it will probably be 3 in 2030. We have to adapt”, reports Le Parisien.
And La Poste is adapting. Since January 1, 2023, the red stamp has disappeared. Dedicated to priority letter mail, it guaranteed delivery on D 1. With its abolition, La Poste plans to improve delivery because, according to it, “the longer the delivery times, the higher the groupage can be”. Understand, the less urgent the letters, the more we can expect to have several for the same sector, for the sake of optimization.
However, since March 2023, La Poste has “launched experiments to eliminate daily rounds”, explains France Info. 68 zones are thus concerned. The postmen have a round one day, then another the next day, depending on the volume of mail and the receiving addresses. The trial system could extend to the whole of France. Is 2023 the year that marks the end of daily mail?
The experiment launched in March 2023 is making a lot of noise. Many French people are worried about the end of the postal service and the gradual disappearance of the postman profession. The unions fear job cuts. La Poste defends itself against these criticisms. “The postmen will continue to pass daily to people who receive mail, a service or a package and this six days a week”, explains the deputy director general in charge of mail at La Poste to Parisian.
The postman therefore continues to ensure the daily delivery of urgent mail: for example, parcels, newspaper titles or registered mail. So if the postman no longer comes, is it because there would be no more mail? According to Philippe Dorge, “you have to get used to answering the question: why didn’t the postman come by? Because there was no mail for you.”
In the era of online shopping, the case of parcels also raises questions. Why don’t we receive our parcels on time? Why are delivery errors increasing? Where are the packages that have been waiting for several days?
Have you been waiting for a package for several long days? According to online tracking, it was delivered to you and yet you haven’t received anything? Situations that are more and more frequent as the growth of online commerce leads to an increase in the number of packages to be delivered.
According to Le Télégramme, since the end of the pandemic, e-commerce has continued to develop. The delivery market is very competitive, with a dozen companies neck and neck that use subcontractors. Deliverers in the field are encouraged to increase the pace, to the detriment of the quality of their service. Delivery errors are therefore more and more numerous. A solution: to be delivered to a relay-package, and no longer at home. Could this truly be the end of mailboxes?
