It’s a sign of the digital times. After just over 400 years of handling snail mail, the Danish postal service announced it will deliver its last letter on 30 December of this year, reports the Guardian.
PortNord, a company formed in 2009 in a merger between the Swedish and Danish postal services, announced on Thursday that it would cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark and remove 1,500 red postboxes. The Danish postal service has delivered letters since 1624 but the near universal use of electronic communication has slashed the number of letters sent by over 90 percent since the year 2000.
Danes will still be able to write letters to each other come 2026. Last year, a distributor named DAO won a contract to deliver public service mail, and it has said it is ready to strengthen letter distribution in the wake of PostNord Denmark ending letter service.
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PostNord is jointly owned by the Swedish and Danish governments, split 60:40 respectively. Letter distribution in Sweden, the announcement said, will not be affected.
The Danish postal service is not unique as postal services across Europe struggle in the face of digitalisation. The same day PostNord Denmark made its announcement, German postal service Deutsche Post said it would cut 8,000 jobs in Germany to reduce costs.
UK communications regulator Ofcom proposed last month that Britain’s Royal Mail cut delivery of second-class letters to alternate weekdays and end Saturday deliveries, a move that could save the company hundreds of millions of pounds.
