PostNL

PostNL is the national postal company of the Netherlands. It evolved from the PTT, a state-owned company that was engaged in telephony and telegraphy in addition to mail delivery. PostNL was designated by the government to perform the universal postal service (UPD).

The company has been responsible for the delivery of letter mail since 1799. PostNL's public duties and the conditions the company must adhere to are laid down in the Postal Act. These include distance requirements on the placement of mailboxes by PostNL, on which days mail must be delivered and how postal rates are set.

Decline and innovation

With the rise of e-mail, the postal market has been experiencing contraction for years. Because PostNL does have to continue to meet the requirements of the Postal Act, these activities are becoming less and less profitable. Partly for this reason, the price of stamps has increased over the years.

Meanwhile, the rise of e-commerce is actually causing the demand for parcel services to increase significantly. PostNL's parcel services focus mainly on delivery to private individuals. For this, the company uses both its own parcel deliverers and hired independents. Customers of web shops also increasingly choose to have an order delivered to other locations. To this end, PostNL has set up a large number of service points in stores. These are also replacing the original network of post offices.

With an eye to the future and competition, PostNL's services are being broadened and made smarter. For example, experiments are being conducted with automatic collection machines and recipients who were not at home will be able to choose when and where they want their parcels to be delivered again. Letter carriers' duties may be expanded in the future to include, for example, taking meter readings.

History of PostNL

In the 1980s, PTT was privatized and its banking operations continued independently under the name Postbank. From then on, KPN (Koninklijke PTT Nederland) consisted of the operating companies PTT Post and PTT Telecom. In 1994, the government floated part of the shares of KPN on the stock exchange.

Following the acquisition of Australia's TNT (Thomas Nationwide Transport) in 1996, these postal operations were merged under the TNT Post Group and became independent in 1998. The name PTT Post was exchanged for TPG Post in 2002. Another name change followed in 2006 and the postal company continued under the name TNT Post. These developments were in line with the international postal and parcel delivery ambitions of the parent company, now renamed TNT for short.

The separation of the express and mail delivery divisions created two separate companies in 2011: TNT Express and PostNL. Following the privatization of postal markets in Europe, PostNL also operates mail and parcel delivery in other countries. In 2016, a takeover bid by Belgium's bpost to acquire PostNL was rejected.