Postal Services In The Digital Age

The EU postal sector has undergone significant changes in the past several years. Today, postal service providers are confronted with the growth in e-commerce: new technologies make shopping online more convenient and therefore increase the number of packages and parcels conveyed by postal operators. While parcel deliveries are increasing, letter volumes have fallen substantially. These tendencies require a different postal infrastructure as well as different skills and patterns of employment for employees.

In 1997, the First Postal Services Directive established a regulatory framework for European postal services. The purpose of EU policy in the postal sector has been to gradually complete the single market for postal services and to ensure that efficient, reliable and high-quality postal services are available throughout the EU at affordable prices. The first Directive aimed to improve domestic and intra-EU postal services by addressing the low quality of service and efficiency; the lack of customer focus, choice and innovation; limited cooperation between operators; and ongoing state subsidies. The Second Postal Services Directive 2002/39/EC , among other amendments, reduced the price and weight limits for the reserved area, thus reducing the scope of the monopoly of national postal operators. The Third Postal Services Directive 2008/6/EC , introduced the legal basis for the accomplishment of the internal market for postal services by providing a last legislative step in the process of gradual market opening.

In November 2015, complying with the obligation set in the Postal Services Directive, the European Commission presented the fifth report on the application of the Postal Directive. The report, reflecting on the evolution of the sector, highlights the increased importance of parcel deliveries and pays special attention to the technological-infrastructural and social -employment changes generated by the recent developments.

The Commission announced in the Digital Single Market strategy that it will work on improving regulatory oversight in this sector and that new targeted measures addressing cross-border parcel delivery will be proposed in the spring of 2016.

This dossier gathers some key sources aiming at illustrating the EU postal sector as well as new trends and challenges the sector is facing, focusing on parcel delivery, e-commerce, postal technologies and infrastructure.

Written by Balazs Hopp.