Call for ministers to intervene in Dutch postal market
Politicians have been calling on the Dutch government to intervene in the postal market within the Netherlands to encourage more competition. During a consultation process on postal reform proposals, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party, currently a minor coalition partner for the government, described liberalisation in the Dutch postal market since 2009 as a “complete failure”.
Party spokesman Ad Koppejan said on Wednesday that what should have been a free market with several players competing against incumbent PostNL has ended up as a virtual monopoly.
Koppejan said the lack of competition could lead to substantial price increases, declining service quality and poorer working conditions for staff.
He demanded immediate government intervention to monitor and strengthen the Dutch postal market.
“For now and in future there should be adequate safeguards created so that mail, both business and consumer, can be delivered on time and at a reasonable price in every Dutch region,” he said.
The CDA has applauded some proposals from the government, including procurement policies for public sector organisations when purchasing mail services, which encourages open competition.
But the party said it would only negotiate with the government over proposals like eliminating Monday deliveries if ministers simultaneously promised guarantees to foster a level playing field and fair competition in the market.
During the ongoing consultation process over postal reform in the Netherlands, government minister Henk Bleacher was recently quoted as conceding that there has been “absolutely no success” in attempts to open up the Dutch postal market to full competition.
In nearly three years since liberalisation, the market has seen Selektmail acquired by Sandd and PostNL closing down its low-cost business mail subsidiary, Netwerk VSP, leaving only PostNL and the much smaller company Sandd as the significant players in the market.
Group purchase plan
A group of large mailers in the Netherlands is now hoping to set up a new bulk postal services purchasing programme with Sandd, in which its members would club together for a mail services contract.
The Wholesale Mailers Association (VGP) said earlier this month that the project had the potential to be a “revolution in the Dutch postal market”.
The VGP, whose members include a number of large banks and account for more than 25% of the Dutch addressed mail revenue, said pooling resources for its members’ mailings could help improve processes to lower costs.
In turn, the initiative would allow mailers to focus on the content of their mail, rather than how to keep costs down, said VGP board member Dirk van Oostveen.
Thiemo van Spellen, the commercial director at Sandd, said a group purchasing initiative would provide the kind of mail volume to optimise processing and improve efficiency.
“The mailers of the VGP represent a large portion of mail volumes in the Netherlands. It goes without saying that we share with them the desire to grow,” said van Spellman.
“We have the capacity and knowledge and also provide the right quality. By agreeing on the pooling of the purchasing of postal services for VGP members, they will find it more attractive to do business with Sandd.”
