RPT Deutsche Post's Petram wants to close smaller post offices after end-2007

Deutsche Post AG board member Hans-Dieter Petram told the Seuddeutsche Zeitung that mail carrier will be shutting down branches in smaller locations by the time the company’s monopoly falls in 2007/08.

He told the newspaper that the law that requires the national mail service to cover the majority of locations in Germany an ‘anachronism.’

‘Of course we will continue to deliver packages and letters to even the

smallest villages, but we don’t need to keep branches open in these areas to

sell a couple of postage stamps per day,’ Petram said.

If Deutsche Post is expected to keep open many of these locations, than the

government-regulated prices it charges will need to be looked at, Petram said.

The opening of the market at the end of next year will not necessarily bring

lower prices for customers, Petram added.

But should the government demand that postage prices be reduced, Deutsche

Post’s competitors, who are already active in market, would have serious problems.

‘They’re terribly afraid of this,’ Petram said.