Estonian Post to try replacing postal stamps with bar codes

Eesti Post (Estonian Post) will launch a pilot project this fall whereby it will introduce bar codes on letters instead of postal stamps.

The project will cost 876,000 kroons (EUR 56,000) and involve some 50 Estonian companies, the daily Eesti Paevaleht reported.

“The two-dimensional bar code doesn’t look like the bar code used on goods in stores, it’s rather like a square of approximately 1.5 centimeters in size filled with dots,” Eesti Post CEO Alo Streimann told the newspaper.

About 70 million ordinary letters are sent in Estonia every year, six percent of which are private letters. Postal stamps are used on just 2.5 percent of the ordinary letters, Streimann said.

“The code will be certainly cheaper than a postal stamp and it will be available 24 hours a day. Also, it isn’t necessary to go to a kiosk to buy it. The bar code is valid during three days. It suits well those people who have an Internet connection but for whom buying of stamps is inconvenient for some reason,” Streimann said.

Eesti Post will work closely with Germany’s Deutsche Post in the introduction of bar codes.

The code can be printed on the envelope, on a sticker or a letter.

Companies will pay for the code either in advance or be billed on a monthly basis, whereas private individuals can use the Internet bank.

“The bar code is safe and it cannot be copied. If someone makes copies of the code, all the letters will go to the same address, because it contains the recipient’s address,” the CEO said. If the reading machine finds identical codes, all letters except for the first one will be removed for scrutiny.

(EUR 1 = EEK 15.65)