Now here on BBC News, a question. When
was the last time you sent a letter by
post? Chances are it's been a while as
more and more of us choose digital
alternatives and countries are grappling
with declining amounts of letters and
what this means for traditional postal
services. One of them is Denmark and its
national postal service post Nord as
Adrien Murray has been finding out.
Heading out his morning postal round,
Perman Moano has been delivering mail
for the last seven years.
These days, it's mostly bills and
magazines, and his load has been getting
lighter.
>> I have seen that the mail is going down
gradually. Nowadays, it seems two years
ago, it's going really, really down.
Only 15 years back, Denmark had several
large letter sorting depots, but this is
Posnord's last one. Since 2000, letter
volumes have slumped by 90%.
And by the year ends, mail deliveries by
the stateowned postal service will
become a thing of the past. Around 1500
jobs, a third of Posnort's workforce
will be let go.
We say goodbye to 400 years of Danish
history and of course a lot of people
were going to lose their jobs.
>> Miss the job.
>> But as online shopping grows,
these conveyor are increasingly busy and
Posnord will instead focus on its
profitable parcel business.
>> The average Dane are receiving one
letter a month in average. It's not a
lot. On the contrary, the Danes love to
shop online. the global e-commerce are
growing significantly and we are moving
with it. We are just facing this
evolution, a natural evolution I would
say of a digitized society earlier than
maybe some other countries.
>> Denmark is one of the world's most
digitalized countries, a policy pushed
by the government.
>> EBUX makes it easy to do.
>> There's an app here for almost
everything and almost all correspondence
with Danish authorities goes through an
online mailbox.
One by one, these iconic post boxes are
being removed from Danish streets.
>> Actually, my last letter I sent was like
five years ago. So, I and I really never
use it.
>> I honestly can't remember. It's been
years and years. I'm not even sure how
to do it anymore.
>> A new law has opened up the postal
market. Private player Deo will take up
the remaining letter business and
deliver around the country even as
volumes shrink. Yeah, I'll just give
>> elderly organizations worry, however,
that the quarter a million people who
still rely on physical post may face
difficulties.
>> If you're exempted from digital mail,
you are probably not very skilled
digitally, then it's really difficult to
figure out where to go and deliver your
mail.
>> Across Europe and beyond, many countries
are grappling with a dramatic drop in
letters over the last decade or more.
The ones that have the least decline is
still Germany. Switzerland to some
degree it's only 40% but everybody else
is really around the 50 to 70% decline.
So I think it's a trend that we see
everywhere. Clearly this is driven by
digitization and how people communicate
in general.
>> As online shopping takes off. Postnord
is betting its future on parcels. But
the decline of letters here in Denmark
offers a glimpse perhaps of the future
that awaits other countries.
Adrien Murray, BBC News, Copenhagen.