this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2026

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160

Denmark becomes first country in world to end letter delivery (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 18 hours ago by TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com to c/world@lemmy.world

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 35 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Letter deliveries continue as always, it's just another company delivering the service.
The company taking over is already in the parcel and morning paper delivery service, and letters today are so few in Denmark, that they can probably take that up pretty easily.
Letters are so rare here that last year our household only received 3 letters, and 2 of them were small medical test kits, that would probably have been cheaper to send as parcels. So in reality I count it as only 1 letter, and the previous year I don't recall receiving a single letter!

We have a digital service which provides all official letters and also has the ability to return them as legally signed.

[–] leriotdelac@lemmy.zip 9 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Crazy to be hear letters are rare in Denmark, I'm drowning in letters in Germany! If you apply for an official online service, they send you a letter with the pin code. Letters are kinda used as notifications here too.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

To me it sounds weird to "apply for an official online service". We have access to all public online services through the same login we use for banks and the official public digital mail service.
No matter if it's tax, health, prescription renewal, the bank or whatever, we login through the same login service, and every danish citizen automatically has access to all public services without applying and without delay.
Even people who are not citizens, like for instance exchange students are issued access to this system.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

Super misleading title?

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 51 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

«By law, Danes must always be able to send a letter. If a private company stops delivering them, the government must step in with a new provider.»

So it’s not ending the letter service really

[–] m33@lemmy.zip 7 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Nationalization of public services, I guess it’s good

[–] bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 14 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

No clue why you're being downvoted, privatisation of public services is one of the earliest forms of enshittification

[–] m33@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

I agree.

Fortunately I don’t care about farming karma on social networks.

Downvote probably because people realize that going back to public service also means now that private owners are done milking that to the bones, it is tax payer money that get to rescue the whole thing.

By the way if I understand it right it seems some other private entity will be looking after courrier.

[–] peetabix@sh.itjust.works 6 points 15 hours ago

I know Dao have stepped in to take over letter delivery.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 30 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Friendly reminder that Denmark is about 44 km^2. For context, the UK is 244 km^2

Which matters a lot. Because the various postal services around the globe? Letters are petty much a side benefit. What they are really for is delivery of important packages (e.g. medicine). Particularly to rural underserviced areas. And when you have routes that head out to the boonies 3-7 times a week, carrying a sack of letters is "free"

This? I don't know all the details and don't have enough of a basis to gather them from a short article. But this definitely feels like it is going to be depending on third parties for package delivery and so forth... which is what certain, really fucking stupid, countries are trying to do by privatizing/defunding their postal service.

Like I said, Denmark is tiny. They will probably be fine. But this... feels like the kind of thing that will bite people in the butt a decade or so down the line.

[–] kiara@piefed.blahaj.zone 19 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Your numbers are off by a factor of 1000. According to Wikipedia Denmark is 43 094 km² and UK 244 376 km² 🌸

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 19 points 11 hours ago

I love living in 44 square kms with all the other Danes. We're a tight knit people, except Troels.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 31 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

With fewer letters being sent, postage stamp costs have soared. Sending a standard letter in Denmark now costs 29.11 krone ($6.84)

gonna make rich people start sending letters to Denmark as a flex

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 7 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I was just today writing about the importance of sending physical mail as a form of non-violent action compared to sending email. Paper mail implies that the sender cares more about the issue in question and also ensures a more personal touch with a greater literal presence if enough physical letters can be mailed. Ofcourse there is a trade off with it being less easy and requiring postage, it depends on the context. I guess it's just no longer an option for people in Denmark.

https://commonslibrary.org/198-nonviolent-methods-upgraded/#Access_Spreadsheet

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You can still send physical mail. The service is being taken over by a different company.

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 1 points 8 hours ago

Oh ok, hmm I guess one could self deliver too.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 2 points 9 hours ago

Our physical mail has been degraded a lot.

It used to be day to day delivery and cheap. But now, just before the closing, it would have cost me 4 euros to send a postcard to my neighbor, and she wouldn't receive it until next week, maybe longer, maybe not at all. And then as the sender, you should also consider the additional weeks that people might take between checking their mailbox.

No wonder people don't use it. It's straight up unprofessional to communicate by letters here.

I did receive a letter last year, but I actually thought it was weird of them to use physical mail - as if they didn't want me to have the information. If was important, they certainly shouldn't do it like that.