BONN (dpa-AFX) - The postal service has too few post offices in rural areas. As the Federal Network Agency announced in response to a dpa query, to its knowledge there are currently around 140 "unoccupied mandatory locations" in Germany. According to a regulation, there must be at least one branch in every municipality with more than 2000 inhabitants. For communities with more than 4,000 inhabitants, a branch must be located no further than two kilometers away in contiguously built-up residential areas. Swiss Post does not meet such requirements at the 140 mandatory locations in question.

In most cases, these are in rural areas. In relation to the approximately 13,000 stationary facilities operated by Deutsche Post nationwide, the proportion of unoccupied locations is low.

The term "post office" refers primarily to external service providers that have a post office counter in addition to their regular business and sell stamps or accept parcels - such as supermarkets and kiosks. There are also around 800 Postbank finance centers that offer postal services. There are only two larger branches owned by the Bonn-based group itself: one is in the German Bundestag and the other at the company's headquarters in Bonn.

The Federal Network Agency, as the supervisory authority, watches over whether the Post complies with regulations. Referring to the unoccupied sites, an agency spokesman says, "We are in regular communication with Deutsche Post AG on this." He points out that many of these locations are "only temporarily unoccupied as part of the usual and expected fluctuation."

A Post spokesman emphasizes that they cover about 99 percent of all mandatory locations with branches. "In the few locations where this is not the case, there is often no retail left at all, which means there are no stores that could provide universal postal services on our behalf." In such cases, the Postal Service makes an effort to offer a brick-and-mortar facility with its own staff, "although customer foot traffic at such branches is very low," the spokesman says. Such locations are open weekdays, but have reduced opening hours.

In addition to the branches, Deutsche Post says it has about 10,500 parcel stores, 2,000 stamp sales points and 11,000 Packstations in Germany, the latter being automated machines for accepting and dropping off parcels. However, these locations do not play a role in fulfilling the regulation requirement. They are - depending on the wishes of the customers - an alternative to post offices. However, such alternatives are mainly found in urban areas - so if the only post office closes in a village, other postal facilities are not too often to be found locally.

CSU member of parliament Hansjörg Durz voices criticism of the Bonn-based company. "The fact that Germany is missing postal branches in the lower three-digit range shows how much the postal infrastructure in Germany is on edge," he says, stressing that the Post must factor in possible branch closures by business partners. "In addition to the rising number of complaints, this is further evidence that the specifications of the universal service are not being met." This makes it clear "how necessary a timely revision of the Postal Act is," says the Christian Socialist.

The traffic light coalition wants to amend the outdated Postal Act. It was last fundamentally revised in 1999, a time when letters were much more important than in today's Internet age. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology will soon present key points for this, according to a response from the ministry to a parliamentary question from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. According to this, the ministry wants to prepare a first version of the draft law in the course of the year.

The Post has been criticized for some time for problems with deliveries: staffing levels were so thin in some places last year that letters arrived severely delayed or not at all. The number of complaints from consumers to the Federal Network Agency roughly tripled in 2022 compared with 2021. To increase the pressure on the Post, the regulator is calling for a sanction option against the Post, i.e. fines or penalty payments. This could be regulated in the amendment to the Postal Act.

FDP Member of Parliament Reinhard Houben is in favor of such a sanction option. In his view, the deficits in the branch network that have now become known are further evidence that the Bonn-based group is not fulfilling its obligations as a universal service provider. "The Post commits itself to certain things, but then repeatedly fails to keep to them," the liberal complains. "This leads to a loss of trust among the population - people feel they have been led astray."/wdw/DP/zb