Hotly contested when it was put into service, the dematerialized version of the red letter is struggling to convince users. To date, this mailing, which some call “paid e-mail”, is used only 3,500 times a day, the CEO of La Poste said on Wednesday, estimating 5,000 to 10,000 daily mailings necessary to sustain the service.
“Today, this red e-letter is used 3,500 times a day, that’s not a lot”, explained during a hearing before the Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee Philippe Wahl, who “assumes” to have replaced the 100% paper priority letter with a “complicated” solution. “Either we will find 5,000 to 10,000 people a day using this service and we will continue to maintain it, or no one will want it”, meaning that customers “don’t need it anymore and we will remove it”, a- he added.
La Poste put an end, on January 1, to the red stamp for urgent letters distributed the next day to replace it with a dematerialized version. It allows documents of up to three sheets to be sent to the laposte.fr site or to a post office, via an automaton or with the help of a postman, which will be printed near the recipient, put in an envelope and distributed. the next day if it was sent before 8 p.m.
“In four years, there will be none left at all”
The service, which costs 1.49 euros, compared to 1.43 euros for the old red stamp, has sometimes been described as “paid e-mail”. “People like the red letter, (but) they don’t write any more”, reacted Philippe Wahl to the emotions aroused by the announcement, recalling that the number of priority letters rose from 4.25 billion in 2008 to 380 million. in 2021 and 275 million in 2022, out of 7 billion letters sent in total per year today.
At this rate, “in four years, there will be none left at all”, he said, recalling the savings of some 500 million euros which contribute to “saving the public service”, and the positive impact on the carbon footprint of the discontinuation of this service. “Industrially, the red letter had to be removed” because “the needs were becoming so marginal”, explained Philippe Wahl. “I assume, and if I had to take the decision again, I would take it back. »
Having “considered” the pure and simple deletion, La Poste however preferred to propose the remote transmission solution, certainly “complicated” and “less satisfactory” but which will “perhaps prove useful”, continued the CEO. “I don’t know, it’s the users who will choose. »