Announcing an overhaul of its franking offer, the company also specified that the green letter would be distributed in three days instead of two.
The curtain falls on the famous red stamp. This Thursday, La Poste indicated in a press release that it is changing its mail range, from next January 1, in order to better meet the expectations of its customers and to “protect the environment more effectively“. This announcement is also part of a context of continuous decline in mail: households now only send five priority letters per year, compared to nine times more in 2010.
In concrete terms, four ranges will be offered at the start of 2023. The first consists of a “red e-letter», for urgent needs. This, which replaces the traditional red stamp, must be written on the laposte.fr website by the user until 8 p.m. the day before the date of distribution: it will be printed by La Poste “close to the recipient, respecting the confidentiality of the contentand then distributed the next day. The user can also write a handwritten letter and scan it to send it to the site, specifies the company at Figaroadding that it will takepotentially a certain qualityto make the scan readable.
The user can also consult his mail history on the site and use “sample letters to carry out administrative procedures“. If people need help, it will also be possible to send one of these e-letters from a post office, on a machine or with the help of an employee. These letters will cost slightly more than today, at 1.49 euros, against 1.43 euros currently. A “reasonable increase, which includes printing and putting in an envelope“, justifies the group.
There remains the question of the confidentiality of the letters, which will be sent by internet and printed then put in envelopes by La Poste. These operations will be carried outin specialized workshops, in the premises of La Poste“, by machines, we are reassured. The only people who will intervene in the operations will take care of the maintenance of the machines and will be sworn in: no one will be able to read the writings of the users, therefore.
Green letters distributed in three days instead of two today
At the same time, the green letter, which will be distributed in three days instead of the current two, remains unchanged. Its cost does not change either, at 1.16 euros. In addition, “customers will be able to choose to add, as today, a delivery tracking option at the price of 50 cents, to have a confirmation of the delivery of the envelope“says the company.
La Poste also creates a letter “turquoise services plus», for shipments that require traceability, such as checks or small items. Distributed in two days, it is connected and integrates “services such as receiving follow-up notifications, having the letter picked up from their personal mailbox by the postman and flat-rate compensation in the event of excessive delivery time“. More expensive, it will cost at least 2.95 euros, a price that may increase depending on the weight of the shipment.
Finally, the registered letter, intended for the most important shipments, remains valid. It will still be distributed in three days and will also see its price increase, to 4.83 euros, against 4.55 euros currently. Professionals under contract with La Poste will be able to benefit from “more economical adapted rates […] depending on the postage method and volumes“. La Poste also specifies that the prices of Colissimo will not change, fixed at 4.95 euros.
An impact «almost nil» on the household portfolio
With these changes – which are not a “disappearing red stamp“, but a simple evolution, it is insisted – the group hopes first to protect the environment, saving some “60,000 tonnes of CO2 per year», a reduction of a quarter of its emissions. The current situation was indeed untenable: “To deliver priority letters daily, La Poste crisscrosses France with around a hundred vans, which are very sparsely filled, like the Dijon-Rennes link, with a vehicle that travels 600 km each night for only 500 letters».
In addition, the group will be able to make savings on an offer that was becoming increasingly obsolete: these are “essential to maintain the universal postal service to which the French are very attached“, pleads La Poste. Finally, the company estimates that these changes will have no consequences for household budgets, with an impact “low or almost nil, given the drop in mail consumption […]. Each household spends an average of 37 euros per year on postal, courier and parcel shipments“, she describes, against 45 euros six years earlier.
The abolition of the red stamp in its current form had been discussed for several months: in February 2021, the group’s boss, Philippe Wahl, wondered about the usefulness of this product, “when we have everything we need as an urgent means of communication“. The health crisis has accelerated the drop in mail, pushing La Poste to adopt these major changes. Those nostalgic for the red stamp can always keep it preciously in a philatelist’s notebook…
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