Post Danmark has launched a new service called the Quickbrev that will replace the recently cancelled A-breve first class letter. The Quickbrev will be for next day delivery of letters. The A-breve was cancelled just a few weeks ago.

Quickbrev is not a simple replacement of the A-breve. Unlike the A-breve letters must be sent from Post Offices, and will cost 27kr per letter as against the A-breve’s 19kr per letter. Once more, the Quickbrev is deemed to fall outside the Universal Service Obligation so will be subject to VAT, and ordinary stamps cannot be used for the service.

In the postal operator’s announcement of the new service, Post Danmark said that the cost of the B-breve letter will remain at 8kr per stamp and this will now be the standard ordinary service in Denmark. Post Danmark also said that ordinary letters will only now be delivered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Quickbrev however will be delivered six days a week from Monday to Saturday.

As postal operators get to grips with the rapidly plummeting mail volumes, so different countries postal services are coming to different conclusions as to how to reduce costs yet still provide a service. Where in the UK, Royal Mail is using advertising mail to increase its volumes, Canada Post started a process of ‘community mailboxes’ to get around their mail delivery staff having to trek between addresses. Post Danmark has reduced its delivery service significantly, while others are expanding outside of mail delivery businesses into other fields altogether. The face of postal delivery is changing quickly and only time will tell what it looks like in a few years.