(tb) As of December 31st, PostNord The mail delivery in Denmark has begun. This date is already known to most collectors. Many therefore asked what happens next. After all, Denmark has obligations under the Universal Postal Convention. Among other things, the government must ensure that letters arriving from abroad are delivered.
She succeeded in this. PostNord will also be responsible for contacts with postal companies in other countries next year. The company is establishing an international mail center that will receive letters and parcels from abroad. PostNord will deliver parcels itself, while the government has contracted a private provider, DAO, for letter delivery. The abbreviation stands for Danish Avis Omdeling, translates to Danish newspaper delivery. The company has existed in its current form since 2005 and is owned by leading media companies in the country. It also originated from traditional newspaper delivery. Like the mail services of German newspaper publishers, dao also entered the mail delivery market to serve another business area. In addition, dao operates in the parcel delivery sector.
From 2026, dao will not only deliver domestic mail but also mail arriving from abroad. There is currently no contractual agreement for mail from Denmark to other countries, but dao's spokesperson, Hans Peter Nordstrøm Nissen, stated that they expect international mail to be able to travel via the international mail center. It remains unclear whether dao will also process international reply coupons.
Dao has already issued stamps for its postal service. These were previously considered private postal issues. In the future, they will have the status of issues from private services operating on behalf of the state; for example, the private postal service of the Thurn and Taxis family was active in Hohenzollern, in various Ernestine principalities, as well as in Hamburg and Bremen.
The dao stamps issued for domestic mail cannot be used for international mail, as domestic mail in Denmark is exempt from VAT, while the postal service must pay VAT on international mail. For this reason, PostNord recently issued separate stamps for both types of mail. These stamps will expire on December 31st.
The MICHELThe editorial team is still discussing how to catalog the expenses of the private postal service operating on behalf of the state. On the International Stamp Exchange Ulm Therefore, a meeting took place with representatives of the Nordic Research Association.
She advocated for a new count starting from the MICHELNumber 1. The fact that there is no transition from PostNord to DAO, meaning mixed franking will not be possible, supports this argument. However, it should be noted that in other countries, state-owned postal services were completely privatized without interrupting the established order. In most cases, the only stipulation is that the former state postal service continues to provide international postal services in accordance with the Universal Postal Convention. Domestic services, meanwhile, are usually subject to competition. A major player is withdrawing from this competition at the end of the year.
Transparency note: The author of this message is a member of the Nordic Research Association.
