The physical building of the Dutch post office is a thing of the past. There are no official post offices in any Dutch city since October 2011, when the last post office closed in Utrecht, a major city south of Amsterdam. But that does not mean that there are no postal services.
From 2008 to 2011, traditional post offices were replaced by PostNL service points where customers can buy stamps, send letters and packages, and other typical postal services. These service points function like a normal post office, but are found in newsstands, tobacco shops, supermarkets and other stores.
PostNL
The Dutch mail service is managed by PostNL, formerly known as TNT (Thomas Nationwide Transport), based in The Hague, the Netherlands.
A big advantage of eliminating the physical post office model is that previously there were only 250 post offices in the entire country, but now there are 2,800 points of service. Stores that offer postal services are clearly marked with the PostNL symbol, and mailboxes are located throughout the country.
Every day, PostNL delivers more than 1.1 million articles to 200 countries. In addition to their global delivery services, they operate the largest mail and parcel distribution network in the Benelux region (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg). Ninety-seven percent of all items shipped to Western Europe are delivered within three days.
Postage and mail
Postage is calculated based on the weight of the item and is calculated in euros per ounce. To avoid unnecessary delays, postmarked mail will always be delivered at home and abroad. The postal service will charge an additional service fee to the sender. If the sender is unknown, the costs will be recovered from the recipient. At any time, the recipient can reject the postage-poor mail.
You can use stamps to ship your packages quickly and easily. With standard stamps, you get two delivery attempts, online tracking, delivery to a neighbor (if the recipient is not at home), and the recipient can pick up the package at a nearby service point for up to three weeks.
Delivery restrictions
Some items, such as magnets and cigarettes, cannot be mailed. Those items include explosives (ammunition, fireworks), compressed gas (lighters, deodorant canisters), flammable liquids (gasoline), flammable solids (matches), oxidizing agents (bleach, adhesives), toxic or infectious substances (pesticides, viruses) , radioactive materials (radioactive medical supplies), corrosive materials (mercury, battery acid) or other dangerous substances (narcotics).
History of the Dutch postal service
In 1799, the mail service was nationalized. In practice, postal traffic was concentrated in the Netherlands, as connections with the rest of the Netherlands and the country were still quite limited. In the field, mail was delivered mainly through private channels.
In 1993, the post offices were privatized. Until 2002, the post office was known as the PTT Post. The name changed to TNT until 2011 when it changed to PostNL.
The concept of service points was not unusual for Dutch residents. The first sub-post office was founded in 1926. A sub-post office functioned as a service point. It was an independent store where a range of postal services were provided on a special desk.
