Concretely, the emblematic red stamp of the “priority letter”, which allows a letter to be franked for delivery theoretically the next day (on D 1), will give way to a new hybrid formula, called e-Lettre rouge.
You will have to send a document, up to three sheets, before 8:00 p.m. on the laposte.fr site or from a post office, on an automaton or with the help of an adviser. The document will be printed near the addressee, put in an envelope and distributed the next day.
“In complete confidentiality”, assured AFP the boss of the Service-Mail-Parcels branch of La Poste, Philippe Dorge.
This “e-letter” service will cost 1.49 euros, compared to 1.43 euros for the current red stamp. This would be a world first, according to La Poste, which has seen traditional mail volumes collapse for several years.
“The volumes of D 1 have been divided by 14 since 2008”, with currently 300 million items out of the 7 billion letters sent in the year by La Poste, explains Mr. Dorge. This is starting to be expensive and to weigh on the environment since the group uses less and less full planes, trucks and vans.
Letters sent with a green stamp, the most used for daily mailings, will be distributed in three days instead of two today. Their price will remain unchanged, at 1.16 euros for shipments up to 20 grams.
This stamp will also be offered next year in digital form, with an eight-character alphanumeric code, sold online at the same price, which you just need to copy onto the envelope.
“Customers have other expectations today,” explains Philippe Dorge, whose services interviewed 22,000 customers. “There is less need for speed.”
For the most important shipments requiring traceability, La Poste will offer a “Lettre turquoise services plus” distributed on D 2, with follow-up notifications and flat-rate compensation in the event of a significant delay. It will be offered from 2.95 euros, depending on the weight.
As for shipments abroad, an “international letter” up to 20 grams will cost 1.80 euro (9%).
The prices of classic postal parcels sent to France (Colissimo) will increase in parallel by 2.4% on January 1, but the package of less than 250 grams will remain at the same price of 4.95 euros.
“The impact of the new letter pricing on household budgets will be low or even nil, given the drop in mail consumption,” indicates the public group.
