The public group will review the range of basic postal services on January 1, 2023, to save money and try to follow the evolution of uses, faced with the rise of electronic messaging and online payments instead of checks sent by mail.

For the boss of the Service-Mail-Parcels branch, Philippe Dorge, it is a question of “consolidating the future of mail” and “sustaining the universal postal service”, which notably guarantees delivery six days a week and affordable prices for the most common shipments.

Concretely, the red stamp of the “priority letter”, which allows a letter to be franked for delivery the next day (on D 1), will give way to a new hybrid formula, called e-Lettre rouge, dematerialized, for the shipment of really urgent shipments.

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”, assures Mr. Dorge to AFP.

This would be a world first, according to La Poste. This service will cost 1.49 euros, compared to 1.43 euros for the current red stamp.

“The volumes of J 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 (twice less than in 2013), 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.

“Customers have other expectations today,” insists the manager, whose services interviewed 22,000 customers. “There is less need for speed.”

– Ecopli passes away –

Another notable change on January 1, 2023: mail sent with a green stamp, the most used for daily mailings, will be slower, delivered on D 3 and no longer on D 2.

On the other hand, its 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.

As for the “Ecopli” – the cheapest formula, little used, for a shipment in about four days at currently 1.14 euros -, it will disappear.

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.

The “international letter” for shipments abroad will cost 1.80 euro up to 20 grams (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.

Each French household will spend an average of around 37 euros on postal products this year compared to 38 euros in 2021 and 45 euros in 2016, according to the public group.

“The impact of the new letter pricing on household budgets will be low or even nil, given the drop in mail consumption,” he specifies.

This development, validated by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (Arcep), aims to reduce the deficit of the universal postal service, a legal obligation which costs more than one billion euros. to the public group. The State must take 500 million to its charge.

La Poste also intends to reduce its CO2 emissions for mail transport by 25% by 2030 compared to the current situation, by filling its trucks better and no longer using planes in France (from next year). It should then carry 3 to 4 billion folds, according to Mr. Dorge.