Bpost to add surcharge for end-of-year parcel deliveries

Belgium’s postal service Bpost has announced new price rises for parcels in the peak pre-Christmas period - and for stamps from the new year.

Customers will have to pay a surcharge of €1 per package sent between the very busy time of Black Friday (24 November) to Christmas, when there are significantly more parcels.

“Between Black Friday - and all the huge promotions on all the sites - and Christmas, there is indeed an increase of parcels and online orders,” a Bpost spokeswoman said.

She explained that all the extra logistics that were required to deal with the Christmas rush, including more deliveries and the need to employ temporary workers, is the reason for the higher costs. Bpost had already introduced this price rise last year, but only for businesses.

While the additional expense is being passed on to customers, Bpost hopes that as much as possible, people will send their parcels in quieter periods.

Meanwhile, from 1 January 2024, the price of a non-priority stamp will also increase, from €1.39 to €1.46 (€1.43 per stamp for a pack of 10). Priority stamps will now sell at €2.27 instead of €2.17 per piece (or €2.24 each if customers buy a sheet of 10 stamps).

The company added that if inflation increases more than expected, the 2024 stamp tariffs could rise further. The average price rise for all postage next year is currently set at 4.9%.

In 2024, it will also be more expensive to send parcels. But Bpost said that customers can pay less, for example, if they print out and pay for the delivery labels online and then send their packages via one of Bpost’s 3,000 collection posts.

The decision to up the prices was made to compensate not only the higher costs linked to inflation, but also the decreased volume of post outside of peak periods, Bpost said.

The postal service estimates that 30% fewer letters are sent now than in 2018, a figure explained in large part by the increase of e-mail and instant messaging.

“Even with this fall in the volume of post delivered in the last five years, Bpost still deals with some six million letters a day,” the Bpost spokeswoman added.