"Outrageous" and "crying to the heavens": Politicians demand the erasure of stamp price hikes

"Unacceptable' and 'crying to heaven': Politicians demand Dao stamp dealers be eliminated

Even though Dao already has a solution in the works, mayors want the minister involved in the matter of stamp retailers.

You can currently buy a postage stamp in about 10 percent of Dao’s parcel shops. (© DR Nyheder)

Kenneth Fredslund Petersen, the transport spokesperson for the Danish People’s Party, calls it "completely unacceptable."

- We keep overlooking the digitally excluded. Whether it’s a failure or just forgetfulness, it’s simply not good enough, he says.

He has now called Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen (V) to discuss the issue.

- In this country, we’ve chosen to consider post as critical infrastructure, and therefore we must ensure everyone is included. Dao needs to tighten up and solve this problem, otherwise we’ll have to take other measures, says Kenneth Fredslund Petersen.

By "other measures," Kenneth Fredslund Petersen means the now liberalized postal law should be reviewed and potentially amended to account for non-digital citizens, as the Elderly Affairs also demanded.

Currently, around 250,000 Danes are exempt from digital mail, and the Social Democrats (SF) also want a change in the law to better accommodate them.

- We’re not part of the postal agreement precisely because we could see that this liberalization would lead to a worse product for many people. And that’s what we’re seeing now, says SF’s transport spokesperson, Mads Olsen.

According to him, it’s "crying to heaven" that, for example, you can’t buy a postage stamp anywhere in Aalborg.

But the intention was to save money by liberalizing the postal law. How much should taxpayers pay to ensure a minority isn’t online?

- We digitized society to save a lot of money for the state and provide faster services, and so on. But I also think it’s reasonable to demand that some of the many savings from a digitized society be used to ensure those without internet access also have a decent way to communicate via mail.

- I don’t think that’s a particularly unreasonable request, says Mads Olsen.

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Half a year is too long to wait

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Dao has already promised that a solution is on its way, so that stamps can be purchased at all of Dao’s approximately 1,600 shops nationwide.

Hans Peter Nissen, CEO of Dao, hopes the new printing option will be available in all Dao shops within half a year.

But neither of the two transport spokespeople can wait that long.

Dao has just taken on this task. Don’t they need time to get it running?

- By February, they’ll have the stamps under control. We simply have to demand it strongly from them, says Kenneth Fredslund Petersen.

Mads Olsen agrees with this view.

- I don’t understand why Dao doesn’t just supply their retailers with a huge stack of stamps, and then they can call when they need to be refilled.

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