PostNord

PostNord offers communications and logistics solutions to, from and within the Nordic region. With expertise and a unique distribution network, PostNord is developing the basis for future communication, e-commerce, distribution and logistics.

History

Post farmers and mail carriers

Christian IV’s “Forordning om Post-Budde” (Mail Carrier Decree) was enacted in December 1624. Nine Danish postal routes were established, of which the route to Hamburg was the most important. Twelve years later the Swedish council of state approved the ”Förordning om Postbådhen” (Mail Carrier Ordinance). This was the beginning of formal postal services in both countries.

In Sweden, a system of post farmers was established. The designated farmers were located 20 to 30 kilometres from one another along the postal routes. Farmhands were required to be prepared to “carry mail items by night and day”, at a rate not exceeding two hours per 10 kilometres. The rate was changed in 1682 to a maximum of one hour and 15 minutes per 10 kilometres if road conditions were good. From 1694 Danish mail carriers were allowed a maximum of 45 minutes per 10 kilometres, but they had horses to ride.

Into the 20th century, mail carriers and rural postmen on local routes transported the post on foot. But post was transported by coach between Copenhagen and Hamburg beginning in 1624, and a 1646 Swedish ordinance stipulated that horses must always be provided on the Stockholm – Halmstad route. Before postal service in Sweden took shape, the governor of the Stockholm – Markaryd route was required to make two post horses available for each 30 kilometres. Letters, parcels and even passengers could be transported with horse and carriage, though this took more time than the mounted postmen carrying only letters.

Around the year 1800, the Danish postal service purchased its first mail coach. Sweden’s less successful attempt with mail coach service was well underway by 1831. These mail coaches also carried passengers and continued to operate in Denmark into the 20th century. The horse-drawn mail coach disappeared from Sweden in 1888.

In 1894, Danish rural postmen were granted permission to use bicycles. Bicycles were also used in Sweden during the late 1800s, though without formal permission to do so in most cases. Records from around 1910 show that some routes were serviced with velocipedes (bicycles) during the summer.

Today, 60-70 per cent of letters in Denmark are delivered by cycling mail carriers. This means that Danish mail carriers cycle a total of 15 million kilometres per year.

Cross border mail service

Sweden established a permanent post office in Hamburg in 1620. Dutchman Leonard van Sorgen was assigned the task of arranging postal service from Sweden to Hamburg.

He pointed out at an early stage that the Swedish king should obtain permission from the Danish king to transport post through Denmark. However, Gustav II Adolf of Sweden was of the opinion that the agreement made in 1580 (allowing the kings’ messengers and subjects freedom of movement in each other’s countries) was sufficient and that no new agreement was required. Christian IV of Denmark was displeased that the issue was not taken up at the highest level, and Swedish mail carriers encountered problems transporting mail through Denmark. This induced Anders Svensson, who had taken over postal service responsibility, to send his servant “in such a way that not many travel”, by which means he managed to deliver a letter to Markaryd, then located on the Danish border.

Conflicts during the entire 17th century

Swedish postal service was in conflict with Danish authorities during the entire 17th century and well into the 18th century. War made way for peace and an agreement on free passage, which was later revoked as new wars broke out. Sweden tried other routes such as sending mail north, around Bottenviken and then down through Finland – extremely time-consuming. Mail was also sent by boat to Germany and Holland for forwarding.

In the late 17th century, Sweden stopped the Danish post from travelling to Norway through the Swedish region of Halland. The Danes sent and received mail by boat between Fladstrand and Norway, though ice was often an obstacle during the winter months.

Postal peace 1735

In 1735, postal peace was attained through an agreement granting Sweden and Denmark reciprocal rights to transport their post through each other’s countries. Denmark and Norway were separated in 1814, after which there was no need for Danish postmen to travel through Sweden. In an agreement signed the same year, the Danish postal service received payment to assume the duty of transporting Swedish post through Denmark – a solution that is used to regulate mail delivery in all European countries today.

Stamps

Flat-rate postage introduced 1851

Flat-rate postage and stamps were introduced in Denmark in 1851. The postage rate for a letter weighing less than a certain amount was 6 Riksbanksskilling (Rbs), but only 4 Rbs if stamped. Information about the new system was published in one of Copenhagen’s newspapers and instructions on how to use stamps were printed up and available for purchase at large post offices. Stamps were to be affixed in the upper right corner of the address field – if placed elsewhere, letters were deemed unpaid and additional payment was required.

Sweden “average postal rate” in 1855

The Swedish postal board discussed the idea for a few years, but after persistent motions from different quarters the Parliament introduced an “average postal rate” of 4 skilling in 1855. The sale of stamps began during the same year – drawn, engraved and printed by Count Pehr Ambjörn Sparre. The stamps were perforated so that cutting them apart was unnecessary, and available in five colours.

After a somewhat slow start, stamps quickly gained popularity. The exact date when people began to collect stamps cannot be pinpointed – but it had quickly developed into philately, involving large sums of money and millions of collectors.

Railways

The Danish postal service was quick to exploit the innovation of sending post by train. The first Danish railway line between Altona and Kiel opened in 1844.

Posten provided special carriages with a supervising postman. ”Rolling post offices”, with on-board mail sorting, were introduced in 1856. The last rolling post office was use until 1997.

The first railway 1856

The first railway lines in Sweden opened in 1856. Mail in letterboxes was sent via these lines at an early stage, though the Swedish postal board remained more doubtful than their Danish counterpart about the benefits of rail transport, mainly due to the expense involved. But using Denmark as a model, “postman compartments” were introduced on the Stockholm - Gothenburg line.

The number of these compartments increased steadily through the 1910s and then began to decrease, due primarily to the closure of smaller railway lines and the transportation of post by road.

All Swedish second-class mail has been sent by rail since 2001, for reasons that include environmental considerations.

By water

Initially, the many islands comprising the country of Denmark made it difficult to establish a reliable postal service to all areas.

Some of the many ferry lines operated regularly, others sporadically. By the late 18th century, the Danish postal service basically had full control over all ferry lines. By the mid-19th century, all Danish vessels were required to transport post free-of-charge if requested to do so by postal authorities.

The route over Stora Bält (Great Belt) was of particular importance to the infrastructure. The first steamboat travelled this route in 1808 and by the mid-1800s mail was being sorted on-board the steamboats.

Sweden was also early to use its waterways (e.g. Lake Mälaren) for domestic post. However, steamboats were not used until the 1840s and the first steamboat sub post offices were introduced in 1869. Steam allowed transports to be made more quickly and more often, and many private initiatives were taken to further increase transport frequency.

Today, a great deal of Swedish mail is transported by boat – in the Swedish archipelago, for instance. In Denmark the amount of post transported via water is slowly increasing, for reasons that include avoiding air transport for shorter distances.

Automobiles

The New York Times reported in the summer of 1904 on a commission dispatched by the Danish government in Europe to investigate the usefulness of the automobile for short postal transports.

The commission found that the best way to achieve the goal of rapid delivery was with the help of automobiles. The commission also stipulated specific, stringent requirements for any cars to be purchased and tested in postal service. The newspaper expressed its hope that these would be American cars. The outcome of the commission’s journey is lost to history – what is known is that post was delivered by car in Copenhagen in 1908.

The Post Office in Stockholm first tested an automobile – a 6 horsepower car manufactured in Eskilstuna that travelled 15 km/h – in 1903. This experiment had no real successors. In 1905, local Swedish entrepreneurs started delivering mail by car on a trial basis. Weather, wind and the bad roads of the day presented obstacles for the advance of the automobile. It wasn’t made easier by a 1907 law stipulating that cars may not travel faster than 25 km/h during daylight hours and 10 km/h in the dark – rendering automobiles little faster than horse-drawn vehicles.

Automobiles (a truck and a delivery van) were first purchased for use by the Swedish Post Office in Gothenburg in 1911. Various types of automobiles were tested: in 1910, a number of electric automobiles were used in Copenhagen to deliver mail. Electric cars were also tested in Stockholm but were considered too heavy due to their batteries and did not have a large enough range.

Despite its somewhat slow start, the car as we know it took over an increasing amount of postal traffic. In 1921 the Swedish Post Office reported that cars were used on 96 routes; by 1925 this number had risen to 540.

Today’s mail-vans are energy-efficient, and drivers are trained in fuel-efficient, safe driving techniques.

By air

The Danes tried to use small, unmanned balloons to send messages to occupied Själland as far back as the early 19th century but, since the balloons could only fly in one direction (i.e. with the wind), the attempt was limited. The same sort of balloons were also used during Denmark’s war with Sweden around 1808-09 to send propaganda across the channel.

The first official Danish airmail service – this time with an airplane – was made in 1919, and the first scheduled Swedish airmail service opened in 1920. Sweden also experimented with airborne travelling post offices, but the costs for attendant postmen were too high and the experiment was discontinued.

Airmail service had truly taken off by the 1930s. Today, it constitutes a major portion of postal service around the world. Due to the environmental impact of air transport, an increasing amount of letter and parcel volumes has been transferred to other transport solutions, primarily rail.

New times

In this era of globalization, there is a growing need for cross-border communication and logistics. Regions rather than countries are important to doing business.

To meet these new challenges, the merger of Post Danmark A/S and Posten AB took place on June 24, 2009. As of May 2011, the Group is called PostNord AB.

For the first time, two national postal companies have formed a joint Group.

Organization

The Group's division into segments is primarily based on the companies' geographical domicile, plus the segments PostNord Strålfors, PostNord TPL and PostNord International, which are controlled and coordinated according to the nature of their operations.

Branch Name	Service Area	Services Provided
PostNord Sweden	Sweden	Postal Service
PostNord Denmark	Denmark	Postal Service
PostNord Norway	Norway	Logistics, E-commerence
PostNord Finland	Finland	Logistics, E-commerence
PostNord Strålfors	Nordic Region	Digital Service
PostNord TPL	Nordic Region	Logistics, Storage Management
PostNord International	Global	E-commerence

Disputes

PostNord Denmark suspending the delivery of letters

According to an announcement made by PostNord in March 6, 2025. The postal service provider will suspend letter service in the nation of Denmark.

As the number of letters in Denmark has decreased by 90% since 2000, and by more than 30% in 2024 compared with the year before. The agency blamed an increasingly digital atmosphere in Denmark and worldwide, and 2024 Danish legislation that drove the cost of postage up.

In the year of 2026, the heart of PostNord’s business will be parcel delivery.

PostNord claimed that for those who need to send basic letters (Letters, Business Letters, Direct Mail and Magazine Mail), it must be handed in to them by 18 December 2025. The last day to hand in Quick Letters, Registered Letters, Letters with Return Receipt and Postal Services is 29 December 2025. They will deliver the last letters on December 30 2025.

They've made sure that all postal labels purchased in 2024 - or to be purchased in 2025 - can be refunded for a limited time in 2026 if customer don't use them in 2025.

On 1 June 2025, PostNord will begin removing the 1,500 mailboxes that are currently located around the country. Mailboxes are expected to be removed no later than 31 December 2025. The mailboxes that have not been removed can still be used. It will be marked on each mailbox well in advance when it will be removed.

For international letters, PostNord Denmark has been appointed by the Ministry of Transport to handle international mail until 31 December 2025. It will be up to the Ministry of Transport of Denmark to decide, for example through a tender, who will handle the task in the future.  

Key dates of the event are listed below:

June 1 – December 31: Mailboxes will be continuously removed during this period

December 18: Last day to hand in basic letters (Letters, Business Letters, Direct Mail and Magazine Mail)

December 18: Last day of sale for postal labels

December 29: Last day to hand in Quick Letters, Registered Letters, Letters with Return Receipt and Postal Services with PostNord in Denmark

December 30: PostNord delivers its last letters