In a hearing before the Economic Affairs Committee of the Senate, Philippe Wahl, “assumes” to have replaced the red stamp with a “complicated” solution and he is already worried about the future of this service. “Either we will find 5,000 to 10,000 people a day who will use this service and we will continue to maintain it, or no one will want it,” he added, specifying that the service could be removed if necessary.
“In four years, there will be none left at all”
On January 1, 2023, La Poste ended the red stamp for urgent letters delivered the next day. It has been replaced by the e-letter, which allows documents of up to three sheets to be sent to the La Poste website or to a post office via an automatic machine. This e-letter is then printed, enveloped and distributed the next day, if it was sent before 8 p.m.
This service costs 1.49 euros against 1.43 euros for the red stamp.
“People like the red letter, (but) they no longer write it”, reacted Philippe Wahl, recalling that the number of priority letters has increased from 4.25 billion in 2008 to 380 million in 2021 and 275 million in 2022 , out of 7 billion letters sent in total per year today.
At this rate, the CEO of La Poste assures that “in four years, there will be none left at all”, recalling the savings of some 500 million euros which participate in “saving the public service”, and the positive impact on the carbon footprint of the discontinuation of this service.