Deutsche Post to reduce prices for formal delivery orders

Deutsche Post will significantly reduce its prices for transporting and delivering formal delivery orders. After the approval of the prices by the Federal Network Agency classic formal delivery orders will be available from next year for EUR3.45 instead of the previous EUR5.60. From 2007 the electronic option of formal delivery orders relevant for major customers will be offered from EUR2.51 depending upon the quantity.

"Our successfully improved processes and changes in the legal situation create new conditions which allow us to pass on the cost benefits directly to our customers. We hope our long-standing experience and our reliability, which is greatly required for this product in particular, will secure our position as Germany's market leader", explains Jürgen Gerdes, Chairman of the Mail Divisional Board at Deutsche Post.

Formal delivery orders are used for the formal delivery of official documents by courts and authorities in particular and must meet the requirements of the German Code of Civil Procedure. As a highly qualified form of delivery these mailings require top diligence and reliability in delivery, as transportation and receipt must be documented accurately and are legally effective. For senders of large quantities such as, for instance, central administrative fines offices, Deutsche Post offers electronic formal delivery orders.
This allows providing the details of the official certificate of delivery by the post electronically and it can thus be processed further at any time which significantly simplifies the customer's processes. The original documents are gathered and forwarded to the customer within a day.

The cost reductions we are now handing on to our customers have become possible because the process of manually verifying the official certificates of delivery has been increasingly replaced by automation. In addition, amendments to the German Code of Civil Procedure, which simplify formal delivery, allow cost saving as delivery to the recipient's mail box is now also regarded as a form of delivery.

This in turn reduces the number of deposits at Deutsche Post outlets, i.e. the number of official certificates of delivery the respective recipient him/herself has to collect at an outlet because he/she was not at home at the time of delivery. Ultimately the recipients of formal delivery orders will also profit from the low prices, as recipients of fines, for instance, are generally charged the cost of delivery by the issuing authority.
According to the market data of the Federal Network Agency, more than 63 million formal delivery orders were placed in Germany in 2005, more than 36 million of which with Deutsche Post.