Post boxes disappearing around Munich

According to the newspaper 'Münchner Zentrum':

In order to save money, the Deutsche Post has started to get rid of some postboxes around Munich city centre (Maxvorstadt). Naturally lots of locals are miffed at these attempts to save a few euros, but Deutsche Post says that they have to do it for financial reasons.

The DP is, however, obliged by the 'Postuniversal - Dienstleistungsverordnung' (Universal Post Service Regulation) to provide a postbox within at least 1000 metres of village residents, or 300m of city residents.

Due to the fact that Deutsche Post will no longer have the absolute monopoly re. Mail, they in future will no longer feel responsible for covering basic service. See article Post stellt Grundversorgung in Frage

They already got rid of masses of postboxes about a couple of years ago, including all the ones that were convenient for me. Since then, I'm pretty sure there isn't one within 300m of where I live.

the nearest one to this office *is* around 300 M but I understand that is closing by which time we will have around about 700M to the next nearest on Arcisstrasse or two stops on the U-bahn (more convenient) to the Hauptbahnhof. To be honest the sheer hassle of using DP is likely to push us to just use UPS from now on and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of companies are now thinking the same way. DP are a shamnbolic disgrace of a postal service now only rivalled by the US post office in the lack of available postal offices.

I don't know about missing post boxes. I tried to go to the large PO in town last week (Marstallplatz if my memory serves me correctly) - it was closed ... the town centre PO is now on the top/North end of Sparkassenstrasse.

Is that the PO by the Opera? It's gone. Seems like they could do with some small storefront type shops instead of only having these rather large ones spread out too far.

They had a massive thinning out a couple of years ago and I think they are probably on the border of what is acceptabe under the regulatory regime.

I think access could be made more easy by putting post boxes in places like U bahn stations etc like the Sparkasse has started to do with ATMs.

Yes - the one by the Opera. Moved end of Aug. Still looks like a PO with post boxes outside, but no PO inside... just a couple of pieces of paper stuck to the door with the new address.

Im surprised they havnt gone the way of the australian postal system, where in small towns, post boxes dont exist, and the post shop itself is normally one counter in a florist or general shop.

That already happens in small towns in Germany and their "post offices" are now more like statinery retailers in many cases.

Collecting letters from post boxes and andrunning post offices costs a lot of money they can't / won't spend in an increasingly competitive market.

They've been doing that for a few years now. Ours was in the stationary shop first and has now moved on to the florist's.
Reminds me of Ireland.

Who really needs so many post boxes anyway? Its not like 10/15 years ago where people actually post things all the time. Most stuff is done by fax or email. If you need to send something, you most likely need to send a package now, and for that you need the post office anyway. Think of all the hassle it must be to check these thousands of post boxes each day. I say reduce costs and reduce mail boxes.

Not with all the other avail. (And sometimes cheaper) companies. AKA: Hermes,TNT,DPD,TransOFlex, Etc.

hahaa it's not only in small towns. my nearest post office in the suburbs of melb is a 4-in-1 shop...a tobacco shop, news agency, a lotto agent and a post office! talk about multi-tasking milkbar!

Well, to be fair, almost every newsagent in Australia has those functions by default.

ours is, or was (since moved) at the end of the street in a newshop. We also still have a box which is emptied 7 days a week.

The Spanish post office leaves a lot to be desired, ordering a new PC, well better be insured as the chances it will make it the first time through are pretty much nill. A friend ordered a PC and it made it all the way to the local depot where it disappeared, they had to wait a few weeks till the replacement was shipped.

i do ... this is germany where nothing can be done without your signature on the dotted line, it keeps the post office in business, as well as many other bureaucracies ... in many other countries, you can get away with conducting much official business over the phone or by email. not here. the only time i ever need a postbox is when i have to send some ridiculous document to some Behörde or other and that happens too frequently for my liking!!

To make way for a new Kaefer flagship store to rival Dallmayr.

This is apparently known as progress.