More than 20 years after the liberalisation of the Dutch postal sector, market forces have to be partly reversed in order to ensure services remain universal, PostNL CEO Herna Verhagen has told the Financieele Dagblad.

Verhagen is urging the government to allow more cooperation between companies. Otherwise, she warns, it will be difficult to maintain five-day postal deliveries as well as to maintain the national network of mail boxes and post offices.

The operation of the universal postal service is increasingly expensive because people and companies are sending less mail. Moreover, PostNL has been forced to give its rivals such as Sandd access to its network.

The economic affairs ministry has set up a special working party to look at the postal market. Postal companies, unions and other interest groups are all involved in the talks about the future of the postal sector which will take place over the next four months.

One issue on the table is that of jobs. At the end of last year, the postal companies were told they have to employ 80% of their delivery staff on proper contracts.