The universal postal service includes collection and delivery services six days a week throughout France. It includes postal items weighing up to 2kg, parcels weighing up to 20kg and registered and insured items.
France has opted for an extended universal service that “contributes to social cohesion and balanced regional development” (Art. L.1 of the French Post and Electronic Communications Code).
This service is provided in accordance with the principles of equality, continuity and adaptability, and meets the quality standards set out in the French Post and Electronic Communications Code.
The aim is to guarantee all users an accessible and equal service throughout France.
This public service mission entrusted to La Poste is consolidated by the State's decision to contribute to its financing through an annual public subsidy.
Postal workers collect and deliver mail six days a week throughout France. La Poste also supports customers who wish to send their mail from a post office.
2 MILLION KM
COVERED BY POSTMEN AND WOMEN 6 DAYS A WEEK
i.e. 52 trips around the Earth
To meet the changing needs of its customers, ensure the long-term viability of the universal postal service and reduce its carbon footprint, La Poste has renewed its range of mail from 1 January 2023.
The new range maintains regional equality, with affordable and identical rates regardless of the distance travelled. It consolidates the delivery of letters, parcels and newspapers, 6 days a week.
Centred on green letters delivered within 3 working days with a high level of reliability, the mail range also includes solutions for large items (registered letters, Services Plus letters) available in post offices and from our partners, and for urgent items (red e-Letters) sent from a computer, a smartphone or from a postman in a post office for those who do not have access to digital technology.
By delivering 25.7 million letters and parcels to more than 42 million letterboxes every day, La Poste provides a service that makes a difference to the lives of the French people. It provides the connections that contribute to local life, everywhere in France. It listens to the expectations of the entire population, to develop a universal service that is in step with the times, innovative and makes life easier, to remain a key factor in social cohesion and regional development.
One example: to facilitate purchases between private individuals or on e-commerce platforms, La Poste offers, as part of its universal service, a service that allows parcels to be sent or returned from a personal letterbox.
Another example: to ensure the traceability of mail entrusted to it throughout its delivery, La Poste is gradually extending the use of a unique identifier in the form of a QR Code.
At national level, annual quality objectives are set for La Poste as universal service provider, by order of the minister in charge of postal services. These objectives, relating to the speed and reliability of services, focus in particular on the following services: green letters, registered letters, forwarding and Colissimo sent by private individuals.
At European level, service quality standards relating to the delivery time of mail have been defined for intra-Community cross-border mail.
In 2022, La Poste has ensured the continuity of its services, in particular its public service missions, and guaranteed our fellow citizens the presence and proximity of postal services to which they are particularly attached. Despite a challenging environment marked by climatic and health events that disrupted the normal operation of La Poste's business, the quality of service measured improved and reached high levels of achievement.
Thanks to the commitment of postal workers, the business continuity plans and the measures taken by the company, the continuity of La Poste throughout France was maintained and the quality of service provided by La Poste was maintained.