‘Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark'

‘Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark’
By Bob Levi
NAPS Director of Legislative & Political Affairs

In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Act 1, Scene IV, Marcellus, a Danish guard, proclaimed something was rotten in Denmark. I doubt very much he was talking about the Danish postal service — but I am. On Dec. 30, 2025, after four centuries — that’s about 150 years older than our United States postal system — Denmark’s postal operation ceased accepting, transporting and delivering letter mail and periodicals.

PostNord Denmark, the government-owned postal corporation, began dismantling letter operations six months ago by removing its iconic red and yellow mail collection boxes from cities such as Copenhagen. In defending the action, the Danish postal operator’s chief executive officer declared, “The market for letters is no longer profitable.”

A private company has replaced PostNord in carrying letter mail, charging 23 Danish kroner, the equivalent of $3.63, to carry a single letter. For this high price, a letter can take up to five days to reach its domestic destination in a country the size of Massachusetts.

Yes, this is the homeland of fairy-tale author Hans Christian Andersen who also wrote countless, published letters recounting his travels, thoughts, struggles and loves. He also wrote a short fairy tale entitled, “Twelve by the Mail,” which involved 12 mysterious passengers on a mail coach, each representing a month of the year.

NAPS and other U.S. postal stakeholders that value a universal, affordable and accessible postal system are alert to any attempt to replicate failed foreign postal experiments on American soil. For this reason, NAPS is prepared for 2026 — a year that already is presenting threats to the USPS and its products and services that our fellow citizens deserve, expect and on which they depend.

As you recall, last year, NAPS, in cooperation with several postal unions, led the way in repelling many postal perils, including attempts to undermine postal independence, governance and mission. These threats — whether legislative, regulatory or administrative — have returned with increased intensity.

NAPS agrees with many postal academics, policymakers, legislators, postal unions, members of the postal community and the Postal Service itself that it’s crucial that the agency’s operating model adapt to enhanced parcel competition, the cratering volume of letter mail and the mounting number of delivery points. However, we cannot permit these challenges to negate the postal mission.

Current proposals to allow the Postal Service to invest its Retirement Health Trust Fund in conservatively managed, nongovernment securities (rather than be shackled to low-yield U.S. Treasury Bonds), use a fair method to calculate postal retirement liabilities and increase its credit limit will provide temporary financial relief and increase the agency’s ability to update its infrastructure. These proposals will not solve the agency’s underlying problems and ongoing predicament, but they represent the beginning of potential solutions.

In December 2025, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted the challenges confronting the Postal Service in a new report entitled, “U.S. Postal Service: Action Needed to Fix Unsustainable Business Model.” In part, Congress’ independent watchdog agency called on the Postal Service “to develop publicly available financial projections of revenue and expenses.”

In recent years, the Postal Service has been reluctant to share this data because the agency has argued such information can be unreliable and would contribute to misperception about its ongoing initiatives. Additionally, the GAO urged Congress to determine the “level of postal service the nation requires, the extent to which the USPS should be self-sustaining and a sustainable path for retiree health benefits.”

About the same time the GAO released its report, House Government Operations Subcommittee Chair Pete Sessions (R-TX) convened a closed-door subcommittee “roundtable” with Postmaster General David Steiner to discuss the status of postal operations and finances. After the confab, Sessions advised NAPS that he envisions a public hearing with Steiner early this year.

At this congressional huddle, it is unclear to what degree Steiner communicated his plans to initiate “postal auctions” for mailer access to delivery destination units (DDUs) to boost last-mile deliveries. Also, how this proposal differs from past incentives to drop mail at DDUs, how it impacts the entire postal network and how it is intended to influence Amazon’s behavior regarding its own emerging delivery network.

The other major USPS initiative involves a proposal before the Postal Regulatory Commission that seeks to deregulate a major part of its rate-setting process by expanding its authority to raise postage beyond the established inflation-based system. There will be a lot to chew on at the anticipated congressional hearing as the Postal Service proceeds with its initiatives to address its sad finances.

Fundamental to many postal questions are the nature of the agency’s universal service obligation and the integrity of its national logistics network. An area of primary concern to many is the elevated attention in the for-profit sector and certain members of Congress to privatize distinct operations performed by the currently integrated postal network.

For example, as mentioned in previous columns, at a June House Government Operations Subcommittee hearing, support was voiced for a private-sector-type spinoff of mail processing. Private-sector freight companies are seeking to reclaim mail transport between mail processing plants.

Although contract postal units have waned over the past decade, there could be a resurgence of contracting-out retail operations. To illustrate this effort, a representative of the USPS Office of Inspector General explored the evolution of the post office network and future possibilities during a fall episode of NAPS Chat.

Finally, Amazon is pressing ahead with last-mile deliveries — even in rural areas — and has the potential to open its emerging delivery enterprise to parcel shippers that could pose a threat to the USPS network. Many postal analysts believe Steiner’s plan to auction DDU access to mailers, large and small, is in response to Amazon’s last-mile delivery effort.

Consumer confidence in the Postal Service could be further compromised by continued problems with timely deliveries, especially as suffered in rural America. Moreover, the recent change regarding “postmarks” could bode ill for postal reliability and accountability.

For about seven decades, government agencies, utilities and financial institutions have trusted the postmark as evidence of the date on which the USPS accepted custody of mail. A new USPS regulation that went into effect on Dec. 24 “clarified” that the postmark now represents merely the date on which the letter was first processed by a USPS sorting device.

This postmark could be days after the letter was deposited in a mail collection box or rural mailbox. (Postal customers still may request a manual postmark at their local post office.) The postmark change could lead to penalties being imposed on Americans by financial institutions and government agencies (e.g., the IRS). Also, the change could negatively affect the acceptance and popularity of mailed election ballots.

Indeed, Congress, postal regulators and the American people need to decide what they want from our Postal Service, how much they are willing to pay for it and whether the agency actually should be self-sufficient or request Congress to provide the resources necessary to sustain its universal service obligation.

Hopefully, years from now, a Hamlet-like legislator will not hold a battered old mailbox and utter the words, “Alas, poor USPS! I knew it, America.”