Introduction

PostNL operates in a highly regulated environment. This is, amongst other reasons, due to the fact that PostNL is designated as the provider of the universal service obligation (universal service provider, USP) in the Netherlands. PostNL is also a transport company and a labour-intensive company, both areas in which there are many rules and regulations at local, national, EU and international level. Politicians, public authorities, and other relevant stakeholders have a major impact on rules and regulations that affect our sector and our business.

Consequently, PostNL maintains contacts with policymakers and stakeholders on developments in the sector and the development and implementation of rules and regulations. We strongly believe that advocacy by stakeholders is crucial in the creation of qualitative and meaningful new rules and regulations that will benefit all stakeholders in society. PostNL is always available to share its sector-specific knowledge and market experiences.

As many regulatory issues do not only affect PostNL but also other companies in our sector or region, we work closely with different industry associations. These associations work on different issues of relevance to our sector from a different perspective (a list of associations and contributions can be found in the "GRI Content Index").

Within these associations, we not only develop common positions towards future regulation, but we also exchange knowledge and best practices, organise joint trainings, and create voluntary sectoral initiatives. These associations publish their strategic priorities and objectives, and we regularly check that their activities are in line with our business principles and ESG-priorities. We do not make any financial contributions to political parties or parties and politicians’ election campaigns. We are registered at the EU Transparency register and apply its code of conduct.

Our policy priorities are directly derived from our strategic objectives and are centered around sectoral postal legislation, the labour market, and sustainability. On all these issues, we inform policymakers of developments and changing expectations in the market and share challenges and obstacles we are faced with in our daily operations.

For postal regulation, we advocate a flexible regulatory framework that enables us to carry out our postal and parcel services in a future-proof way, taking into account changing consumer and client expectations, and changing markets due to digitalisation.

On social issues, we proactively inform policymakers and politicians on the concrete steps we take as a major employer to adapt to the expectations of (potential) employees in the labour market and emphasise the challenges we experience in recruiting, hiring and retaining people from different segments of the labour market.

In order to meet our ambitious sustainability goals, we need underlying supporting policy regulations and incentives. We therefore plea for sufficient capacity on the electricity network to build adequate charging infrastructure; making sufficient subsidies available for the introduction of sustainable vehicles, especially for smaller entrepreneurs; removing further boundaries for the deployment of smaller electric vehicles to deliver mail and parcels; and unambiguous sustainability frameworks and definitions in e-commerce and mail operations.