Why are more than a million letters delayed in post in France - and where?
One Connexion reader told us Christmas cards sent in early December have only just arrived
Letters have been piling up at depots across the country
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At least 1.2 million letters in France have been delayed in the La Poste postal system over the past few weeks, with around a dozen departments particularly affected.
In some departments, the delays are of just a few days. In others, including Gironde, letters are weeks and months behind.
One woman, Françoise, who lives in Gujan-Mestras in Gironde, told RMC-BFMTV that she had been sent a telephone bill to pay on December 10, 2024, but the letter has still not arrived. “And now they've cut off our phone,” she said.
Her mail is probably stuck at the Cestas postal hub in the department, which has weeks of backlog.
Postal worker strike
Employees at the La Poste sorting centre in Gironde are on strike today (Thursday, January 23) to protest against what they say are poor working conditions and a major lack of resources.
Willy Dhellemmes, representative at the Sud PTT Gironde trade union, said: “The current situation is a delay of around a million letters, up to a month and a half. I don't think I've ever experienced a situation like this before.”
Which areas are most affected?
Departments and areas most affected include:
Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur)
Alpes-Maritimes (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur)
Calvados (Normandy)
Gironde (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Landes (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Marne (Grand Est)
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Vaucluse (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur)
Similarly, in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany), Arnaud Bordier, the department’s Sud PTT representative, said there were more than 200 containers of unprocessed mail in the depot, including letters addressed to ‘Father Christmas’.
One Connexion reader, in Morbihan (Brittany) told us via email that “Christmas 2024 was a disaster” because “many cards sent on December 3, from France to the UK, arrived very late”.
“My granddaughters received their Christmas cards on January 15… and from the UK to France, it was the same story: very late deliveries,” she said.
Why the delays?
Mr Bordier at the Sud PTT said the issues have been primarily caused by “a lack of investment by La Poste”.
"They have total contempt for a whole section of the population,” he said. “Sorting centres have closed, La Poste has got rid of a lot of jobs... and what has happened is that we no longer have the resources to process and deliver mail.”
La Poste has cut nearly 20,000 mail service jobs in the past four years.
However, in its defence, La Poste says it re-recruited 5,400 people in 2024, with the effects of these new staff members still filtering through.
Read also: Hospital flu admissions on rise in France: Is it too late to get vaccinated?
It said the delay had been exacerbated by staff absences caused by the winter flu epidemic, and by problems with postal addresses (such as people putting the wrong addresses on letters).
