Above every driver who delivers parcels for PostNL is usually a subcontractor who does have a direct contract with PostNL. Many subcontractors started out as drivers themselves, but eventually manage a network of drivers. GVA delved into the PostNL file and the conclusion is staggering. “Such a pyramid system makes it very cluttered”, confirms Professor Gevaers also told the newspaper.

stay at home

Even if the parcel delivery person sometimes calls you when you are not at home, the parcel delivery person has driven to you for nothing. The package will then be taken to a collection point and the driver will not be paid for his services. According to Nina Bernaerts in her article in the Gazet van Antwerpen, this is already a first conclusion. If you are at home to receive your package, the delivery person earns at best one euro.

Parcel services have been under fire for some time because of their opaque working structure. A kind of pyramid, who is at the top earns the most. Whoever delivers the packages and is at the bottom of the ladder earns almost nothing. The fact that PostNL does not have an overview of this is therefore a thorn in the side of the court. That targets therefore now the directors and not the subcontractors.

Subcontractors were systematically found to be tied to strangulation contracts that were repeatedly renegotiated. The result is an enormously opaque network, which in turn also expands a network. Someone has to make money and someone has to deliver the packages. Read the full story of Bernaerts (GVA) here.

Also read: PostNL, a wake-up call for spoiled consumers