7 ms·

Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters

74 points by sixhobbits 2y ago

bell-cot 2y ago
Ungood. Whatever you think about the economics of letter delivery, or the advantages of all-digital - a good, old-fashioned postal service is an important part of a nation's social and trust networks.
- janmarsal 2y ago
  Just put the letter in a box and send the box.
- mrweasel 2y ago
  > postal service is an important part of a nation's social and trust networks We're not using it for anything, so I'm not really sure how it contributes. Plus PostNord (the Danish postal service) doesn't have the best of reputations, though that is dependent on where in the country you're located.
- hoppp 2y ago
  Denmark is very advanced in digital service adoption. They are an almost cashless society. The mail infrastructure should be cherished I agree but if there is no demand, there is no reason to operate other than a novelty
Svip 2y ago
Denmark is a member of the Universal Postal Union, which requires each member to deliver letters received from abroad. It's unclear who will now have that responsibility. When the new postal act went into effect last year, it opened up the market for domestic letter deliveries, but PostNord was still responsible for foreign (both in- and outbound) deliveries. Edit: Found a note on their website: > You can send letters to and from abroad with PostNord for the rest of the year. PostNord Denmark has been appointed by the Ministry of Transport to handle international mail until 31 December 2025. After that, it will be up to the Ministry of Transport to decide, e.g. through a tender, who will handle the task in the future.
- vinni2 2y ago
  I don’t know about Denmark but in Norway there is a discussion to pick up letters from designated supermarkets from where packages are already picked up.
- riggsdk 2y ago
  According to TV2 Denmark, DAO (who distributed news papers and parcels) has made a bid to take over: https://nyheder.tv2.dk/business/2025-03-06-slut-med-postnord-saadan-kan-du-sende-breve-fremover https://nyheder.tv2.dk/business/2025-03-06-slut-med-postnord...
- jorvi 2y ago
  In The Netherlands the traditional postal had switched to every-other-day delivery for non-critical mail, and 09:00 postbox pickup instead of 17:00. It might feel a bit awkward for people who are used to everyday delivery, but with the low volume of mail something has to give. Either € per letter rises, or letter per € drops.
  - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
    I'd rather they subsidized it and bring back fulltime employment. It went from a uniformed government job to a part-time bring-your-own-bike "gig" job. But I believe that if you hire full-time staff that can work with a bit more flexibility - wider area for delivery, picking up mail as well, that kinda thing - instead of min/maxing it they can keep up if not improve the quality of work.
  - mrweasel 2y ago
    PostNord already did this in Denmark, to the extreme, which render their services pretty useless. Letters will frequently take up to 10 days to arrive. A previously employer resorted to ask staff to take mail with them as they traveled between locations and drop of letters to clients when they either visited or drove past anyway. Some government services didn't take the hint and mailed papers for signing, asking for them to be mailed back within 14 days, but if the letters doesn't arrive until 10 days later, how are you suppose to have it returned within 14? Danes don't send much mail anyway, but the reduction of service just made everything worse. You can barely rely on PostNord for Christmas cards without posting them before December. Their package delivery service is excellent though, but only in certain parts of the country.
dsnr 2y ago
Please do this in Germany. Good luck.
jnsaff2 2y ago
You had one job.
afandian 2y ago
The general decline in paper copies of official documents is scary. The recent Conservative UK government put in place the "hostile environment" policy (official name!) and expelled and denied rights to people who had lived here for years, and had the right to. People were asked for documents going back years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal If your government suddenly asked for your electronic payslips from a job 10 or 20 years ago, could you provide them? Does everyone print them out or store them in secure electronic storage?
- smallerfish 2y ago
  > If your government suddenly asked for your electronic payslips from a job 10 or 20 years ago, could you provide them? "electronic" isn't necessary for this question. Most people do not keep paper copies of their payslips going back 10 or 20 years either.
  - the__alchemist 2y ago
    They're next to my receipt filing-cabinet.
    - xattt 2y ago
      Some form of Paperless-NGX setup is also an option :)
  - afandian 2y ago
    If payslips are paper, people at least have a fighting chance of retaining them. I have payslips from when I was a teenager. Not because I kept them, because I never threw them away. Electronic documents, however, need deliberate attention to keep.
    - smallerfish 2y ago
      I purge paper after a year or two at most, and keep very limited important stuff digitally (I have my tax returns going back 5-10 years.) I really don't think many people keep substantial amounts of paper records. The government policy cited upthread was clearly a scandal; most UK citizens would be unable to satisfy the same standard of proof, if that was in fact the test.
beardyw 2y ago
In the UK we regularly get small packages delivered by the postman which would otherwise need a trip by a delivery company.
- woleium 2y ago
  are you sure that they are not just doing the last mile? Many packages are delivered to the local sorting office y alternative courier
  - 369548684892826 2y ago
    Either way, delivery driver trips have been reduced
- Mashimo 2y ago
  If I understood it correctly, PostNord will still deliver packages in Denmark.
fnordian_slip 2y ago
Well, back to /r/fountainpenpals in order to send more letters, so that this doesn't happen in my country. I love letters and postcards, but I've become lazy recently. While I'm not luddite, there is something special in sending and receiving a handwritten letters, even if the handwriting is as poor as mine. And it gives you an excuse to spend time with high quality writing implements and the opportunity to share something unique. The texture of proper paper is just so radically different from standard printer paper [0]. Btw. if anyone else is similarly inclined to get back into writing letters, I can recommend letterlocking [1]. Even though it's a bit of a gamble if the seal makes it through the post unharmed (I sometimes cheat and send the letter inside an extra envelope), the recipients are usually delighted, and that's what counts. [0]: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/forum/36-paper-and-pen-paraphernalia/ https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/forum/36-paper-and-... [1]: https://youtu.be/KMsuFaMoT28 https://youtu.be/KMsuFaMoT28
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jfengel 2y ago
Do Danes send Christmas cards?
- jacobgorm 2y ago
  No, we use email instead, as postage is already too expensive. Paper mail is only used for formal stuff like wedding invitations.
- Mashimo 2y ago
  It's not widespread, but I have heard about it.
ghssds 2y ago
To operate a postal service, we need, as a strict minimum: - A workforce with a pulse. To operate a digital network, we need, as a strict minimum: - A constant supply of electricity; - Lot of complex tools built far away from lot of exotic material from all around the world; - A workforce with lot of education and specialization. We're making our civilization brittle and call that progress.
- loloquwowndueo 2y ago
  There’s even a movie: the Postman :) (everybody hated that movie)
  - ReptileMan 2y ago
    There is even better one - Postal Probably the only really good Uwe Boll movie.
- GranularRecipe 2y ago
  That's the trade-off between efficiency and resilience. Another example are the egg prices in US. The industrialisation of agriculture made it more brittle.
- 7952 2y ago
  And that simple approach can be ridiculously scalable. Look at how mailing/parcels/printing could scale up during covid. Mail can put a document in the hands of tens of millions quickly.
  - Mashimo 2y ago
    What happened during covid with the postal system? More people ordering online?
    - Freak_NL 2y ago
      Did you completely miss that part? Ordering stuff from the internet went through the roof and the effect on physical shops is being felt even now with bankruptcies often being traced back to the bad years of the lockdowns.
m00dy 2y ago
Alright, folks, I lived in Denmark for quite a while, so let me be straight with you. It’s probably the best country to live in Europe definitely a step above Germany and its Nordic neighbors. Now, when it comes to street drugs, the quality isn’t great. I know some people who prefer ordering from the darknet and having it shipped straight to their mailbox. Since most transactions are done with Monero, the legal system can’t do much even if a package is intercepted. They can’t prove the payment. So, there’s a loophole in the system. If your package gets seized, it usually doesn’t lead to serious consequences. That said, authorities recently introduced special X-ray scanners for mail. They see what’s happening, but it looks like a lot of darknet orders are still slipping through.
unixhero 2y ago
Huh? The Danish postal office is not named PostNord, that is a private for profit company. Sidenote: Having lived in Denmark, dealing with Posten and receiving packages was not a positive experience. I was taxed 100 euro on my used shoes being sent me from another country for importing goods.
- rafram 2y ago
  Posten is owned by PostNord, which is owned by the Danish and Swedish governments.
- ergl 2y ago
  Wikipedia says that PostNord is the resulting company of merging Post Danmark and PostNord Sverige, the former being the national provider for mail in Denmark after it got privatized.
zoobab 2y ago
What about old people who can't master computers?
- Mashimo 2y ago
  They have to use another carrier. I'm actually not sure if you still can get government communication in paper form, in Denmark. Edit: Ah, yes you can get an exemption from digital post: https://www.borger.dk/hjaelp-og-vejledning/hvad-har-du-brug-for-hjaelp-til/digital-post/fritagelse-fra-digital-post https://www.borger.dk/hjaelp-og-vejledning/hvad-har-du-brug-...
  - zoobab 2y ago
    Other countries like Switzerland are thinking at passing laws to protect people from this mandatory use of computers (e-government). Let me find the reference.
  - eesmith 2y ago
    One allowed exemption is: "I have practical difficulties in acquiring MitID, which gives access to Digital Post" (via Firefox translate). MitID is Denmark's digital ID system. It is only supported on proprietary US-based operating systems. https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/help/help-universe/platform-support-for-mitid/ https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/help/help-universe/platform-suppo... Do free software users count as having practical difficulties? Do boycott-US users count as having practical difficulties? I wonder if Denmark is reconsidering their national dependency on the US.
emptysongglass 2y ago
Having lived around the world and now residing in Denmark for a decade plus, I can confidently say PostNord is the worst postal service I've ever seen in my entire life. If you Google r/copenhagen PostNord you will see countless horror stories, mostly focused around delivery drivers simply refusing to do their job by purposely not delivering packages. I doubt freeing them of their obligation to deliver letters is going to improve things. We also have the full might of the state behind them who will happily charge you multiples of the value of your item coming in from out of country because they "inspected" it. People in the US don't understand how good they've had it (well until very recently with tariffs), as you could get any item you wanted delivered to your doorstep with no additional fees and better customer service at a fraction of the price it costs us.
- Mashimo 2y ago
  I have quite the opposite experience. PostNord called me once because I was not home, and I could tell them to just leave the package at the door. Now you can just do it via the app. While I quite often from friend in America see that packages get re-routed multiple times to states around them.
  - emptysongglass 2y ago
    I'm happy you had a positive experience, but your experience is not the norm.
CharlieDigital 2y ago
One underrated thing I appreciate about the USPS: postal fraud is serious business so I know that if it's important, it will always show up in my mailbox. Easy to avoid email and SMS scams.
- alwayslikethis 2y ago
  Wire fraud is no less serious punishment wise. The main factor is probably the operation cost, as sending scam mails is more expensive per recipient and scams usually have a fairly low yield.
  - CharlieDigital 2y ago
    > Wire fraud is no less serious punishment wise That might be true in principle, but definitely not true in practice. Cost might be the factor and the related facet is volume -- there's just no reasonable way to enforce it to the same degree as postal fraud and as you said, the price of the stamp itself is a deterrent. I get scam texts all the time; I've never gotten a scam letter. I appreciate that all of my official tax and government documents continue to be delivered via physical mail.
- rawgabbit 2y ago
  In the last couple of years, I have had important letters get "lost" in USPS in the Dallas area including things I sent with the USPS guarantee, signature required etc. and things sent to me being lost. I didn't receive any official apology from USPS; I learned from the local news there was organized crime ring regularly opening up letters they thought contained checks. To make it short, USPS has forced me to stop send checks or anything important through the mail.
deleted 2y ago
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xigurat 2y ago
If you do that here in Germany the whole country collapsed under a week.
- krn1p4n1c 2y ago
  Deutsche Post is about to let go of 8000. https://www.thelocal.de/20250306/german-postal-service-to-cut-8000-jobs https://www.thelocal.de/20250306/german-postal-service-to-cu...
  - yencabulator 2y ago
    To put that into perspective, PostNord only had 4,600 employees to begin with.
jemmyw 2y ago
I've lived in Denmark. You get a digital mailbox when you move there which is used by every utility and public service to contact you. There was very little paper mail to deal with. That was 10 years ago, so I'm not surprised that by now they'd be cutting letter delivery.
vinni2 2y ago
Why don’t they focus on delivering packages which are increasing in volume. They make us pick up packages from supermarkets and complain that there are not enough letters to deliver. I don’t know what obvious point I am missing.

74 points by sixhobbits 2y ago

Ungood. Whatever you think about the economics of letter delivery, or the advantages of all-digital - a good, old-fashioned postal service is an important part of a nation's social and trust networks.

janmarsal 2y ago
Just put the letter in a box and send the box.
mrweasel 2y ago
> postal service is an important part of a nation's social and trust networks We're not using it for anything, so I'm not really sure how it contributes. Plus PostNord (the Danish postal service) doesn't have the best of reputations, though that is dependent on where in the country you're located.
hoppp 2y ago
Denmark is very advanced in digital service adoption. They are an almost cashless society. The mail infrastructure should be cherished I agree but if there is no demand, there is no reason to operate other than a novelty

Svip 2y ago

Denmark is a member of the Universal Postal Union, which requires each member to deliver letters received from abroad. It's unclear who will now have that responsibility. When the new postal act went into effect last year, it opened up the market for domestic letter deliveries, but PostNord was still responsible for foreign (both in- and outbound) deliveries. Edit: Found a note on their website: > You can send letters to and from abroad with PostNord for the rest of the year. PostNord Denmark has been appointed by the Ministry of Transport to handle international mail until 31 December 2025. After that, it will be up to the Ministry of Transport to decide, e.g. through a tender, who will handle the task in the future.

vinni2 2y ago
I don’t know about Denmark but in Norway there is a discussion to pick up letters from designated supermarkets from where packages are already picked up.
riggsdk 2y ago
According to TV2 Denmark, DAO (who distributed news papers and parcels) has made a bid to take over: https://nyheder.tv2.dk/business/2025-03-06-slut-med-postnord-saadan-kan-du-sende-breve-fremover https://nyheder.tv2.dk/business/2025-03-06-slut-med-postnord...
jorvi 2y ago
In The Netherlands the traditional postal had switched to every-other-day delivery for non-critical mail, and 09:00 postbox pickup instead of 17:00. It might feel a bit awkward for people who are used to everyday delivery, but with the low volume of mail something has to give. Either € per letter rises, or letter per € drops.
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  I'd rather they subsidized it and bring back fulltime employment. It went from a uniformed government job to a part-time bring-your-own-bike "gig" job. But I believe that if you hire full-time staff that can work with a bit more flexibility - wider area for delivery, picking up mail as well, that kinda thing - instead of min/maxing it they can keep up if not improve the quality of work.
- mrweasel 2y ago
  PostNord already did this in Denmark, to the extreme, which render their services pretty useless. Letters will frequently take up to 10 days to arrive. A previously employer resorted to ask staff to take mail with them as they traveled between locations and drop of letters to clients when they either visited or drove past anyway. Some government services didn't take the hint and mailed papers for signing, asking for them to be mailed back within 14 days, but if the letters doesn't arrive until 10 days later, how are you suppose to have it returned within 14? Danes don't send much mail anyway, but the reduction of service just made everything worse. You can barely rely on PostNord for Christmas cards without posting them before December. Their package delivery service is excellent though, but only in certain parts of the country.

dsnr 2y ago

Please do this in Germany. Good luck.

jnsaff2 2y ago

You had one job.

afandian 2y ago

The general decline in paper copies of official documents is scary. The recent Conservative UK government put in place the "hostile environment" policy (official name!) and expelled and denied rights to people who had lived here for years, and had the right to. People were asked for documents going back years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal If your government suddenly asked for your electronic payslips from a job 10 or 20 years ago, could you provide them? Does everyone print them out or store them in secure electronic storage?

smallerfish 2y ago
> If your government suddenly asked for your electronic payslips from a job 10 or 20 years ago, could you provide them? "electronic" isn't necessary for this question. Most people do not keep paper copies of their payslips going back 10 or 20 years either.
- the__alchemist 2y ago
  They're next to my receipt filing-cabinet.
  - xattt 2y ago
    Some form of Paperless-NGX setup is also an option :)
- afandian 2y ago
  If payslips are paper, people at least have a fighting chance of retaining them. I have payslips from when I was a teenager. Not because I kept them, because I never threw them away. Electronic documents, however, need deliberate attention to keep.
  - smallerfish 2y ago
    I purge paper after a year or two at most, and keep very limited important stuff digitally (I have my tax returns going back 5-10 years.) I really don't think many people keep substantial amounts of paper records. The government policy cited upthread was clearly a scandal; most UK citizens would be unable to satisfy the same standard of proof, if that was in fact the test.

beardyw 2y ago

In the UK we regularly get small packages delivered by the postman which would otherwise need a trip by a delivery company.

woleium 2y ago
are you sure that they are not just doing the last mile? Many packages are delivered to the local sorting office y alternative courier
- 369548684892826 2y ago
  Either way, delivery driver trips have been reduced
Mashimo 2y ago
If I understood it correctly, PostNord will still deliver packages in Denmark.

fnordian_slip 2y ago

Well, back to /r/fountainpenpals in order to send more letters, so that this doesn't happen in my country. I love letters and postcards, but I've become lazy recently. While I'm not luddite, there is something special in sending and receiving a handwritten letters, even if the handwriting is as poor as mine. And it gives you an excuse to spend time with high quality writing implements and the opportunity to share something unique. The texture of proper paper is just so radically different from standard printer paper [0]. Btw. if anyone else is similarly inclined to get back into writing letters, I can recommend letterlocking [1]. Even though it's a bit of a gamble if the seal makes it through the post unharmed (I sometimes cheat and send the letter inside an extra envelope), the recipients are usually delighted, and that's what counts. [0]: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/forum/36-paper-and-pen-paraphernalia/ https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/forum/36-paper-and-... [1]: https://youtu.be/KMsuFaMoT28 https://youtu.be/KMsuFaMoT28

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

jfengel 2y ago

Do Danes send Christmas cards?

jacobgorm 2y ago
No, we use email instead, as postage is already too expensive. Paper mail is only used for formal stuff like wedding invitations.
Mashimo 2y ago
It's not widespread, but I have heard about it.

ghssds 2y ago

To operate a postal service, we need, as a strict minimum: - A workforce with a pulse. To operate a digital network, we need, as a strict minimum: - A constant supply of electricity; - Lot of complex tools built far away from lot of exotic material from all around the world; - A workforce with lot of education and specialization. We're making our civilization brittle and call that progress.

loloquwowndueo 2y ago
There’s even a movie: the Postman :) (everybody hated that movie)
- ReptileMan 2y ago
  There is even better one - Postal Probably the only really good Uwe Boll movie.
GranularRecipe 2y ago
That's the trade-off between efficiency and resilience. Another example are the egg prices in US. The industrialisation of agriculture made it more brittle.
7952 2y ago
And that simple approach can be ridiculously scalable. Look at how mailing/parcels/printing could scale up during covid. Mail can put a document in the hands of tens of millions quickly.
- Mashimo 2y ago
  What happened during covid with the postal system? More people ordering online?
  - Freak_NL 2y ago
    Did you completely miss that part? Ordering stuff from the internet went through the roof and the effect on physical shops is being felt even now with bankruptcies often being traced back to the bad years of the lockdowns.

m00dy 2y ago

Alright, folks, I lived in Denmark for quite a while, so let me be straight with you. It’s probably the best country to live in Europe definitely a step above Germany and its Nordic neighbors. Now, when it comes to street drugs, the quality isn’t great. I know some people who prefer ordering from the darknet and having it shipped straight to their mailbox. Since most transactions are done with Monero, the legal system can’t do much even if a package is intercepted. They can’t prove the payment. So, there’s a loophole in the system. If your package gets seized, it usually doesn’t lead to serious consequences. That said, authorities recently introduced special X-ray scanners for mail. They see what’s happening, but it looks like a lot of darknet orders are still slipping through.

unixhero 2y ago

Huh? The Danish postal office is not named PostNord, that is a private for profit company. Sidenote: Having lived in Denmark, dealing with Posten and receiving packages was not a positive experience. I was taxed 100 euro on my used shoes being sent me from another country for importing goods.

rafram 2y ago
Posten is owned by PostNord, which is owned by the Danish and Swedish governments.
ergl 2y ago
Wikipedia says that PostNord is the resulting company of merging Post Danmark and PostNord Sverige, the former being the national provider for mail in Denmark after it got privatized.

zoobab 2y ago

What about old people who can't master computers?

Mashimo 2y ago
They have to use another carrier. I'm actually not sure if you still can get government communication in paper form, in Denmark. Edit: Ah, yes you can get an exemption from digital post: https://www.borger.dk/hjaelp-og-vejledning/hvad-har-du-brug-for-hjaelp-til/digital-post/fritagelse-fra-digital-post https://www.borger.dk/hjaelp-og-vejledning/hvad-har-du-brug-...
- zoobab 2y ago
  Other countries like Switzerland are thinking at passing laws to protect people from this mandatory use of computers (e-government). Let me find the reference.
- eesmith 2y ago
  One allowed exemption is: "I have practical difficulties in acquiring MitID, which gives access to Digital Post" (via Firefox translate). MitID is Denmark's digital ID system. It is only supported on proprietary US-based operating systems. https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/help/help-universe/platform-support-for-mitid/ https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/help/help-universe/platform-suppo... Do free software users count as having practical difficulties? Do boycott-US users count as having practical difficulties? I wonder if Denmark is reconsidering their national dependency on the US.

emptysongglass 2y ago

Having lived around the world and now residing in Denmark for a decade plus, I can confidently say PostNord is the worst postal service I've ever seen in my entire life. If you Google r/copenhagen PostNord you will see countless horror stories, mostly focused around delivery drivers simply refusing to do their job by purposely not delivering packages. I doubt freeing them of their obligation to deliver letters is going to improve things. We also have the full might of the state behind them who will happily charge you multiples of the value of your item coming in from out of country because they "inspected" it. People in the US don't understand how good they've had it (well until very recently with tariffs), as you could get any item you wanted delivered to your doorstep with no additional fees and better customer service at a fraction of the price it costs us.

Mashimo 2y ago
I have quite the opposite experience. PostNord called me once because I was not home, and I could tell them to just leave the package at the door. Now you can just do it via the app. While I quite often from friend in America see that packages get re-routed multiple times to states around them.
- emptysongglass 2y ago
  I'm happy you had a positive experience, but your experience is not the norm.

CharlieDigital 2y ago

One underrated thing I appreciate about the USPS: postal fraud is serious business so I know that if it's important, it will always show up in my mailbox. Easy to avoid email and SMS scams.

alwayslikethis 2y ago
Wire fraud is no less serious punishment wise. The main factor is probably the operation cost, as sending scam mails is more expensive per recipient and scams usually have a fairly low yield.
- CharlieDigital 2y ago
  > Wire fraud is no less serious punishment wise That might be true in principle, but definitely not true in practice. Cost might be the factor and the related facet is volume -- there's just no reasonable way to enforce it to the same degree as postal fraud and as you said, the price of the stamp itself is a deterrent. I get scam texts all the time; I've never gotten a scam letter. I appreciate that all of my official tax and government documents continue to be delivered via physical mail.
rawgabbit 2y ago
In the last couple of years, I have had important letters get "lost" in USPS in the Dallas area including things I sent with the USPS guarantee, signature required etc. and things sent to me being lost. I didn't receive any official apology from USPS; I learned from the local news there was organized crime ring regularly opening up letters they thought contained checks. To make it short, USPS has forced me to stop send checks or anything important through the mail.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

xigurat 2y ago

If you do that here in Germany the whole country collapsed under a week.

krn1p4n1c 2y ago
Deutsche Post is about to let go of 8000. https://www.thelocal.de/20250306/german-postal-service-to-cut-8000-jobs https://www.thelocal.de/20250306/german-postal-service-to-cu...
- yencabulator 2y ago
  To put that into perspective, PostNord only had 4,600 employees to begin with.

jemmyw 2y ago

I've lived in Denmark. You get a digital mailbox when you move there which is used by every utility and public service to contact you. There was very little paper mail to deal with. That was 10 years ago, so I'm not surprised that by now they'd be cutting letter delivery.

vinni2 2y ago

Why don’t they focus on delivering packages which are increasing in volume. They make us pick up packages from supermarkets and complain that there are not enough letters to deliver. I don’t know what obvious point I am missing.