La Poste () is a

postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

company in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, operating in

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France ( or ), also known as European France (), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises #Hexagon, the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" ( or ), and Corsica. This collective name for the ...

, the five French overseas departments and regions and the

overseas collectivity The French overseas collectivities ( abbreviated as COM) are first-order administrative divisions of France, like the French regions, but have a semi-autonomous status. The COMs include some former French overseas colonies and other French ...

Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon ( ), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canada, Canadian prov ...

. Under bilateral agreements, La Poste also has responsibility for mail services in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

through

La Poste Monaco La Poste Monaco () is the company responsible for mail, postal service in microstate of the principality of Monaco. Despite Monaco being an independent nation, under an agreement with France, the company is a subsidiary of the French post office, ...

and in

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

alongside the Spanish company

Correos Sociedad Estatal de Correos y Telégrafos, S.A., S.M.E. (), trading under the name Correos (, "packages"), is a state-owned postal service and courier for Spain and Andorra, the latter bilateral with French-equivalent La Poste. Based in Madrid ...

. The company was created in 1991 following the split of the French PTT, a

government department Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations used by first-level Executive (government), executive bodies in the Machinery of government, machinery of governments that manage a specific se ...

responsible for mail,

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

and

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

services in France. The PTT, founded in 1879, was then divided between La Poste, which became responsible for postal service, and

France Télécom Orange S.A. (; formerly , stylised as france telecom) is a French multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. ''Orange'' has been the corporation' ...

(nowadays

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

) for the telecommunication services. France Télécom was immediately privatised but La Poste has remained a public company. However, in 1997

EU directive A directive is a legal act of the European Union that requires Member state of the European Union, member states to achieve particular goals without dictating how the member states achieve those goals. A directive's goals have to be made the go ...

97/67/EC required member states to "fully open the postal sector to competition", with the result that the French government allowed private postal service companies in 2005 and transformed La Poste into a public-owned company limited by shares in 2010. La Poste is part of the Groupe La Poste, which also comprises a bank and insurance company (

La Banque postale La Banque postale (, ) is a French postal bank, created on 1 January 2006 as a subsidiary of La Poste, the national postal service. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision ...

), a logistics service company (

DPDgroup Geopost (formerly DPDgroup) is an international parcel delivery service for sorter compatible parcels based in Issy les Moulineaux, France. Until 2015 DPD stood for Dynamic Parcel Distribution. Its brands are DPD, Chronopost, Seur and BRT. Th ...

) and a mobile network operator (La Poste Mobile). Although its postal activities are declining because of the development of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, they still represented half of the company's income. Other activities, such as parcel delivery and banking, are on the rise. The two represented respectively a quarter of the company's income in 2017.

History

Kingdom of France

During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, postal delivery in France was not organised by the state and was provided by private enterprise. University envoys dominated the market from 13th century onwards. In 1477, King

Louis XI Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (), was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII. Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revolt known as the ...

created coaching inns to deliver his own letters. These inns were for temporary use and usually led to battlefields. In 1576, royal mail delivery was further improved with the creation of the office of royal envoy. Royal envoys were allowed to provide services to private individuals. They prefigured modern postal services and their existence led to the appearance of the first post offices at the end of the 16th century. The first set of fees appeared in 1627 for letters sent to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

and

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

. As with the rest of Europe, stamps did not exist in France at that time and mail was paid for by the recipient. The first map of post roads was published in 1632 and a book compiling lists of roads and inns including distances and fees to be paid was released in 1707. A new edition was released every two years until 1859. The country already had 623 coaching inns in 1632 and the figure reached 800 at the beginning of the 18th century. A ''

ferme générale The ''ferme générale'' (, "general farm") was, in ''ancien régime'' France, essentially an outsourced customs, excise and indirect tax operation. It collected duties on behalf of the King (plus hefty bonus fees for themselves), under renewable ...

'' was created for mail services in 1672, which meant that postal services started to be subject to taxation. Tax officers progressively bought private postal companies and university envoys became subjects to the ''ferme générale'' in 1719. International treaties regarding postal services were signed with neighbouring countries under

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

Birth of a national postal service

During the French Revolution French postal services progressively became a fully public service. Directors of post offices lost their privileges in 1789 and their position became subject to

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

. The ''ferme générale'' was abolished two years later and post offices started to be directly administered by the state. As a reaction to the commonplace opening of letters by the royal authorities, an oath of confidentiality became compulsory for post employees in 1790. The first French

mail coach A mail coach is a stagecoach that is used to deliver mail. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, they were built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. ...

appeared in 1793 and the first

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

in the world was delivered in 1794 with

Claude Chappe Claude Chappe (; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore line, semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within l ...

's optical

on the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

line. After the Revolution, French postal services continued their modernisation. An 1801 decree reasserted the state monopoly on mail delivery, postal orders were created in 1817 and

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

s were introduced in 1849, nine years after they were invented in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. A rural service was implemented in 1830 with mail delivery in rural areas every two days. The delivery became daily from 1832. France was a founding member of the General Postal Union in 1874. The organisation became the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It has 192 member states and is headquartered in Be ...

in 1879.

French PTT

Post and telegraphs were united in one administration by the French government in 1879, giving birth to the P&T ("Postes et télégraphes") which later became the PTT ("Postes, télégraphes et téléphones"). A French Ministry of Post and Telegraphs was created the same year. A national savings bank was opened in 1881 and added to the services provided by the P&T. The government took a monopoly over telephone services in 1889 and placed this responsibility under the P&T. The administration then became PTT and kept this name until 1959 when it became "Postes et Télécommunications", although the acronym PTT was kept. Postal cheques were created in 1918. The first

airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be th ...

flight operated in 1912 between Nancy and

Lunéville Lunéville ( ; German : ''Lünstadt'' ; Lorrain: ''Leneinvile'') is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Ve ...

and a regular airmail network was put in place in 1935 through the "Air Bleu" company. Night airmail services started in 1939 on two lines:

- Pau and

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

. Postcodes were introduced in France in 1964. File:LogoPTTLille.jpg, Logo of the French PTT on a former post office in

File:Auxerre - La Poste 2.jpg, A PTT sign in

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

File:Panneau PTT.JPG, A 1950s PTT road sign in Marthon File:1922 Rouge France 30c Yv160.jpg, A 1922 stamp File:Voiture postale à l'alcool de 1901.jpg, A mail van in 1901 File:2cv la poste.jpg, A

Citroën 2CV The Citroën 2CV (, , lit. "two horses", meaning "two Tax horsepower#France, ''taxable'' horsepower") is an economy car produced by the French company Citroën from 1948 to 1990. Introduced at the 1948 Paris Paris Auto Show, Salon de l'Automobi ...

vehicle used by PTT File:CITROEN TYPE H POSTAL.jpg, A

Citroën H Van The Citroën H-Type vans (most commonly the Citroën HY), are a series of panel vans and light trucks, produced by France, French automaker Citroën for 34 years – from 1947 through 1981. They are notable for their industrial design, using man ...

used by the PTT File:La Poste TPO.jpg, Travelling post office at Strasbourg

La Poste

Before 2005

In the 1980s, it became clear that the French PTT could not compete anymore in a country where communication was greatly increasing. The administration suffered from a constant lack of innovation and was dependent on political will and decisions. A division between postal and telecommunication services was suggested as early as 1974 in a report from the French parliament. However, changes in the structure of the PTT were opposed by

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s who feared that employees could lose their status as

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

s. In 1988, under the premiership of

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister of France, Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 199 ...

, a law was finally prepared to split the PTT and enable the government to get the services out of the public administration and to prepare for competition from private firms. Such a move was encouraged by the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

, and the

had already separated its national telephone company from its postal services in 1981. Most of the other member states did the same in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Trade unions organised several strikes but the law was adopted in 1990. La Poste and

were officially created on 1 January 1991. The two had the status of " autonomous operators under public law". While France Telecom was privatised and floated on the stock exchange in 1997, La Poste has remained a public service. Since its creation, the company has had to face strong competition from the

. As a result, it has tried to innovate and diversify its activities. In 2000, it became a

webmail Webmail (or web-based email) is an email service that can be accessed using a standard web browser. It contrasts with email service accessible through a specialised email client software. Additionally, many internet service providers (ISP) prov ...

provider and created

GeoPost Geopost (formerly DPDgroup) is an international parcel delivery service for sorter compatible parcels based in Issy les Moulineaux, France. Until 2015 DPD stood for Dynamic Parcel Distribution. Its brands are DPD, Chronopost, Seur and BRT. The ...

, its logistics and parcel delivery subsidiary. The following year, it released its online trading platform to reinforce its online banking services. To comply with the law and

s, the banking activities had to form a distinct subsidiary in 2006, called

. It received the official status of a bank while it had remained a public savings bank until then.

After 2005

La Poste lost its monopoly on postal delivery in 2005. Since then, several competing firms have started businesses in France. Most of them only deliver parcels (for example,

TNT Express TNT Express was an international courier delivery services company with its headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands. It was acquired by FedEx. History The namesake Thomas Nationwide Transport grandfather company was originally started in 1946 w ...

DHL Express DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

and

United Parcel Service United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializi ...

) or recorded letters, while mail delivery itself could not attract private companies. Most of the companies dealing with mail services only operate on a local scale, because they could not compete with the extremely wide network of offices that La Poste enjoyed throughout the country. La Poste became a

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...

in 2010. Although most of the Western European countries had fully privatised their postal service companies, public opinion in France was largely against such a move. A majority of French citizens feared that if La Poste becomes a private company, many post offices would close, rural areas would be neglected and stamps would be more expensive. Supporters of privatisation claimed that it would help solving the debt (€5.8 billion in 2009) and contain the rise of prices. In 2013 La Poste invested around €1 billion in renovating post offices, modernising infrastructure and reinforcing its network, along with the purchase of electric delivery vehicles. Acquisitions included more Seur franchises in Spain, a 40% stake in Indian parcel firm

DTDC DTDC Express Limited, trading as DTDC (short for Desk to Desk Courier & Cargo) is an Indian courier delivery services company, headquartered in Mumbai. History In 2012, DTDC acquired a 52 percent stake in Eurostar Express of Eurostar Group in t ...

and a similar stake in French parcel firm Colizen. The company also bought a 66% stake in freight forwarder Tigers. Via its joint venture with

Swiss Post Swiss Post Ltd ( ; ; ; ) is the national Mail, postal service of Switzerland. A public company owned by the Politics of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation, it is the country's second largest employer with about 54,000 employees. The group is ba ...

, Asendia, the Group acquired Pitney Bowes’ international mail business operations in the UK, and a 40% stake in Irish e-commerce firm eShopWorld. In December 2016, La Poste launched a regular delivery line by drones to deliver to isolated companies in secluded areas of France.

Activities

Mail delivery

La Poste is by far the largest provider for mail delivery in France. It treated 15 billion messages in 2012, of which 97% implied an administration or a firm. Relations with customers only represented 55% of the company's revenue (55% for business relations; 16% for advertisement). International mail delivery accounted for 7% of the 2012 revenue. The same year,

and La Poste launched a joint company, Asendia, to merge their international mail activities. La Poste offers three different rates for sending mail in France: first-class, second-class and green letter. The latter was introduced in 2011 to provide an ecological alternative to the regular rates. It emits 15% less than first-class letters. In 2012, it accounted for one in five priority letters (20 percent of priority letters).

Parcels and express (GeoPost)

La Poste directly provides parcel service under the brand name ''Colissimo''; however, Groupe La Poste also operates other subsidiaries providing express parcel delivery. Most of these faster parcel services are grouped under ''GeoPost'' which provides two brands in France, Chronopost and DPD (formerly ''Exapaq''). Worldwide, the brands are DPD, Yurtiçi Kargo and Seur GeoPost. La Poste is the second biggest provider for parcel delivery in Europe, with a 15% share of the market and a €5 billion revenue. In 2017, Geopost expanded its activities in Italy, Russia, Brazil and Vietnam.

Last mile delivery

In 2015 La Poste invested €22 million into Stuart Delivery before it was officially launched. In 2017 La Poste brought Stuart Delivery owing 100% of the shares Stuart Delivery is a subsidiary of the DPD group and is operating in 86 cities across the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, and Portugal. On 6 December 2021 couriers in the UK for Stuart Delivery organising with IWGB started a strike. Stuart couriers told that they started the current strike after Stuart enforced a 24% pay cut in December 2021, which saw base pay rates slashed on most deliveries from £4.50 to £3.40. It is the longest gig work strike in UK history. In the UK, according to

Corporate Watch Corporate Watch (The Corporate Watch Co-Operative Ltd.) is a research group based in the UK. It describes itself as a "research group that helps people stand up against corporations and capitalism." And as a "not-for-profit co-operative providing ...

Stuart Delivery made £41 million in profits from UK deliveries in 2021, over double the £20.5 million it had made in 2020. Stuart Delivery's UK accounts show an unnamed director was paid £2.2 million in 2020.

Other activities

In addition to postal services, La Poste also offers banking and insurance services (with

La Banque Postale La Banque postale (, ) is a French postal bank, created on 1 January 2006 as a subsidiary of La Poste, the national postal service. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision ...

) and, via Chronopost, courier services. After the government, La Poste is the second largest employer in France. It also offers webmail, providing @laposte.net email addresses and hosting approximately 1.6 million active email accounts in 2007. More recently, the group has created a branch for communication counselling (Mediaprism), document exchange and archiving (Docapost), real estate (Poste Immo) and mobile telephony (La Poste Mobile, in partnership with

SFR SFR S.A. (or Altice France S.A. for the group) (; ) is a French telecommunications company. It is both the second-oldest mobile network operator and the second largest telecommunications company in France, after Orange. The group, Altice Fr ...

Corporate identity

Yellow is the main colour of the French post since the 1960s. Previously, postal vans used to be green and post boxes blue. Yellow was chosen because it is a colour that is easily seen and because it can symbolise speed and light. The logotype of La Poste was created by poster designer Guy Georget. It represents a bird, often called the "postal bird" ("l'oiseau postal"), symbolising a messenger. Its design was slightly altered by Georget in 1978. File:Logo ptt 1960.jpg, The 1960 bird File:Logo ptt 1978.jpg, Current design

References

External links

La Poste website

Postal Services in France - at ''Discover France'' (English)

French Post Boxes through the ages. (English)
{{authority control

Postal system of France Government-owned companies of France Philately of France Philately of Monaco