Parcel delivery companies PostNL and DHL are adjusting their sustainability claims. They are doing so at the request of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets. The supervisory authority concluded that the companies are misleading consumers with claims such as “your parcel will be delivered sustainably”.
According to ACM director Edwin van Houten, many green claims are made in the postal sector, “while the delivery sector is still polluting, with a major impact on the climate”. With such claims, you do not help the consumer to make a good choice, he says.
And that while consumers are increasingly buying online and having things shipped more often, Van Houten explains. “They only see the last few miles of the process.”
PostNL supports the decision. “The ACM found the statements possibly misleading. We have had discussions about that. It is also the case that the European regulations are going to change,” says a spokesperson. “That is why we are making our statements clearer.”
The agreement with the postal companies is that these claims must be addressed by the middle of next year. PostNL says that it will no longer put “Sustainably delivered” on the vans. DHL is removing the text “Naturally on the road”, among other things. Another major parcel delivery company, DPD, has already made adjustments.
