Information on Posti's delivery methods

The majority of mail is delivered every other day

The majority of mail is delivered every other weekday. There are two different delivery methods:

Mail is delivered every other week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and every other week on Tuesday and Thursday. We call this alternate-day delivery.
Mail is delivered on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. We call this lightened mail delivery.

If you want to know the primary mail delivery days in your area, you can check them In addition to the actual delivery days, mail may also be delivered on other days, if necessary. In addition, in many areas, Posti delivers newspapers and other mail in early-morning delivery.

Delivery on every other weekday applies to letters, cards, publications, advertisements and small parcels delivered to a mail slot or a mailbox. However, in most parts of Finland, we deliver newspapers early in the morning seven days a week. Most newspapers are still delivered daily once they’ve been published. However, the schedules of some newspapers may have changed. The schedules are set together with the publishers.

You may also receive mail at a different time of the day than before. For instance, you may receive mail with your morning newspaper that was previously delivered during the day.

Why is mail also delivered between the actual delivery days? See the FAQ on alternate-day delivery.

Why has mail delivery changed?

In Finland, Posti is responsible for statutory postal services, such as the delivery of stamped letters. The service is not covered by taxes; instead, Posti operates as a business. In order to keep performing these tasks as self-sufficiently as possible without public funding, we have to manage the delivery costs.

Digital communication methods have largely replaced traditional letters, the volume of which is down to a fraction of what it used to be. With less to deliver, the number of deliveries must also be reduced for financial reasons. This is the reason for the dwindling delivery days.

Even though there is less mail to deliver, the length of the delivery routes remains the same. If the deliverer doesn’t drive the delivery route every day, there is time to accumulate more deliveries for each round, reducing the amount of unnecessary driving. When the cost of the delivery round is divided between a higher number of items, the cost per item remains reasonable. This has an effect, e.g. on the price of postage stamps.

Mail delivery is regulated by legislation

Part of Posti’s service is a universal service belonging to all Finns, which is provided for in the Postal Act. The universal service includes, e.g. the delivery of stamped letters and cards. The law determines how many days a week they are delivered.

Pursuant to the current Postal Act, stamped letters must be collected and delivered on three weekdays a week. The act entered into force on October 1, 2023. Compliance with it is monitored by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.

In addition to stamped letters, the universal service covers

registered and insured letters
letters with advice of delivery (i.e. when the sender is notified of the letter’s delivery)
parcels sent abroad

Roughly 3% of the items we deliver are universal service letters. On average, Finnish households receive a universal service letter once a month.

The universal service does not cover

newspapers and magazines
advertisements
letters from companies or the authorities
domestic parcels
parcels sent from abroad

The universal service also includes notifications regarding the service. If there are changes in mail delivery in your area, you will receive a notification at home.

The delivery day search also tells you the days mail is delivered in your area.

Learn more:

The delivery of publications is subsidized in sparsely populated areas

In Finland, everyone should be able to get a newspaper delivered five days a week, even people living in sparsely populated areas. That’s why the government began to subsidize newspaper delivery in such areas with the Postal Act reform of 2023.

In sparsely populated areas, newspapers are delivered at the same time as other mail. What it means in three-day mail delivery is that newspaper delivery must be implemented in another way on the remaining two weekdays. Hence, dedicated newspaper delivery in these areas is subsidized two days a week.

The subsidy is allocated to the delivery of subscription-based, paid newspapers published at least three weekdays a week, and it applies to Tuesday and Thursday delivery days. In the areas subject to the subsidy, universal service products (i.e. stamped letters) are delivered on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, which means that the delivery subsidy increases the days newspapers are delivered to five a week.

The delivery subsidy is not automatically granted to Posti; the recipient is selected via competitive tendering carried out by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom. During the second subsidy period, Posti handles newspaper deliveries in all subsidized areas other than in North Ostrobothnia southern region and Ylitornio, i.e. to a total of 35 areas.

Frequently asked questions

There are several reasons for it:

The majority of newspapers will continue to be delivered on the day they are published.
In areas where Posti delivers newspapers in early-morning delivery, we may also deliver other mail at the same time.
We also deliver express letters on days when we wouldn’t otherwise deliver letters.
Companies other than Posti also deliver mail, and their schedules are not affected by alternate-day delivery. You can identify the mail carrier from the company delivery ID on the item. Learn more about other delivery companies

In urban areas and population centers, the day has traditionally been divided into two different deliveries: early-morning newspaper delivery and the day delivery of other mail. That other mail is normally called “day mail”.

Outside population centers, newspapers are not delivered separately early in the morning. Instead, the daily newspaper and the rest of the mail are delivered at the same time. And so the term “day mail” may seem alien to someone living in a sparsely populated area. That said, day mail is the general name for all mail delivered to a mailbox or a mail slot other than mail delivered in the early-morning delivery.

In practice, day mail refers to stamped and other letters, invoices, advertisements, magazines, small parcels delivered with mail, newspapers that are published a few days a week, and so on and so forth.

Yes and no. The majority of newspapers will continue to be delivered on the day they come out.

For some newspapers, the delivery day may change so that your paper is delivered a day after the publication day. The delivery days are set with the publisher of the newspaper.

With alternate-day delivery, your newspaper may also arrive at a different time of the day than before. It may be delivered during the day with the rest of the mail or even early in the morning in the early-morning delivery.

Yes. The Postal Act reform of 2023 took into account digitalization and other changes in society.

Part of Posti’s service is so-called universal service pursuant to the requirements of the Postal Act. Universal service covers stamped letters and cards, and their delivery speed and delivery days are in accordance with the requirements of the act. They only constitute 3% of the items delivered by Posti and, if necessary, we will also deliver them outside the standard delivery days. The remaining 97% is delivered on the basis of what we’ve agreed on with the sender.