In January 1997, KPN, the government-owned postal monopoly in the Netherlands, purchased Australian based TNT Limited after completing a friendly takeover.

[7][8] In April 1998, TPG opened its European Express Centre at Liège Airport Belgium.

[11] In March 2007, TNT acquired Hoau, China's private freight and parcels delivery firm.

[14] Peter Bakker, chief executive officer of TNT since 2001, stepped down at the end of May 2011 with Harry Koorstra becoming CEO of PostNL.

In June 2013, PostNL announced that to reduce costs in the face of declining volume, it would be eliminating Monday deliveries (accounting for only 2.6% of volume), cut the number of post boxes in half, and reduce the number of post offices from around 2,500 to about 1,000.

[20] Carrying out the UPD requires, amongst other things, PostNL to deliver mail throughout the Netherlands five days a week (Tuesday through Saturday) and to maintain enough mailboxes in the country.

[25] In August 2019, PostNL announced it had agreed to sell its Postcon operations in Germany to Quantum Capital Partners, with the sale expected to take effect from the end of 2019.