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17.09.2018
The register of addresses of Latvijas Pasts contains 1.03 million addresses, and almost 78,000 recipients of correspondence at those addresses have not taken care of the secure receipt of the postal items addressed to them – there is either no letter-box installed or it is damaged. Thus, the receipt of postal items is not only difficult for those who live at those addresses, as they have to go to the post office to collect their items, but the overall delivery process takes longer time, as the postmen need to make a record of the situation and the reasons for non-delivery. Dogs unattended by owners, which endanger the health of postmen, also disrupt the timely delivery of items.
Autumn is the time when postal establishments around the world start preparing for the busiest period of their operations – the end of the year, when the volume of work increases for all postal employees. Every day the postmen of Latvijas Pasts detect significant problems in their daily work that prevent the delivery of correspondence to customers. Most often they are related to the fact that customers have not placed letter-boxes to receive postal items, or letter-boxes are unidentifiable or technically damaged, their size does not match the recipients’ items or letter-boxes are situated in inappropriate places and are hard to reach for the postmen.
The register of addresses of Latvijas Pasts contains 1.03 million addresses, and almost 78,000 addresses out of them cannot provide for secure delivery of items or cannot ensure delivery of items at all due to the lack of a letter-box, its damage, inappropriate location or other reasons. The inadequacy of letter-boxes for secure delivery of items can be found in almost every postman’s service area, and this problem is prevalent mainly in cities: both in apartment blocks and detached houses. However, customers in the regional areas who live in detached houses and homesteads have not always taken care of providing an appropriate letter-box for receiving the items addressed to them as well. Latvijas Pasts employees often find problematic or non-existent letter-boxes in horticultural co-operative societies, as well as on the buildings of legal entities and even public institutions.
The largest number of non-compliant and absent letter-boxes is recorded in Riga region: Riga, Ādaži, Mārupe, Olaine, Piņķi, Salaspils and Ulbroka. Similarly, this problem is regularly detected elsewhere in Latvia, most often in Grobiņa, Lapmežciems, Liepāja and Ventspils in Kurzeme region; Ludza, Rēzekne and Rudzāti in Latgale region; Cēsis, Lēdurga and Madona in Vidzeme region; and Eleja, Jelgava, Jēkabpils and Lielvārde in Zemgale region.
In order to ensure the successful delivery of postal items, Latvijas Pasts invites all customers to pay attention to the condition of the letter-boxes belonging to them and make sure that they are not damaged and are lockable, that they clearly indicate the address, apartment number or home name, surname or legal entity name and that the letter-box is located in an accessible place and has an appropriate size. The postal service provider has the right not to deliver postal items, but to issue them on request at the post office to the addressees who have not placed and arranged their letter-boxes in accordance with the requirements of the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations.
Significant difficulties in delivering postal items are caused by freely roaming and unattended dogs, which pose risks not only to the health of postmen and performance of their duties, but also to the chance for the owners of dogs to receive the items addressed to them. Four dog attacks on Latvijas Pasts postmen were registered in 2017, and this year (2018) 13 attacks have already been recorded.
The major mistakes made by the owners of four-legged friends include putting the dogs on a long chain, which allows them to reach the postman who rides a bicycle, leaving the dog in the yard with a fence which is so low that the dog can easily jump over it or positioning the letter-box in such a place that the dog gets in the way or prevents the postman from dropping the items in the letter-box. Letter-boxes are often attached to the inside of the fence while there is an angry dog in the yard. Customers tend to believe that their dog is friendly and in no way will harm the postman, but in reality the dog can be very aggressive if it spots a stranger it its territory.
Caring for the health of its employees and the ability to perform the job duties in a quality manner, Latvijas Pasts does not deliver items to the addresses where postmen are menaced by dangerous dogs and their owners ignore requests to restrict dog freedom during the delivery of postal items.
Latvijas Pasts encourages residents to arrange their letter-boxes properly and to take care of their watch-dogs in order to ensure fast and high quality postal delivery services. The company is very grateful to all those residents who already provide this opportunity to postmen.
The photos taken by Latvijas Pasts postmen showing the examples of letter-boxes which are damaged and which are not positioned according to the regulations can be viewed here.
About SJSC Latvijas Pasts
Latvijas Pasts ensures the widest availability of postal services throughout Latvia by maintaining more than 600 post offices. The primary function of the company is provision of the universal postal service; Latvijas Pasts also provides commercial transport, express mail, payment, press subscription, retail and philatelic services. Latvijas Pasts is a wholly State-owned company with around 4,000 employees. The quality measurements of Latvijas Pasts domestic mail deliveries are regularly conducted by Kantar TNS, one of the leading market, social and media research agencies in Latvia. In turn, the quality measurements of the cross-border deliveries are provided within the framework of the International Post Corporation through the intermediary of the research companies Kantar TNS, Ipsos and Quotas.
Additional information:
Vineta Danielsone | Public Relations Specialist
Phone: +371 67608504
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; vineta.danielsone@pasts.lv
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