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03.12.2018
Getting ready for the turn of the year, which is already marked by a significant increase in the volume of postal items, Latvijas Pasts encourages customers to buy, prepare and send holiday presents in a timely manner, so that they can reach and bring joy to addressees at Christmas and New Year. When planning the sending of season’s greetings and presents, a number of important conditions should be taken into account: when estimating the delivery time of the item, attention must be given to the distance to the addressee’s country, an accurate address must be indicated on the item and the item must be paid for using stamps of appropriate value. It is essential to remember that placing money in letter-post items is prohibited all over the world, and it is also forbidden to send a number of everyday objects to foreign countries.
December is traditionally the time when the volume of postal items handled by postal establishments throughout the world increases several times. Therefore, getting ready for the busiest pre-holiday period, Latvijas Pasts encourages customers to take care of the preparing and posting of items for further shipping in a timely manner.
Postal operators of a number of countries set special deadlines by which items must be delivered to their countries in order to reach the addressees before the year-end holidays. So far this information has been provided by five countries: letters and small packets must arrive in the U.S. by the 8th of December to be delivered on time, in the United Arab Emirates – by the 13th of December, in China – by the 14th of December and in Chile and in Thailand – by the 19th of December.
When planning the desired time for the delivery of presents and season’s greetings, one must take into account the distance to the addressee’s country as well as the fact that even in Europe items are not always delivered through direct air traffic: the farther the destination, the longer the item is likely to travel, especially if there is no direct air traffic between the countries and the item moves in transit from one country to another, including through cargo transportation by road. In this case the shipping of the item in transit may take up to two weeks. The same should be taken into account when shopping in the most popular foreign online stores: items from China and other Asian stores travel to Latvia in transit via postal operators of different countries, and the shipping time during the pre-holiday period may increase even more due to a growth in the volume of items.
It is equally essential to specify the accurate address: make sure that the street name, house or apartment number as well as the postal code are written correctly. If an incorrect postal code is specified on an item, the item will reach the addressee sooner or later, but it will travel longer as items are primarily sorted based on the postal code specified.
It is important for the sender to make sure that the stamps of a suitable face value are affixed to the item: if the item is prepared for sending in the post office, the needed value will be accurately determined by the postal employees, but if the sender affixes the stamps himself or herself, it is recommended to double-check the information in the pricelist, which can be found on the website of Latvijas Pasts, or use the available calculator, which is a handy tool for calculating the cost of sending an item.
To track your item’s location and status, we recommend sending it as a registered (signed for and/or insured) item: it differs from an ordinary item in the way that it will be delivered to the addressee against signature. These items are assigned a unique number in the global postal system, consisting of a 13-digit code with two letters at the beginning and at the end and digits in the middle, for example, AB123456789CD. Such an item can be tracked either through the item tracking system of Latvijas Pasts or through the relevant country’s item tracking system. The customer can follow the route of domestic postal items from the sender to the addressee, while cross-border postal items can be tracked depending on the service provided by the country of destination. The customer is eligible for certain indemnity in case of loss or damage of registered items according to the Universal Postal Convention.
When preparing items for shipping, it is important to know which items are allowed to be sent by post. It is prohibited to place money, securities, precious metals, jewels and jewellery in letter-post items: if prohibited goods and items, including money, are detected, they may be confiscated by competent authorities on any section of the item shipping route.
Each country may have additional prohibitions on the sending of certain goods as postal items: before preparing a cross-border item for shipping, check whether the selected item is allowed to be imported into the country concerned. This information is available in the Manual for Acceptance of International Postal Items published on the website of Latvijas Pasts.
Latvijas Pasts would like to remind you that the last day for delivery of items before Christmas this year is the 21st of December and for delivery before the turn of the year – the 28th of December.
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 | Senior Public Relations Project Manager
Phone: +371 67608504
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; vineta.danielsone@pasts.lv
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