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11.04.2019
Latvijas Pasts has submitted draft changes to the structure of the tariffs of universal postal services to the Public Utilities Commission aimed at making easier and improving provision of the service according to modern requirements. The new approach envisages transfer from 240 different case tariffs to a simplified system where the price of any delivery would depend on only three factors: the weight, the status as a registered or insured delivery and the geographic area where it should be delivered. The new tariffs are expected to enter into force in the second half of 2019 and they would comply with the necessity to simplify and to improve the system of postal tariffs – also the Trade Union of the Latvian Communications Employees agrees to this.
“The tariffs of the universal postal service and their structure has not been amended in Latvia for more than 10 years, they are obsolete, very complicated and not compliant with the domestic or global market situation and the modern consumption habits. During the last years we have been working for optimisation of the services, improvement of productivity and digitalisation. The time has come to amend also the structure of tariffs in order to provide a high quality service – easier administration of tariffs will allow providing faster deliveries and considerably improving the service speed,” Mārcis Vicāns, the Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Pasts emphasises.
The envisaged amendments of tariffs will only refer to the regulated market segment, except the tariffs of delivery of subscribed press. In the course of developing the new system of the tariffs of the universal postal service, the factors like decrease of population, as well as digitalisation and accessibility of the Internet, which is related to a decrease of the volume of letters and higher delivery costs, accordingly, have been taken into account. Also the increase of various costs has an equal impact on the provision of services, in particular, during the last ten years since approval of the currently valid tariffs of the universal postal service in 2008, both fuel and goods and services have become more expensive, also the labour costs have increased.
The tariffs of Latvijas Pasts have become quite outdated by now also within the global context because in the European Union Latvia and Romania are the only countries where the tariffs have not been revised during the last ten years. For the sake of comparison –considering the inflation, during these years the actual prices of postal services have increased by 44% in Estonia, by 88% in Finland and by 50% in Sweden. This means that Latvijas Pasts has been paying more for the same service to postal services of other countries than it has received from them for equal services in the territory of Latvia.
The draft new system of tariffs provides for discontinuation of categorising postal deliveries in A and B categories by maintaining only priority deliveries, thus improving the speed of deliver and securing improvement of the service speed at the points of providing postal services, as the work of operators will be simpler.
Long-term Latvijas Pasts envisages both simplification of the range and tariffs of the universal postal service and provision of better quality services to customers and revision of the system of wages of employees. This is planned to be implemented in 2020 when the first financial results of the new tariffs are summarised. Irēna Liepiņa, the President of the Trade Union, points out that this approach is supported also by the Trade Union of the Latvian Communications Employees which has always emphasised that it supports any effort by the employer aimed at improving the daily work and experience of employees and customers.
According to the opinion of the provider of professional services EY (the preceding name Ernst&Young), the strategic priorities of a modern postal operator should include improved customer experience and simplified services.
“The global trends as observed by EY indicate that the demand for high quality, convenient, understandable and fast postal services continues growing. At the same time, in the course of implementing the measures of improving the service quality, it is necessary to take into account the increase of costs for the delivery chain components. EY considers that, as the demand for different type of delivery, namely, home deliveries, deliveries to a post terminal, etc., continues growing, the costs of the last delivery section will continue growing disproportionally to the other stages of the delivery process. Already now at some regions it can be seen that a home delivery can cost even five times more than receipt of deliveries at a particular delivery point, and it can be expected that the customer’s wish to receive a delivery as soon as possible will contribute to further growth of delivery costs. Thus, but adjusting relevant tariffs to various services, their quality and flexibility, thus satisfying the future wishes of customers, Latvijas Pasts makes an important step towards sustainable development of the company,” says Nauris Kļava, Head of the Business Management Consultancy Practice in Latvia.
Latvijas Pasts has been actively implementing the measures of improvement of services and the customer service during recent years, thus improving the customer loyalty and the long-term competitiveness of the company.
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:
Gundega Vārpa | Head of External Communications
Phone: +371 67608505
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; gundega.varpa@pasts.lv
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