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17.03.2021
The further possibilities of Latvijas Pasts to ensure immediate and steady deliveries of items to all groups of addressees are becoming limited. As the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic intensify, the organisation of the postmen’s work has changed for the protection of the employees and customers, aiming to reduce contact to the minimum and thus carrying out gradual deliveries of postal items. There are an increasing number of situations where the delivery opportunities are also affected by the need to temporarily replace staff at certain post offices and delivery points by substituting them with colleagues from other divisions or bringing on temporary employees. As a consequence, the timely provision of deliveries may be temporarily hampered in some areas.
As COVID-19 continues to spread, the negative effects of the virus also have a significant impact on the item delivery process. In order to achieve maximum protection of the employees and customers, Latvijas Pasts has introduced stricter measures for the security of employees and customers in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which also means a change in the work organisation and, consequently, a gradual and unsteady delivery process, which may not always fall within the foreseen time limits.
“The country has been in a repeatedly announced state of emergency due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic for four months now. Latvijas Pasts did not interrupt its operations for a day in both the first and the second wave of the pandemic, and our employees provided both item delivery and customer service throughout Latvia. Latvijas Pasts still continues to render all services, but we urge you once again to take into account that there may be delays in the provision of services and delivery of items due to both the security requirements established during the state of emergency and the spread of the virus. At present our most important task is to protect our employees in order to ensure the continuity of the company’s operations and, accordingly, the delivery of postal items, including press publications received by subscription. We ask you to be understanding in this situation dictated by external circumstances independent of Latvijas Pasts,” Mārcis Vilcāns, Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Pasts, emphasises.
By ensuring distancing among postmen, the communication between larger groups of employees is avoided and opportunities for employee contact are minimised. Thanks to this system, Latvijas Pasts, albeit gradually and with delays, is able to implement a continuous delivery process on the whole, which can nevertheless be jeopardised by the infection of many employees and the identification of a wide range of contacts.
However, as the virus continues to spread, Latvijas Pasts employees who are directly involved in the provision of services and deliveries are exposed to risk. As a result of the infection and the expansion of the number of contacts, Latvijas Pasts had to completely replace the staff at several post offices and delivery points as a temporary solution, thus putting a strain on other divisions from which temporary employees were brought on or looking for new temporary staff.
Considering that the process of replacement of staff takes place on the go, as it involves the immediate implementation of epidemiological security measures, new staff – postmen or post office operators – are trained right on the job, which inevitably leads to slower deliveries of items. New postmen have to get a grasp on the addressing system in a specific area in record time, which is often complex and opaque, and they are supposed to memorise information such as the location of stairway entrances, door codes, electronic door keys or other types of keys; conditions for entry into certain industrial areas and institutions; specific delivery terms for certain categories of items, service tariffs, internal document circulation system, etc.
Back in February Latvijas Pasts informed the Public Utilities Commission that due to the intensifying impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company’s operations, including the increase in the number of Latvijas Pasts employees and their contacts affected by the COVID-19 infection, situations are possible where the company is unable to fulfil the entirety of its commitments undertaken within the universal postal service, including in regard to the delivery time of postal items. At the same time Latvijas Pasts is facing an increase in costs arising from ensuring compliance with additional safety and health requirements.
Latvijas Pasts draws attention to the fact that as COVID-19 continues to spread, the negative effects of the virus have a significant impact on both the flow of inbound items and the provision of services at post offices. The flow of international items is very uneven, with a large volume of items from abroad often incoming at the same time, which arrive at the post offices after processing in the sorting centre of Latvijas Pasts and which have to be delivered to a large number of customers simultaneously. At the same time the possibilities for serving customers at post offices are decreasing: the number of people allowed to be served on site and, consequently, the number of cash register systems has been reduced at several dozens of post offices due to the security requirements. This means that customers often have to wait outside the post office before they can receive the service.
International passenger traffic between many countries is still suspended or restricted as a result of the measures taken worldwide to contain the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, which is causing restrictions and/or delays in the exchange of postal items with some foreign countries also today. Any timelines and quality standards for the delivery of postal items are currently not being followed at the international level.
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 about 3,200 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
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; gundega.varpa@pasts.lv
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