Russian Post

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Russian Post
Почта России
Pochta Rossii
Federal unitary enterprise
Industry Postal services, courier
Founded 2002 (current form)
Headquarters Varshavskoye shosse 37, Moscow, Russia
Key people
 Dmitry Strashnov (CEO)
Services Letter post, parcel service, EMS, delivery, freight forwarding, third-party logistics, deposit accounts
Revenue Increase Ruble 129 billion (2012)[1]
Increase Ruble 813 million (2012)[1]
Owner Government of Russia (100%)
Number of employees
 390,000
Parent Ministry of Communications and Mass Media
Website www.russianpost.ru

Russian Post (Russian: Почта России, Pochta Rossii), is a unitary enterprise which is a national postal operator of Russia. The company is responsible for the delivery of mail in Russia, and the issuing of postage stamps. Russian Post employs about 390,000 people and has over 42,000 post offices,[2] with its headquarters in Moscow. In 2012 the Russian Post delivered more than 2.4 billion mails and accounted for more than 54 million parcels and more than 100 million in remittances.[3] On March 2013 a presidential decree signed by President Vladimir Putin included the Russian Post in the list of strategic enterprises.[1]

Russian Post has partnered with Svyaz-Bank in offering banking services at post offices across Russia.[4]

History

A 1958 stamp of the Soviet Union depicting a 16th-century mail courier, issued for the 100th anniversary of Russian postage stamps

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See also: Postage stamps and postal history of Russia

Early history

Records mention a system of messengers in the 10th century. Early letters were carried in the form of a roll, with a wax or lead seal; the earliest known of these seals dates from 1079, and mentions a governor Ratibor of Tmutarakan. The earliest surviving cover was sent in 1391 from La Tana (now Azov) to Venice.

By the 16th century, the postal system included 1,600 locations, and mail took 3 days to travel from Moscow to Novgorod. In 1634, a peace treaty between Russia and Poland established a route to Warsaw, becoming Russia's first regular international service.

Russian Empire

First Russian stamp, 1857
A Russian Empire postman

Peter the Great enacted reforms making the postal system more uniform in its operations, and in 1714 the first general post offices opened in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. “Regular post service” was established along the Moscow and Riga routes. In February 1714, the postal service started biweekly runs from St. Petersburg to Riga; in June it started runs from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The field post office was founded in 1716, and the so-called ordinary post service in 1720, for fast conveyance of state ordinances and papers. Regular delivery of private parcels (the so-called heavy post) was organized in the 1730-40s. In 1746, parcels and private correspondence were first delivered by courier, and starting in 1781 money, too, could be delivered to one's door. The earliest known Russian postmark dates from July 1765; it is a single line reading "ST.PETERSBOVRG" (in Latin letters), but the first official recommendation to use postmarks did not come until 1781.

Post and telegraph office in Vladivostok, built in 1897-1899

Post coaches appeared in 1820. In 1833, the St. Petersburg City Post was created, and the city was divided into 17 districts with 42 correspondence offices, which were located in trade stores. In 1834, reception offices appeared in the suburbs (in St. Petersburg there were as many as 108). Periodical press delivery in Russia was organized in St. Petersburg in 1838. The Department of Coaches and T-carts was opened in 1840 at the Moika Embankment; light cabriolets carried surplus-post, coaches delivered light post, and T-carts dealt with “heavy" post. Green coloured street mail boxes were installed in 1848, the same year stamped envelopes were issued; orange mailboxes for same day service appeared near railway stations in 1851, and post stamps appeared in 1857. In 1864, the City Post started sending printed matter and catalogues, and in 1866, they sent packages.

Postal stationery made its first appearance in 1845, in the form of envelopes that paid the 5-kopeck fee for local mail in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The idea worked well, and was extended throughout Russia on December 1, 1848.

Local postal systems used stamps referred to as Zemstvo stamps, from the term for local government begun under Alexander II in 1864.[5]

Russian Post is a founding member of the Universal Postal Union created in 1874. In 1902 Chief Postal Service was made part of the Internal Affairs Ministry and in 1917 under the Provisional Government it became part of Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs.

Soviet Union

A post office in Svapushche, Tver Oblast
Post office in Voronezh

During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet postal service was a part of the People's Commissariat for Communications of the USSR. It delivered up to 70 million parcels per month to the Soviet Army front from the rear under extremely difficult and often very dangerous conditions.

In the postwar years, mail service has undergone quantitative and qualitative changes. In 1946, the People's Commissariat for Communications of the USSR was transformed into the Ministry of Communications of the USSR. Postal service has been carried out by the Post Office, which was part of the Ministry of Communications, along with other offices of telecommunications industries. By 1950, the post industry, destroyed by the war, was restored and brought to the pre-war level.

In subsequent years, significantly expanded network of communication enterprises, especially in rural areas. In the cities and a network of liaison offices, post offices and subordinate communication centers. Most businesses became combine the post, telegraph and telephone. These communications are typically located in the same building and under single management. A huge network was established of mailboxes was that were installed not only in cities but also in rural areas, stations, railway sidings, at the forks of freeways.

Further development of the postal service followed the path of mechanization and automation of mail processing, improving the organization of its transportation and delivery. For this the old postal equipment was modernized and developing the production of its brand new designs - mail processing and handling machines and equipment for container transport, means of mechanization and post inventory, as well as equipment for customer service.

Russian Federation

In 1993 Russian Post became a part of Ministry of Communications. In 1995, the Office was reorganized into the Federal Service of the Russian Federation postal service, and in 1996 it was reorganized into the Department of Post in the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation. Russian postal enterprises were operating and commercial independence, but with it the strong competition posed by former partners Telecommunication companies. Thus, despite the separation of industries, a unique postal network, established in prior periods and covering almost all localities in the country, has been preserved.

Given the role of the Russian post in the historical development of the state, in 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin established the professional holiday of postal workers - "Day of the Russian Post", which is celebrated annually on the second Sunday in July. Another presidential decree in 1997 restored the heraldic traditions of Russian Post with the adding of the emblem and flag.

Loss of monopoly

In 1996, the Ministry of Communications for the first time decided to violate the state postal monopoly on some postal services, resulting in Russia have commercial mailing companies.

2002 reform

A mailbox in Lipetsk

Since the soviet union dissolved, the Federal Postal Service consisted of a network of 90 disparate entities which were mainly listed as state institutions or federal state unitary enterprises. In legal terms, they were completely independent concerns. They were linked to the Federal Postal Network only by a trunk intrazonal and inter-district transmission and delivery system. The most ridiculous part of the whole system was that different parts of the same system connected by a single mechanism in adjacent regions were competing against each other, which mainly involved trying to lure big corporate clients away from the other competitors often at dumping prices. Also there were no uniform budgeting, planning or other processes. These companies operated using outdated and worn-out postal facilities representing about 50 different IT solutions in terms of industry technology. In accordance with the concept of restructuring the federal postal service, adopted by the Government Decree on 28 June 2002, the postal industry in the Russian Federation carried out the reorganization, aimed at creating a single, highly efficient and competitive company able to make a significant contribution to the solution of urgent problems on the accelerated development of the economy and resulted in the establishment of a single unified operator- Federal Unitary Enterprise Russian Post. By 2005 the reform was completed.

Post-reform period

In 2004 Elsag Datamat won the tender to build Russian Post’s first automated sorting center.[6] In 2008, Andrey Kazmin, former CEO of Sberbank was appointed to the CEO of the company.[7]

Although in January 2009 it was announced that Kazmin had to leave his post as CEO of the Russian Post.[8] Current General Director is Aleksandr Kiselyov.

Growing inefficiency in the 2010s

Russian Post delivery truck (UAZ-3909)

The early 2010s saw a rise in complaints. The number of parcels from foreign online retailers had been rising steadily for several years and was certain to rise further.[9] According to Russian Post’s own estimates, orders from Internet shops are delivered to Russia mostly in ordinary or registered parcels; in 2009 there were 2.3 million, in 2012 the amount soared to 17 million. On March 6, 2012, five trucks from Germany were in queue to be unloaded at Vnukovo International Airport. At the International Post Office there had piled up 12,300 parcels, 5,300 EMS packages, and 36,000 minor incoming parcels. And two thousand parcels were waiting for customs clearance at Sheremetyevo International Airport.[10]

2012 saw the creating of a new resource called "anti-Russianpost.ru" emerged in the world web. The users highlight all instances of Russian Post’s bad work. In the middle of March the clients of on-line retailers launched a massive spam attack on the Moscow office of the Roskomnadzor watchdog. In this period the company received up to 1,000 messages from individuals with complaints about delayed deliveries of purchases made at Internet shops.

2013 collapse and reform

On March 2013 Russian Post reported the unfavorable state of affairs to the authorities of higher instance. In a special message Russian Post’s deputy general director, Nina Fetisova, told the Federal Communications Agency Rossvyaz and the Federal Customs Service the processing of international mail was in a critical situation at the customs posts Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo International Airport and also at the Central International Post Office in Moscow. The director of the federal postal services of the Vologda Oblast said "The reason for delays is not our own ineffectiveness, but the pressure of social factors. We have too many official functions: the delivery of pensions, of written correspondence, and the subscription to newspapers and magazines".

In order to improve the services, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a Government Resolution to take the Russian Post out of the sphere of competence of the Federal Communications Agency Rossvyaz, and subordinated it directly to the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.[10][11] Also, On April of that year, the General Director of the Post, Alexander Kiselyov was ousted from the office.[12]

The company's new management, in October 2013, stated an ambitious goal of doubling revenues to make the company ready for an initial public offering in 2018 by allowing it to provide banking services, reducing the number of unprofitable branches and focusing on providing deliveries from online retailers.[13]

In order to handle the growth of parcels, production capacity has been expanded regional seats of international postal exchange centers, with the company opening new international mail processing centers in Moscow at the Kazan station and in Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. In addition, Russian Post agreed with foreign postal operators sorting international mail delivery by region even in the country of the sender (pre-sorting began in China, the largest importer), which allows to reduce the delivery of international mail. For example, after opening Exchange center in Yekaterinburg, parcel from China to residents of the Sverdlovsk Oblast is delivered in five days, including all customs clearance.[14]

On August 2013 Russian Post had launched its first regional flight in the far eastern Russian republic of Yakutia. The company held a ceremony at Yakutsk Airport to launch its second new airmail plane under a programme to expand links to remote areas, its first being a flight in the Khabarovsk Krai territory on Russia’s east coast. Russian Post deputy director general Alexei Skatin said that "The mail must be delivered on time despite the difficult geography of the region. We are starting to improve the postal logistics in the remote regions of Russia".[15]

2014-2018 development program

In late October 2013 Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev generally approved the Post's development program in a meeting with Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. Among its goals are to turn the Russian Post from a model of "subsidized postal operator" to "self-sustaining postal business", modernization of its infrastructure and making its work more efficient. Also change logistics Companies will create eight main hubs with automated sorting and direct exchange with each other. Service area of each hub will be about 700 km. Number of branches in the cities will grow, while building new areas will be determined by regulations on their placement. In rural areas, there will be new formats of work: "postman plus internal transport" according to the reform. This will reduce the number of unprofitable offices from 14 thousand to about 8.5 thousand, most of whom are in rural areas.[16] Also discussed in the draft is non-discriminatory access to the infrastructure of the postal service.[17] In December 2013, the Government sent its draft law for changing Federal Law "On Postal Communications" which is expected to be approved on Spring of 2014. In that year Russian Post will begin deploying unified ERP system, set of integrated applications that allow you to create a single environment to automate planning, accounting, control and analysis of all core business operations across the enterprise. In September 2013 Deputy Minister of Communications Mikhail Evrayev said one of the major problems of the Russian Post is lack of a unified information system, which must work at the central office and all branches of the Post.[18]

Structure

A post office in Sochi

Russian Post includes:[19]

  • central administrative apparatus, consisting of 22 units (Directorate departments, the Secretariat);
  • 87 branches;
  • 41,901 post office.

Enterprise branches are divided into 82 territorial control federal postal service and 5 specialized, which include:[19]

  • The main center haul mail - FSUE "Russian Post";[19]
  • EMS Russian Post;
  • Automated sorting centers - branch office of Russian Post;
  • Hybrid mail centers - branch office of FSUE Russian Post;
  • Russian Post - FSUE Russian Post in Berlin.

The structure of branches are separate structural subdivisions, including post offices, department of transportation of mail, mainline and regional sorting centers.[19]

Operations

Russian Post offers all traditional mail services in its 42,000 offices. In addition it offers to cash payment cards, make utilities payments, execute cash transfers, receive and pay off consumer loans, purchase lottery, rail, flight and theater tickets as well as retail of various products including phone cards, envelops, postage stamps and more. On October 2012 the Russian Post had launched the SMS-notification for domestic shipments, and since December 2013 in a pilot program, Moscow clients of the Russian Post began receive free SMS-notification of passage of parcels from abroad. According to the press service of the postal operator, notice will inform the customer about the admission of international mail at the point of issuance and will complement the traditional paper notices. In the future, the Post plans to inform the customer via SMS about all stages of the passage of parcels including delivery in Russia, customs control, admission to point of delivery.[20]

Pochtomat

Pochtomat

In late 2010 a new delivery method with automated machines called Pochtomat (Russian: почтомат) which is combination of the words pochta, post in Russian and automat, came into use. In 2011 number of those postmats were deployed in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.[21] In April 2013 the first Pochtomat began working in Saransk[22] and in the summer of 2013 first pochtomat in the South Urals began to work in Chelyabinsk. Automatic issue of shipments made under a special code that the recipient receives a cell phone as an SMS. On receipt of the parcel or parcels given three days, after which the administration is transferred to the post office to deliver the traditional way. By June 2013, Russian Post operated 145 Pochtomat's in 60 cities.[23]

Financial services

On August 2013 Russian Post launched a service of paying loans of any Russian bank. Repayment of loan is a postal transfer to subdsidiary of the Post, ООО "Rapid", then the money is sent by bank transfer to the appropriate bank. Postal employees themselves fill pattern of payment by the customer, then the postal order form printed and signed by the customer. For the provision of postal services operator charges a fee of 1.90% with minimum of 50 rubles.[24]

Postal kiosks

In 2011 the Russian Post launched postal kiosks based on the results of the pilot project. In 2011 seven stalls of 6 square meter each. Besides sending and receiving regular and express mail, insurance and credit cards can be issued, repay loans, pay for cellular communication, Internet and utilities and purchase of railway and flight tickets. In September 2013 the Russian Post management decided to radically revise its approach to retail, and in particular refused to sell food in the offices, It was decided to expand the idea of postal kiosks, and even entered the draft of a new strategy of development of the Russian Post until 2023, which was prepared by Boston Consulting Group. In 2014 the Russian Post plans to open 10-15 new kiosks in Moscow and another 150 in other regions.[25]

Mobile post

Beginning in the 2010s Russian Post began using Mobile Post Van, also called "Post on Wheels" (Russian: Почта на колесах) which drive with driver and post seller into remote villages where the Post office was closed due to being ineffective (small rural communities), and provides all the post services that were once were in the post office.[26]

Regional sorting center

Russia's first automated regional sorting center opened in Podolsk, near Moscow in late 2009, using equipment of Italian Elsag Datamat SpA, it invested 55 million euros. In June 2011 another center was opened, in Saint Petersburg, which serves the Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov Oblasts.[27]

International exchange points

Russian Post operates 13 points of customs clearance of postal items. Until 2013, the Moscow MMPO processed up to 80% of all incoming international shipments to Russia which created much stress on the Russian Post. In order to speed up the time for delivery of international parcels, the Russian Post opened two new international postal exchange points in Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. The latter one can process up to two thousand international EMS-daily departures, with an area more than 2,000 square meters. The Yekaterinburg Koltsovo international postal exchange point is the first international postal exchange in the Urals Federal District. It can handle up to 20,000 parcels and small packets per day in the 3,700m facility. Until the end of 2014 Russian Post expects to reduce the Moscow point of exchange share to 55%.[28][29] In addition there are exchange points in Bryansk, Samara, Orenburg, Petrozavodsk and Vladivostok.[30][31]

Foreign cooperation

In 2009, a first formal cooperation agreement came between the Russia and Italy to work together to develop the postal system in Russia. On late November 2013 Russian Post and Poste Italiane have signed a new agreement to cooperate further in order to improve the Russian postal system. The agreement, which was signed along with their technology supplier Selex, was sealed at a trade summit in Trieste during an official visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, following up earlier agreements between the three companies. Along with development of e-commerce and international express mail services, the new agreement aims to develop hybrid mail in Russia for businesses, direct marketing and e-government services. This would allow mailers to send information electronically to be turned into physical mailpieces local to the recipient.[32]

See also

References

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  5. ↑ See, for example, [1].
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Подразделения аппарата управления
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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