Minister of Transport and Communications on the Lithuanian Post situation: if the new system is not implemented, we would see an even bigger crisis from July Business

The minister said the postal shipping crisis was caused by increased flows and the launch of a new automation system at a similar time.

“There is no need to hide, there are many complaints about Lithuanian postal services. Our company also faces reputational challenges. The unrest was caused by both subjective and objective circumstances. Shipments in March this year compared to 2020. flow in March, it rose 2.5 times. “Our position in the automated distribution system was the last in Europe, but without that system, as we will see in July, we would have been in a crisis situation,” said the minister.

In March, the Lithuanian Post opened 24 million. Vilnius logistics center, which costs euros. Commenting on the letters and late shipments, company managers cited the center’s outage as the reason.

As of July 1 of this year. shipments from third countries will no longer benefit from the tax credit. In other words, so far, shipments worth up to € 22 have not cleared customs and since July 1. it will be necessary to do so. It will not be possible to attend these flows manually, up to 10,000 per day, ”said the Minister.

M.Skuodis said that by looking at the situation at the post office, he sees the efforts of the company’s managers and staff. According to him, today the parcel delivery situation is stabilized.

The minister added that currently one of the most important objectives of the company is communication with stakeholders.

He also indicated the new goals of the Lithuanian Post. “One of the objectives is to increase the market share of the services. This is really important because the customer is always right. It will take a lot of work with the customers to improve the quality of the services. Being a state-owned company, as a shareholder , the financial sustainability of the company is also very important to us. Third is reputation. We must not forget about universal postal service, guaranteeing services throughout Lithuania. That should be a priority, “he said.

Mail traffic that fell in July won’t pick up until at least December

Lithuanian Post director Asta Sungailienė presented the results of last year’s Lithuanian Post to the committee.

According to the Communications Regulatory Authority, the postal services market grew 12% last year, while the Lithuanian Post’s share in this segment grew 9%. “It should be noted that the market is not homogeneous. Postal services compared to 2019 decreased by 10 percent. Traditional commercial services remained at the same level, courier and mail services grew very significantly, up to 145 percent, “said the manager.

Lithuanian Post occupies 36 percent. postal services markets. In the field of universal services, Lietuvos Paštas is the only service provider and in other areas it competes with parcel companies.

According to A. Sungailienė, the volume of letters sent is decreasing every year. In 2016 36 million were delivered. letters, by 2020, only 24 million. emails. It is true that the volume of items shipped increased from 16 million to 24 million during the same period.

According to the forecasts of Lithuanian Post, due to the removal of preferences for packages from third countries from July this year, the market will experience a significant change. Volumes of items sent via post from Lithuania are expected to be lower than in 2020. It will remain until at least December.

Parliamentarians lack a ‘human factor’ in the new postal system

Representatives for the Lithuanian Post emphasized at the meeting that incorrectly addressed issues also cause challenges for faster delivery, even around 30 percent. incoming shipments are treated incorrectly. Devices with such addresses cannot be scanned, so shipments are delayed and then manually sorted, shipment takes time to travel.

Social Democrat Gintautas Paluckas said that such statements seemed to him a transfer of full responsibility to consumers. “The old system was much more tolerant of human errors: after writing a letter to Kazlauskas in Vieviržėnai, the postman could easily deliver it, because everyone knew who it was for. Now the packages are lying around for two weeks, because the automatic delivery system addresses did not find the exact address, “said G. Paluckas.

He said the problem should be addressed and adapted to human needs, as residents would continue to make mistakes when writing addresses.

He was also joined by the chairman of the committee, the conservative Kazys Starkevičius, who said the new order may be less acceptable to a part of the population accustomed to the role of the post office as an institution that performs an additional social function.

The director of the Lithuanian Post Service stated that the institution distributes all letters, but residents who have provided incorrect addresses will have to wait longer to receive their packages.

“What the system does not handle, we will focus on manual distribution until our residents and businesses adapt. As the experience of other countries shows, people and companies are adapting. They understand that without writing down the address, the shipment will not go away. In time we will get used to it. However, I want to emphasize that the parallel distribution option remains, but these shipments will not be able to travel at the same speed, ”said A. Sungailienė.