The Czech Post passed through the demanding period of the first half of 2010, marked with reducing income from the letter mail and growing competition in the parcel mail segments, with a CZK 608 million profit. It may still be significantly changed by the next half-year results, but it is already clear that the Czech Post will meet the plan and finish the year in profit.

"The uneasy position of the Czech Post, which is due to its long-time underinvestment policy and years of negligence over a number of processes, puts us at competitive disadvantage on the already almost fully open market. The very much positive financial results must therefore be seen as a minimum input for the complicated period we are facing. What I consider as a success is that the positive results are mainly due to our policy of maximum savings in all areas which do not have a negative impact on our development," said Czech Post's Director General Marcela Hrdá.

Saving without affecting the quality of postal service

The Czech Post is obliged to provide certain quality of service. The minimum quality level has been set by the Czech Telecommunication Office's (CTO) requirements. The Czech Post has been maintaining the parameters of all criteria set for mail transportation quality. For instance, the CTO requires that 92.5% of all ordinary letter mail must be delivered the next day. The percentage of ordinary letter mail delivered the next day by the Czech Post was 94.05%, according to an independent agency survey for the first half of 2010.

The number of complaints filed by the Czech Post's customers as well as the amount of compensation paid (and, logically, the related number of claims) were significantly lower. The number of complaints fell by 24.6% (to 1,823 complaints), lost items by 12.37% (to 6,142), damaged items by 8.5% (to 4,026) against same time last year. For comparison: The total number of items delivered by the Czech Post in the first half of 2010 in its domestic service was 325.887 million.

New projects to increase customer satisfaction

Evening parcel delivery service is a pilot test currently run by the Czech Post. The results of the test show that - providing the CTO approves new postal standards - the successful delivery rate in larger cities can be increased from the current fifty-five to ninety percent. The Czech Post is going to include also smaller residential areas in April next year. A national coverage should be reached in the rest of next year.

Postal Supermarket is an eShop as well as mail order project to be launched at the end of 2010. The project is expected to increase satisfaction of customers mainly in remote areas, allowing them to order goods at cheaper prices. It may also attract the younger Internet generation who will get access to cheaper postage.

The number of post offices offering CzechPOINT services further grew, by 80 to the overall 930 locations. The locations using access to public information systems offer a whole range of services. The most attractive were extracts from public registers: their number increased by 63% against same time last year (the total number of certified extracts from the Criminal, Land, Commercial, Driver and other registers issued by the Czech Post in the first half of 2010 was 455,591).

A number of new services should appear in the second half of 2010.

Marta Selicharová
Spokeswoman
Czech Post
selicharova.marta@cpost.cz