Russian Post has multiplied its international parcel volumes (including small packages) by 1.5 times shipping 49 million items in total during the first half-year of 2015, compared to the same period in 2014, mainly due to the increased number of orders from internet shops.
This was even a threefold increase compared to the first half of 2013.
In May 2015, Russian Post handled the highest number of international shipments with over 12 million items. This is 2.3 times more than in May 2014 and four times more than in May 2013.
Another positive development in the second quarter of this year was the reduction in customer complaints which went down by 14%, compared to the first quarter, according to the Russian postal operator.
Alexey Skatin, Deputy General Director Russian Post, Logistics, said: “The sharp rise in the number of international shipments is largely due to the increasing number of orders from online shops, which account for about 80% of inbound international mail and parcel flows. The shipment volumes in May even surpassed the "peak" period in December 2014, and we have successfully coped with it.”
Thanks to optimising its logistics processes and developing the electronic data exchange, Russian Post was able to considerably reduce the delivery times of international shipments over the last two years. Currently, the delivery times to Central Russia average 7-10 days and 15-20 days across the country. In 2012, the average delivery times for international shipments exceeded 1.5-2 months.
To continuously speed up the delivery times, Russian Post is developing services for the "last mile". For example, the company has opened new service points for parcel pick-up and drop-off, introduced a new address-based system for storing shipments at the post offices and launched home deliveries of small packages and parcels.
