Russian Post has uncovered violations by a subcontractor responsible for its air mail transportand has decided to switch to direct agreements with airlines and their authorised
representatives.Due to the increasing number of customers complaining about delays in delivery of air mail fromvarious regions, Russian Post started reviewing the performance quality of the contractingcompanies it entrusted with delivering mail shipments by air. The analysis over the last six monthsshowed that the agents used cheaper modes of transport, including road, rail and sea transportinstead of air deliveries on a regular basis in order to save money.
This economy has led to significant delays in mail delivery on long-distance routes − forexample, from Moscow to Vladivostok − and intra-regional routes, for example to the Krasnoyarskregion, where regional air flights were supposed to be used. Mail deliveries by road instead of airtransport were detected in numerous sorting centres, including in Vladivostok, Irkutsk,Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Khabarovsk, among others.
Russian Post said these violations had caused significant damages to the postal operator.Moreover, the company said it considers these delivery practices unacceptable in terms of customerinterests and therefore demanded the contractors to strictly stick to the agreements. However,Russian Post said the transport companies didn’t change their working scheme.
The audited information conducted by Russian Post’s special units has been transferred to theGeneral Department of Economic Security and Countering Corruption of the Russian Interior Ministry,which will consider criminal proceedings against the companies abusing their agreements.
As a consequence from the incident, Russian Post is negotiating direct agreements with severalregional airlines, expected to be signed shortly.
With the change in its working scheme, Russian Post said it aims to significantly reduce thedelivery times to the regions, with air mail being delivered several times faster, as it was alwayssupposed to, the company said. In addition, Russian Post said direct contracts with airlines wouldreduce the time mail spends waiting at airports for flights, further improving transit times.These measures will together enable the company to achieve its stipulated delivery quality levels,with at least 90% of mail shipments arriving on time in compliance with regulatoryrequirements.
