Challenging times for Ceska Posta

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2007 ... -posta.php

Traditional postal service providers are experiencing challenging times. The golden age of mail is gone, killed by the advent of electronic communications, while postal operators in the Czech Republic and abroad are pushing to discover new rationales for their existence.

Besides the blow posed by the communications revolution, national postal service providers are losing their old privileges. As of 2011, their monopoly over delivery of letters weighing less than 50 grams should dissolve, ushering in a competitive and level postal services market.

Originally, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, advocated opening the postal markets in 2009. However, in the face of strong opposition among some member states, a compromise was reached earlier this year, with the European Parliament expected next year to set 2011 as the deadline.

Although Česká poÅ¡ta (ČP), the Czech Republic’s state-owned postal provider, and its counterparts in 10 other EU member states have won another two years to prepare for liberalization, deferring the deadline to 2013, the company has already set about preparing for the future’s stiff competition and Internet-era peculiarities.

As of 2009, ČP will be transformed into a joint-stock company. This should make the company more competitive, flexible and customer-friendly, according to the government. The move could also clear the way for a future privatization, observers say.

Apart from this inner change, ČP must cope with outward pressures. Recent research has shown that further switching from traditional postal services to electronic communications is still ahead, said Gabriel Pleska from the ČP press department.

“Česká poÅ¡ta is aware of the fact that there will be fewer regular letters to deliver,â€