Several European countries have defined obligations on the accessibility to postal establishments and letterboxes, that is, to points of access to the network of the universal service provider.
Postal establishments:
Country Criterion
AT The minimum number of postal establishments is 1650, available throughout that country. In locations with more than 10 000 inhabitants, and in all district capitals at least 90% of the population, must have access to postal establishments within 2000 meters, or, in all other areas, within 10 000 meters.
BE The universal postal service provider must ensure at least 1300 points of access to postal services (including post stations) and at least one in each “community”, that is, 589.
BG One post station per a specific number of inhabitants.
CZ The population must be able to get to the post station using public transports, and where this is not possible, residential areas should be within 2 km from a post station.
DK At least one postal establishment in each municipality and each city with more than 5000 inhabitants. The maximum distance (in a straight line) travelled by a consumer should not exceed 5 km. In cities with a number of inhabitants between 2000 and 5000, the provider of the universal postal service must not close a postal establishment unless it is replaced by a new one. In small cities and villages, postal establishments may not be closed in case the distance of users to the nearest postal establishment increases by more than 10 km in a straight line.
EE One post station per city and per parish. Additional post stations must be established in cities with more than 20 000 inhabitants, for each 20 000 inhabitants, and in each parish with more than 2500 inhabitants.
FI According to the Finnish postal law, the provider of the universal postal service must maintain customer service points where products and services covered by the scope of the universal service are made available, without any obstacles and within a reasonable distance from the permanent residence of clients. The density of the population in the region and the coverage of customer service points must be taken into account in the determination of the location of customer service points and in the definition of reasonable distance. The provider of the universal postal service must, in each municipality, maintain at least one customer service point providing universal services. Other provisions on the location of customer service points may be established by Government decree.
FR Post stations providing postal services and not bulk mail must be located so that 99% of the national population and at least 95% of the population in each province (“department”) is within 10 km from a post station. In locations with more than 10 000 inhabitants, there must be at least one post station per each 20 000 inhabitants.
GE No provider of universal postal service has been designated in Germany. Requirements in force for postal establishments are set out in secondary legislation.
In Germany there must be at least 12 000 fixed postal facilities. In each community with more than 4000 inhabitants there must be t least one fixed postal facility. In urban areas, clients should be within 2000 meters from the nearest fixed postal facility. In each rural district, there must be at least one fixed postal facility for each 80 Km2.
HU In cities with less than 600 inhabitants, the provider of the universal postal service must ensure a fixed postal establishment or a mobile station. In cities between 600 and 1000 inhabitants, the provider of the universal postal service must ensure a fixed postal establishment, or in case of agreement with the municipality, a mobile station. In cities with more than 1000 inhabitants, the provider of the universal postal service must ensure a fixed postal establishment. In cities with more than 20 000 inhabitants, there must be at least one fixed postal establishment per each 20 000 inhabitants, and users must be able to travel, in a straight line, not more than 3 km to the nearest postal establishment, and the distance between two postal establishment must not exceed 6 km in a straight line.
IT The provider of the universal postal service must ensure the provision of services included in the universal service obligation at least five days a week, within all national territory.
In administrative units (small cities and towns) with only one post station, the latter may not be closed and must operate at least three working days and eighteen hours a week.
LT In urban areas, users must be within 3 km. In rural areas, there must be a point of access per locality.
MT The USP must ensure at least 59 postal outlets.
NL The provider of the universal postal service must ensure a network of at least 2000 customer service points, 902 of which must provide a full range of services. The provider of the universal postal service must also guarantee that the referred network of customer service points complies with the following requirements: (i) distribution throughout all the Dutch territory of customer service points providing a full range of services, in a range of 5 km for at least 95% of residents; (ii) distribution of customer service points providing a full range of services outside urban centres with more than 5000 inhabitants, in a range of 5 km for at least 85% of residents. The full range of services is defined by ministerial regulation.
PL The postal operator must establish at least 8240 contact points throughout the country, which must be located taking into account service demand in specific areas. The postal operator’s contact point must cover in average in the country: (i) 7000 inhabitants in urban areas; (ii) an area of 85 km2 in rural areas. At least one contact point of the postal operator must be established in each gmina (main unit of administrative division in Poland, at the lowest level). In case of gmina with more than 5000 inhabitants, it may be served also by the area of operation of the contact point located in the area of the neighbouring gmina or through a mobile contact point of the postal operator, insofar as: (i) the place of installation ensures a more efficient customer service provided to clients residing in the area covered by this point of contact; (ii) the location is agreed with the gmina authorities.
RO For each location there must be at least one post station.
SI The provider of the universal postal service must comply with requirements to install a post station in each municipality of the Slovenian territory, where 95% of the population must be within 4.5 km from the nearest post station, in a straight line.
UK The Post Office must achieve the following indicators: i) 99% of the population must be within 3 miles from the nearest postal establishment; ii) 90% of the population must be within one mile of the nearest postal establishment; iii) 99% of total population in deprived urban areas in the whole country must be within one mile of the nearest postal establishment; iv) 95% of total urban population in the whole country must be within one mile of the nearest postal establishment; v) 95% of total rural population in the whole country must be within three miles of the nearest postal establishment; vi) 95% of the population of each postal code must be within 6 miles of the nearest postal establishment.
Source: ERGP reports and ANACOM research.
Notes: BE – Belgium, BG – Bulgaria, CY – Cyprus, CZ – Czech Republic, DK – Denmark, GE – Germany, EE – Estonia, GR – Greece, FI – Finland, FR – France, IE – Ireland, LV – Latvia, LT – Lithuania, NL – The Netherlands, HR – Croatia, HU – Hungary, MT – Malta, AT – Austria, PL – Poland, RO – Romania, SI – Slovenia, SK – Slovakia and UK – United Kingdom.
Letterboxes:
Country Criterion
AT In populous residential areas, the distance to a letterbox must not exceed 1km.
BE There must be at least one letterbox per “community”, that is, 2359 (situation in 1971).
BG One collection from letterboxes per a specific number of inhabitants, depending on the type of location.
CY The provider of the universal postal service must ensure the sitting of at least one letterbox per 1000 inhabitants for the collection of items of correspondence, and at least one letterbox in localities with less than 1000 inhabitants.
CZ In each residential area with a higher degree of demand (touristic areas), the universal postal service provider must increase the number of letterboxes.
DK The provider of the universal postal service must ensure an appropriate number of letterboxes.
EE All cities or parishes must be provided with at least two letterboxes. In cities the minimum distance is 0.5 km and in parishes it is 2 km.
GE Users in usually contiguous constructed areas must, as a rule, be within 1000 meters from a letterbox.
GR A letterbox in each rural locality and at least one letterbox for each 1000 inhabitants in urban areas.
HU The USP must set up a letterbox in all cities with a post station, which must be within 1 km from users, and distance between letterboxes must not exceed 2 km.
IE The Irish regulator decided that users should not travel more than 1 km in urban areas with 1500 inhabitants or more than 3 km in rural areas to reach a point of access.
LV In the capital city, Riga, there must be one letterbox per 5000 inhabitants, in other cities one letterbox per 3000 inhabitants, and in rural areas one letterbox per parish and one letterbox in post stations.
LT In urban areas, letterboxes must be within 2 km in a straight line. In rural areas with more than 200 addresses, there must be a letterbox.
MT In localities with density above the average national density, 98% of users must be within 400 m of a letterbox; in other locations with a lower density, the distance is 800 m to a letterbox.
NL In residential centres with more than 5000 inhabitants, the provider of the universal postal service must provide a letterbox within a radius of 500m for the deposit of items of correspondence. In other areas, the provider of the universal postal service must provide a letterbox within a radius of 2500m.
PL The number of letterboxes set by the postal operator in a specific postal area must be adjusted to the needs of the local community.
RO At least one point of access per locality.
SI One letterbox: in cities with less than 5 000 inhabitants for each 400 inhabitants; in cities between 5 001 and 25 000 inhabitants, for each 700 inhabitants; in cities between 25 001 and 80 000 inhabitants, for each 1 000 inhabitants; in cities between 80 001 and 250 000 inhabitants, for each 1 300 inhabitants and in cities with more than 250 000 inhabitants, for each 1 500 inhabitants.
UK Obligation on the USP to report every year: i) the percentage of distribution points in all territory, where there must be one letterbox at 0.5 miles in a straight line from its facilities, including the methodology used (system used and measures taken to make this calculation); ii) total number of letterboxes in all the country and per nation, including a comparison with the previous year, where appropriate; number of complaints received by the USP by users in a given year, concerning the provision/location of letterboxes.
Source: ERGP reports and ANACOM research.
Notes: BE – Belgium, BG – Bulgaria, CY – Cyprus, CZ – Czech Republic, DK – Denmark, DE – Germany, EE – Estonia, GR – Greece, FI – Finland, FR – France, IE – Ireland, LV – Latvia, LT – Lithuania, NL – The Netherlands, HR – Croatia, HU – Hungary, MT – Malta, AT – Austria, PL – Poland, RO – Romania, SI – Slovenia, SK – Slovakia and UK – United Kingdom
Working hours at points of access:
Country Criterion
AT As a rule, postal establishments must work on a daily basis at least five working days a week and must not operate less than twenty hours every week, except for postal establishments managed by a municipality, which must operate a total of at least fifteen hours, three working days a week.
The working hours of postal establishments must take into account user needs in the respective locality and may be extended to Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
BE The Belgian provider of the universal postal service is obliged to maintain post stations open a few hours outside normal working hours.
HR The provider of the universal postal service determines working hours of post stations according to user needs, the quality of service and other market requirements. Post stations work full-time, part-time and extended working hours (from 7 am to 12 pm).
CY At least the same working hours as the public service.
CZ At least one post station must operate in residential areas with more than 10 000 inhabitants on Saturdays.
At least one post station must operate in residential areas with more than 100 000 inhabitants and in each metropolitan region on Sundays.
At least one post station must operate in residential areas with more than 250 000 inhabitants, every day until 12 pm (on an around-the-clock basis). This condition is not required on Sundays and holidays where the following day is a holiday.
EE Postal establishments open at the earliest at 8 am, and close at the latest at 6 pm. Post stations must work at least two hours a day.
GE Operation 6 days a week, according to demand.
GR Most post stations of the universal postal service provider operates from 7:30 am to 14 pm on working days (Monday to Friday, excluding national holidays) However, there are specific post stations with a high degree of users (for example, airport and centre of Athens) where post stations are open 7 days a week and operating from early morning until night.
HU Working hours of fixed postal establishments managed by the universal postal service provider and by licensed postal service providers must take into account needs and volume of the business.
Working hours must occur over a continuous period or divided in two parts.
Postal establishments operating less than two hours a day are not considered as permanent postal establishments. Fixed postal establishments managed by the universal postal service provider and by licensed postal service providers must provide at least two hours of daily service between 7 am and 20 pm.
In cities with at least 15 000 residing inhabitants there must be at least one postal establishment operating on a daily basis at least six hours all working days, where one operating hour must be before 8 am or after 5 pm.
IT The provider of the universal postal service must ensure the provision of services included in the universal service obligation at least five days a week, in all national territory.
In administrative units (small cities and towns) with only one post station, the latter may not be closed and must operate at least three working days and at least eighteen hours a week.
MT Proposals for alteration of working hours of postal establishments must be notified to the regulator at least twenty working days ahead and may only be applied where approved by the regulator.
RO 8 hours per day.
RS The universal postal service provider must ensure the collection of postal items in post stations during the day, every working day, not less than five days per week, save in case of national and religious holidays, force majeure and for reasons such as an illness and safety of staff.
The universal postal service provider may also designate which postal stations must be opened on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
Working hours of post stations providing the universal service must be laid down in a special statutory instrument of the universal service provider, which must be approved by the regulator.
Permanent post stations must operate at least 2 (two) hours per day. The universal postal service provider may change working hours of post stations, but only after an economic analysis that justifies such change, informing the regulator thereof.
SK For post stations in residential units/villages, the following has been defined:
- Less than 3000 inhabitants, or in an area of the sub-region, with less than 5000 inhabitants: working hours on working days occur in the morning and/or afternoon period and not less than 3 hours per working day. It must operate at least once per week in the afternoon, or at least once per week until 5 pm;
- 3001 to 5000 inhabitants: working hours on working days run, at least, between 8:30 am and 3 pm, including technological and operational interruptions or lunch breaks and at least one working day until 5 pm;
- 5 001 to 10 000 inhabitants: working hours on working days run, at least, between 8:30 am and 4 pm, including technological and operational interruptions or lunch breaks and at least one working day until 5 pm;
- 10 001 to 50 000 inhabitants: working hours on working days run from 8 am to 5 pm;
- More than 50 000 inhabitants: working hours on working days run from 8 am to 6 pm, designated post stations start operating at 7 am.
SI Five working days, at least two consecutive hours. On working days and once a week, two consecutive hours after 3 pm.
Source: ERGP reports and ANACOM research.
Notes: BE – Belgium, BG – Bulgaria, CY – Cyprus, CZ – Czech Republic, DK – Denmark, DE – Germany, EE – Estonia, GR – Greece, FI – Finland, FR – France, IE – Ireland, LV – Latvia, LT – Lithuania, NL – The Netherlands, HR – Croatia, HU – Hungary, MT – Malta, AT – Austria, PL – Poland, RO – Romania, SI – Slovenia, SK – Slovakia and UK – United Kingdom
