Operating conditions

Keyword basic service

The term ‘basic service’ is often understood to mean Swiss Post’s entire range of services. But only some of these comprise the public postal service – the universal service as defined in the Postal Act. Swiss Post fulfils these legal requirements in their entirety. It also provides services that go beyond these requirements. For instance, according to the Postal Act, Priority Mail letters must be delivered on at least five days a week – Swiss Post delivers them on six days.

90% in 20 minutes

Swiss Post has had an infrastructure mandate since 1January2004. It must operate a nationwide post office network. Moreover, a post office providing the universal service must be available within a reasonable distance, i.e. within 20 minutes for 90% of the population. The decisive factor is how reachable the post office is either by public transport or on foot.

When relocating or closing post offices, Swiss Post listens to the authorities in the affected communities and endeavours to come to a mutually acceptable solution. The Federal Council also considers agencies to be post offices. The home delivery service is recognized as a way of ensuring the basic service in place of post offices. However, the Federal Council and Parliament expressly refrain from setting any legal requirements for the exact number of post offices.

The new postal legislation

In its review of post offices, Swiss Post has observed all the relevant operating conditions and requirements. But the Federal Council also requires it to cope with change. This means focusing on customers, working cost-effectively, providing competitive services and increasing the value of the company. The deregulation of the postal market in Europe is bringing about changes in the Swiss postal market. In turn, this necessitates a complete revision of postal legislation, which was approved by the two chambers of Switzerland’s parliament at the end of 2010.

The new system is intended to create operating conditions under which all providers of postal services will be subject to the same rules, and to ensure that the quality of the basic service is high. Swiss Post will thus remain obliged to guarantee the basic service (postal services and payments) throughout the country. As in the past, another requirement concerns a nationwide network of access points. These include both post offices and agencies (“shop post office”).

As a result of the revised postal legislation, Swiss Post will have a modern structure and legal basis, providing it with sufficient entrepreneurial scope. The legislation is due to take effect in mid-2012. The associated transformation of Swiss Post into a public company owned by the Confederation is set to take place in early 2013.

Market liberalization with the possibility of having a say

Market deregulation in Switzerland is taking place in stages. On 1 July 2009, the Federal Council issued an ordinance under which the letter monopoly was lowered to 50 g. There are no plans to abolish this in the immediate future. However, the Federal Council has to submit a report to parliament by the end of the first three years after the new postal legislation comes into force that describes the consequences of market liberalization to 50 g and trends in European postal markets following their complete deregulation.  

What’s happening abroad?

The sales network of most European countries differs from that of Switzerland. For instance, the proportion of agencies is significantly higher (the EU average is well over 50%). This is due in particular to the fact that payments – unlike in Switzerland – are not part of the universal service. Moreover, lower requirements in terms of security facilitate the spread of agencies abroad.

On 1 January 2011, ten member states of the European Union ended their postal monopolies under the terms of the European Union’s Third Postal Directive, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain joined the other six countries that have already ended their postal monopoly rights – Estonia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In these countries, the last and largest reserved area of the mail – letters up to 50 grams – is now open to competition. As a result, some 95% of the EU’s internal postal market is liberalized.

The remaining eleven EU member states – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia – have, however, been granted an additional two years to implement full liberalization in their countries.