The Romanian postal services market registered an increase of 7.8% in 2013, mainly due to more active alternative providers, reads a statement of the National Communication Authority ANCOM. Although the Romanian Post continues to process most of the postal items, namely 68% of the total, the alternative providers registered a 33% increase in total traffic.

“In 2013, about half a billion postal items were processed in Romania (items of correspondence, printed items, parcels) – out of which 530.1 million domestic items and 34.1 million international items. Both domestic and international traffic registered growth in 2013, of 7.4% and 14.4% respectively,” according to ANCOM.

The Romanian Post’s total traffic continued to drop last year, while the alternative providers’ traffic reached the highest level so far, increasing by more than 33% compared to 2012.

Most of domestic postal items processed in 2013, namely 92.7%, were correspondence and printed items, small parcels and direct mail items. This segment increased by 6.7% year-on-year in 2013, when over 376 million items were processed.

Some 26.8 million postal parcels were collected and distributed last year, up 12.22% against 2012. Express services also saw an important traffic growth in 2013, of 52.6%, when compared to the previous year, according to ANCOM.

There were 124,000 complaints about postal services, out of which almost 25,000 were deemed justified. In the end some 9,500 complaints were solved, and some EUR 566,000 worth of compensations were paid.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com