06.10.2021

“The increase in the parcel traffic and the reduction of the delivery times, together with the increase in the number of providers, the enhancement of competition and the installation of parcel lockers are the main features of the postal service market in 2020. The sanitary crisis and the electronic commerce spread out and this is visible in the traffic and revenues specific to the postal service market. The delivery of online orders has thus become the main driver of the postal sector”, Mr. Eduard Lovin, vice-president of ANCOM, has said. Infographic here.

Postal traffic in 2020

Postal parcels have come to account for a third (34%, from 26% in 2019) within the total 568 million postal items (up by 2% from 2019), while correspondence items hold 59% share. The robust growth of the parcel traffic fuelled the 22% increase in 2020 of the revenues obtained from the provision of postal services, reaching 3.7 billion lei. The average number of postal items per inhabitant was 30, of which 10 were parcels.

·        Parcels

The parcel traffic grew by 33%, to 191 million, and generated revenues surpassing 2.9 billion lei (+29%), which means an average revenue of more than 15 lei/parcel (13 lei for a domestic parcel, sent on the Romanian territory, compared to 108 lei for a cross-border parcel, sent from Romania to other countries).

The domestic parcels were delivered on average in 1.3 days from their induction into the postal networks, 84% of these being delivered the next day and only 1% in 5 or more days. The share of the parcels delivered through automated systems (parcel lockers) is still very low, although it surpassed the 1% threshold. Most of the users (94%) prefer to receive the domestic parcels to the specified addresses (home or work).

The main competitors in 2020 on the parcel delivery market, by traffic, were Fan Courier (31%), Sameday (17%) and Cargus (15%).

·        Correspondence

Despite holding almost 60% share in the total postal traffic in Romania, the correspondence items and the printed matter items have generated only 18% of the market revenues, the average revenue obtained per this type of items being 2 lei.

96% of the correspondence and printed matter items were delivered in Romania, generated an average revenue of 1.6 lei per unit and reached their addressee in 2.4 days, almost double compared to a parcel delivery time.

Value of postal market

The total worth of the postal service market in 2020 was 3.7 billion lei, by 22% more than in 2019. The revenues obtained from the domestic postal traffic amounted to 2.9 billion, increasing by over 28%. Thus, the almost 30 postal items/inhabitant registered in 2020 generated average revenues from postal services worth 192 lei, by more than 22% more than in the previous year.

In keeping with the revenues obtained from postal services in 2020, the main competitors on the Romanian postal market are Fan Courier, with 23% market share, Romanian Post National Company (17%) and Sameday, with 12% within the total revenues.

Universal service

The traffic of items within the scope of universal service reached 206 million items in 2020 (up by more than 6% from last year, due to domestic items). The decrease by almost 20% of the cross-border traffic within the scope of universal service was compensated by the 11% increase of the domestic traffic, which has come to account for 88% of the universal service traffic.

In 2020, through universal service were distributed, among others, more than 28 million pay slips for social welfare rights and information documents issued by the National House of Pensions.

The universal service thus contributed by 36% to the postal traffic and by more than 16% to the total revenues of the sector.

Complaints concerning postal services

The total number of complaints received by the postal service providers grew by 23% in 2020, but the number of those considered grounded remained steady (105 thousand). For 70 thousand complaints, compensations worth 13.4 million lei were granted, meaning an average compensation of 191 lei, down by 36% compared to 2019.

Information from market studies 

According to the information obtained from a market study commissioned by ANCOM at the end of 2020, 26% of the respondents used postal services in the last year as senders. 19% of the senders of parcels used these services several times a month, and 46% several times a year. As for online purchases, one third of the postal service users made such purchases several times a month, other 31% saying that they bought online several times a year. 20% of the postal users have never ordered online.

The full report on the Romanian postal service market in 2020 is available for consultation here.