February the 21st, 2021 - Croatian islanders have voiced their irritation at alleged discrimination from Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) as certain types of mail continue to fail to reach them owing to an odd decision made by Croatian Post. 

Croatian Post is often the butt of the joke when it comes to talking about snail mail, mail which simply never arrives or postmen claiming they've knocked at your door when they quite honestly haven't, but for Croatian islanders, issues with the Croatian postal system have been seriously raised.

As Morski writes, Croatian islanders, more specifically the annoyed residents of the island of Premuda are far from happy with the performance of Croatian Post, which, as they say, has been preventing them from receiving any packages heavier than 2 kilograms since mid-February. Letters warning of discrimination against Croatian islanders were sent to the various addresses of Croatian Post, but also to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure.

''As of Friday, February the 12th, 2021, the residents of the island of Premuda are no longer able to order supplies through the web store of Croatian Post, Yellow Click, if the package weighs more than 2 kilograms. Through their website, it's possible to order only through the HP Express service, which is disabled for the islands of Premuda, Silba, Olib, Molat, Ist… Throughout the past year, Croatian islanders have used this service mostly for potatoes, apples and the like because the agricultural season was bad, and a pandemic ensued.

We have a great internet connection, the web store is booming, and the only option for those of us who live on the islands is being abolished? This is Croatian Post, 100 percent owned by the state. The islands have a post office like we have shipping lines, and we can't just let this issue go so easily. Does the state intend to abolish the post office as their next step, too? Another job removed from the island? Disable Croatian islanders the use of a postal service throughout the year, on every working day? These letters are being sent by the residents of Premuda to the authorities, feel free to download them and ask for a statement,'' warned Lea Grdovic.

In the letter they sent to Croatian Post and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, it says:

''To whom it may concern, we're addressing you because of the decision of Croatian Post not to deliver packages to some islands, including the island of Premuda. The island is connected to the mainland by ferry three times a week. The journey takes several hours, and the inhabitants of the island are mostly elderly people and it isn't easy for them to travel to Zadar. Package shipments are even more important to Croatian islanders during these pandemic-dominated times, because they're often the only way for people to get certain things from the mainland and from abroad.

The decision of Croatian Post discriminates against the inhabitants of the islands in relation to other inhabitants of Croatia. They cannot choose between other delivery services, but are dependent exclusively on Croatian Post. The country's postal services are under your jurisdiction and should be available to all residents of this country, so please allow the residents of Premuda to receive and send packages that mean everything to them,'' said the locals of the island of Premuda in their joint letter.

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December the 12th, 2020 - Hrvatska Posta/Croatian Post hasn't been immune to the devastating economic woes caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and the president of the management board, Ivan Culo, has addressed the pandemic-induced difficulties.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, Hrvatska Posta - another large company whose normal activities and operations are currently significantly affected by the pandemic - is recording a high number of as many as 20 percent of its employees being placed into self-isolation. This fact, which understandably can't be influenced, is causing negative effects during the period in which annual ''peaks'' in parcel traffic on a daily and monthly basis occur - otherwise characteristic of the pre-festive Christmas period, additionally burdened by the effect of the recent Black Friday shopping.

With market changes, for example due to the limited possibilities with air parcel delivery, this new and unprecedented situation in which we currently all find ourselves has led to a lot of congestion in parcel traffic when compared to a number of previous years in Croatia, the region and beyond. Quite understandably, the number of customer inquiries and complaints has gone hand in hand with the difficulties and delays being experienced by Hrvatska Posta.

On this occasion, the President of the Management Board of Hrvatska Posta, Ivan Culo, explained that they're not trying to deny the existence of certain difficulties within the company, but as December is a really specific month in terms of mail for postal operators across Europe, their colleagues in Slovenia, Austria and Germany are also in a similar, trying situation, and the issues being faced by Hrvatska Posta aren't unusual.

"In the first seven working days of December, package traffic was higher by 22 percent when compared to the same period in 2019. We've prepared all of our available capacities in anticipation of the end of the year so that we're ready to meet this peak load, but we can't influence the pandemic and the measure of self-isolation of our workers. Therefore, we're asking our customers who are expecting their packages for a little understanding,'' said Culo, adding that all packages will be delivered and that Hrvatska Posta will continue to perform its activities at the highest level possible given the circumstances,'' concluded Ivan Culo.

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November the 24th, 2020 - The words ''Amazon in Croatia'' are about as foreign to anyone living here who has tried to order something from the global giant as someone speaking to them in Klingon, but could it finally be happening? Although there has been no official confirmation as yet, it seems things could be moving forward on the until now almost unthinkable ''Amazon in Croatia'' front.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, and as Poslovni Dnevnik initially reported last year, in the middle of this month Amazon started an exclusive cooperation with Croatian on the delivery of packages for the Croatian market with the perspective of covering the markets of Croatia's neighbouring countries, primarily Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. However, for the time being, neither Croatian Post (HP) nor Amazon wants to comment officially on this business partnership.

"We can't reveal the names of our business partners, but yes, HP has become a partner to large web retailers recently and a significant increase in the number of processed shipments is expected," the Croatian company stated. However, it has also been found out that HP has recently started cooperating with the multinational online store About You, which has had a major marketing campaign on the Croatian market in recent weeks.

Amazon's technical experts visited Croatia last summer, taking the time to go and view the newly built HP sorting centre worth 350 million kuna in Velika Gorica near Zagreb. The initial deadline for opening up the sorting plant was postponed for several months to meet all of the deadlines and conditions of technical inspection from Amazon.

Just what would this cooperation mean for the HP itself and, of course, Croatian customers with the chance of an ''Amazon in Croatia'' carrot being dangled in front of them? In any case, HP will strengthen its market position and brand, and Croats will certainly be able to buy more products from Amazon's offer and get them delivered in a shorter time.

Despite the fact that Croatia been part of the single market of the European Union and all EU directives governing free trade for more than seven years now, our customers are mostly deprived of cheaper purchases through Amazon, which doesn't deliver a good part of its goods to Croatia. The main reason for this is in the fact that only about 50% of its own goods are sold through Amazon, and the other half falls on original brands and stores and where Amazon merely acts as an intermediary.

In such cases, the seller, not the intermediary, decides where they want to send the goods and where they don't - mostly for market and logistical reasons. Those who really wanted to buy something through Amazon had to, at an additional cost, rent mailbox services in Germany to which Amazon sent them the original shipment, which would then be repackaged and shipped onward to Croatia. A rather ridiculous action to have to take indeed.

Amazon is one of the most famous global brands that doesn't need to be presented or promoted in any way, but it's worth repeating that it is an online store that is twice as large as all other online stores in the world, according to specialised portals. Their revenue stood at an incredible 280 billion US dollars last year and they employ more than a million people. To compare, Alibaba had revenues of 72 billion dollars at the same time, and Wish had 1.9 billion dollars in revenue.

That sort of mind boggling data, perhaps even now outdated, speaks volumes about what kind of giant Amazon truly is, that five million companies offer their goods through this service. Last year, the founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, became the richest man in the world, whose wealth in mid-2019 was estimated at more than 160 billion US dollars, and today reaches 83.6 billion US dollars, according to Forbes.

Although the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has brought major problems to the entire global economy, courier companies and online stores have seen significant growth. In particular, Amazon had about 650,000 employees in the middle of last year, and a year later that climbed to more than a million.

Although these are much smaller numbers, HP also profited from the pandemic. "In the postal world, we've seen changes in recent years and all the trends have indicated that the circumstances are changing. The pandemic has accelerated the trends we expected - the decline in revenue we experienced in core business, especially the decline in the number of letters hasn't yet been replaced by package revenue, but these volumes are growing strongly. This is where our investment in Paket24 pays off. HP will end this year with a positive result and an extremely stable financial picture. Almost 100 million euros of losses from previous periods have been closed and the same amount has been invested,'' HP explained.

They added that before the virus struck, their online orders, and thus courier deliveries, grew by 15-20% every year. With the introduction of lockdown, their turnover increased by 30% when compared to the same period last year. They especially emphasise that HP connected small family farms with customers through Yellow Click/Zuti Klik.

Although HP has expressed no desire to talk about concrete partners, they emphasised that their current position on the market is a confirmation of a multi-year investment cycle under the auspices of the Pošta2022 Development Strategy.

"Over recent years, HP has strongly turned to its core business and the development of its logistics capacity. The construction of the new sorting centre, as one of the most modern logistics centres in this part of Europe, has positioned the post office as an important logistics partner in this part of the European Union and the region. Modern infrastructure is crucial,'' they emphasised from HP, which will soon start installing the first parcel machines, an infrastructure that will enable users to easily pick up their packages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The first 150 will be placed in accessible locations in the coming months, and users who choose to receive a package through this channel will be able to pick up their shipment when it suits them.

As for the prospect of Amazon in Croatia and many tight lips, the result of Amazon adn HP's ''flirting'' is yet to be seen.

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September 26, 2020 - Croatian Post releases new commemorative stamps from the "Croatian Music" series on September 28, 2020.

As the Croatian Post website states, the motifs on the stamps show reproductions of the most famous editions of gramophone records by Dino Dvornik, Oliver Dragojević and Tomo Bebić. The authors of the commemorative postage stamps are Ivana Vučić and Tomislav-Jurica Kaćunić, designers from Zagreb. The nominal value of the stamp is the same for each motif and amounts to HRK 10.00. The stamps were printed in a circulation of 100,000 copies per motif, of which 1,000 sheets were in the corresponding numbered cases. The commemorative stamps were printed in sheets with four self-adhesive stamps, and the Croatian Post also issued a commemorative First Day Cover (FDC). Round arches imitate a gramophone record.

Dino Dvornik's musical legacy (August 20, 1964 - September 7, 2008), as well as his private and entertainment life, which are permanently intertwined, testify to the enormous talent and eruptive music in which, regardless of the scale of inspiration, is always furious rhythm and passion. It was obvious when he released his debut album in 1989, which gave the megahit "Zašto praviš slona od mene", one of the biggest - but also the best - hits from the late eighties. With it, Dino announced that funk is neither a teenage infection nor a fashionable trend, but a pure and unadulterated passion. This was also shown by the following projects, such as the album Kreativni nered, released a year later, with exceptional compositions such as "Udri jače manijače", which is at the very top of the Croatian songbook of the 1990s.

Croatian Post

If the war years deprived him of huge circulations and sold-out tours, they certainly did not affect his creativity. On the album Priroda i društvo, released in 1993, he stepped towards more serious topics, but also showed that he is equally capable of composing flawless R'n'B-pop stylizations and successfully and pioneeringly experimenting with techno/house rhythms, which are almost ubiquitous on the album. At a time when the domestic scene was leaning towards dance, in 1995 he released Africa, one of the best, but also the most influential numbers of Croatian music in the 1990s, and two years later the exceptional album Enfant Terrible. He remained on the trail of funk until the end and the album Pandora's Box, which was released posthumously immediately after the premature departure of the Croatian uncrowned "king of funk".

Oliver Dragojević (December 7, 1947 - July 29, 2018) is a singer who, just like Frank Sinatra, deserved to be called "The Voice". Also known as the "cosmic Dalmatian", the father, son, and holy spirit of Dalmatian song and "southern consolation", which he long ago patented with his emotional vocal "rasp", Oliver was certainly the best singer among musicians and the best musician among singers. A multi-instrumentalist and a great keyboardist in his long career, he has gone from rock and pop to pop music and jazzy styles. Giving his voice and soul to the numerous eternal melodies of the Split Festival written by Zdenko Runjić, in the 1990s he opened a new lucrative period and career with "Cesarica" by collaborating with many young composers.

Croatian Post

While in the seventies and eighties he was a cult "Dalmatian singer" with anthems and anthological compositions such as "Galeb", "Malinkonija", "Oprosti mi pape", "Skalinade", "Karoce", "Ništa nova", "Stine" and others, and with a range far greater than the regional borders, in the 1990s and the new millennium, he became the biggest and brightest star (not only) of the Croatian scene. Moreover, great ballads typical in the 2000s were given a unique emotional timbre by collaborating successfully with composers and musicians from other genre niches whom - just like Ray Charles, Wonder or Cocciante - he experienced as brothers in the same passion, inspiration and musical inclinations. The result is songs that, presented at the world's most important concert addresses, make the grand finale of a brilliant career of a singer (and musician) who left eternal melodies "until the end of time" with the unbearable ease of talent and musicality. As an epitaph and as a will.

Toma Bebić (1939 - February 1990), aphorist, messy poet, goatherd, a stubborn advocate of every alternative, even the author of picture books and books of twisted aphorisms, became a legend during his lifetime. Admittedly, after his untimely death, he was left with a small discographic opus, but the influence of his key compositions was much, much greater. No wonder because Toma and his most famous songs like "Kaleta", "Nevera", "Oya Noya", Ča smo na ovom svitu", "Leute moj", "Marčeline" and others became almost anthems of both traditionalists and supporters of the festival alternative from Split's Prokurative. Unfortunately, partly due to his own negligence, and partly paying a tribute to "provinciality", Toma's discography is generally weaker than the value of the songs themselves and exceptional concert performances.

Croatian Post

His compositions were mostly "Dalmatian chansons" with special dedications to the homeland, but before and after all they spoke about everyday situations and "little people", marginals with whom - as a bohemian and an anarchist - he got along best. Singing in a hoarse and suggestive voice, they flashed on Oya Noya's 1980 album, with the singer-songwriter hits "Nevera", "Leute moj", "Marčelina", "Tu-tu auto, vrag ti piz… odnija", "Za moj raj pitajte mene "... confirming Bebić's role as a pop star in the absolute deviation from the clothing of the then Split-festival hit songs. Permanently interesting as a "messy" phenomenon of "Split studies" and a distinctive chansonnier, Toma was and remains a cult figure not only of the Split but also of the Croatian music scene.

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September 19, 2020 - Croatian Post goes green by adding another 20 electric vehicles to its fleet. There are now a total of 220 electric vehicles in the fleet, of which 40 are four-wheelers.

Glas Istre reports that the Croatian Post has expanded its "green" fleet with 20 new electric quadricycles. The addition is a continuation of the multi-year procurement of electric vehicles and the renewal of the vehicle fleet in accordance with reducing the harmful impact on the environment and higher energy efficiency.

There are a total of 220 electric vehicles in the Croatian Post fleet, of which 40 are four-wheelers. Each electric vehicle can drive for 60 km with one charge, and the maximum speed is 45 km / h.

The volume of the luggage tank is 300 l, and the load capacity is about 150 kg. The introduction of electric vehicles contributes to reducing the operating costs of the vehicle fleet and increasing energy efficiency.

These vehicles enable better mobility in city centers and optimize efficiency by gradually reducing fossil fuel vehicles.

By using 40 electric quadricycles for delivery, the Croatian Post will significantly reduce its carbon footprint because carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by as much as 15.2 t.

Funds for the purchase of 20 electric quadricycles were co-financed by grants from the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency.

Recall, the services of the Croatian Post became more expensive from September 1, 2020.

“As of September 1, 2020, Croatian Post applies a new price list for postal services in domestic traffic. The price of sending letters weighing up to 50 grams and greeting cards and postcards will be 3 kuna and 30 lipa instead of the 3 kuna and 10 lipa, which is an increase of 6%. The price of the additional service "return" is also 3.30 kuna. As the price of court documents consists of the price of a recommendation and the price of a return receipt, the price of sending a court document has been increased by 20 lipa. For example, instead of 14.60 kuna for a court document weighing up to 50 grams, as of September 1, its price is 14.80 kuna," they announced at the beginning of the month. 

You can read more about the price changes here. 

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As Novac writes on the 9th of September, 2020, Cryptostamp is the first Croatian postage stamp to connect the digital and the analog world. It consists of two parts, a standard removable self-adhesive postage stamp with a QR code and a digital token that remains for use on the blockchain (application (app), computer or mobile phone).

The cryptocurrency project is extremely important for the development of this relatively young industry in Croatia, which is unfortunately very well known for its lack of progress in terms of digitalisation, and it also marks a significant step forward in finally putting the Republic of Croatia on the world's blockchain map. After Gibraltar and Austria, the Croatian Cryptostamp is the third cryptocurrency in the world.

A physical postage stamp worth 50 kuna can be used to send shipments and parcels just like any other stamp can, and the digital part can be kept by the crypto stamp owner as part of their personal virtual collection. In this way, a new dimension was added which serves as protection against decay which is typically caused by the passage of time.

The digital token was created on the Ethereum platform and is represented on the blockchain as a non-fungible token (NFT) according to the ERC721 standard, which is used for digital objects whose value is collectible, as in the case of varying types of cryptocurrency.

For the needs of Croatian Post (Hrvatska post), in a circulation of 100,000 cryptostamps, AKD has realised this complex business process, which includes the printing of unique QR codes and the individualisation and printing of the Cryptostamp. Croatia's Cryptostamp is printed in multicolour offset on a 75 gram PVC card, measuring 35.73 x 40.98 millimetres, and comes in five different motifs that symbolise postal means of transport: a van, a train, a ship, a plane and of course the most modern of all, a drone.

You can learn more about the Croatian Cryptostamp and how to buy it here.

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The tax administration isn't exactly the most popular institution in Croatia, and it will likely become even less popular for those who are fans of ordering cheap goods from China, as a 25 percent tax is about to be slapped on each parcel entering the Republic of Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of August, 2020, as of next summer, more precisely from the 1st of July 2021, every single shipment ordered from third countries - including the production giant China, will have have a 25 percent value added tax paid on it.

As things currently stand here in Croatia, small shipments worth less than 22 euros are exempt from the payment of any VAT, but in less than a year such shipments will require the payment of both VAT and customs duties, so will small, ie cheaper packages ordered from the likes of China, marking an increase in price by 25 percent.

The increase in the price of shipments from third countries has been talked about for some time now, and yesterday the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Administration officially confirmed this to the journalists of Bug who sent them an inquiry on the matter.

Among other things, the reply from the Tax Administration states: Alignment with these directives will take effect from the 1st of July 2021, with the aim of simplifying certain rules regarding the supply of services and the distance selling of goods and ensuring a level playing field for European Union taxpayers in relation to taxpayers from third countries, given the fact that the VAT exemption for small consignments imported into the European Union with a value of less than 22 euros is abolished.

From next summer onward, we will pay 25 percent VAT on packages sent from China and third countries worth less than 22 euros (160 kuna), which will be charged directly to the seller of the imported goods.

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August 15, 2020 - On August 17, 2020, the Croatian Post will launch a new commemorative postage stamp for the 200th anniversary of the Split Archaeological Museum.

Dalmacija Danas reports that the motif on the stamps is the sarcophagus of the good shepherd, which originates from Solin, from the 4th century. The author of the stamp is Duje Segvic, a designer from Split. The value of the stamp is marked with the letter "A", which corresponds to the amount of postage for a letter weighing up to 50 g in domestic traffic and for a postcard in domestic traffic.

The stamp was printed in a circulation of 100,000 copies and was issued in a sheet of 20 stamps. The Croatian Post also issued a First Day Cover (FDC). The first-day stamp will be in use on August 17 and 18, 2020, at a separate philately counter at the 10000 Zagreb Post Office.

The Archaeological Museum in Split was founded on August 22, 1820. This is a significant date not only for Croatian archeology and all Croatian museums, but also for the city of Split, the entire region, and the Republic of Croatia. At the same time, the Archaeological Museum in Split is the oldest museum institution in Southeast Europe. 

The museum building, however, was not immediately located at the present site. Instead, until 1868, the building was located at the east wall of Diocletian's Palace, of which nothing has been preserved today. Today's museum building was built just before the First World War.

In March 1912, construction began on a new museum designed by Viennese architects August Kirstein and Friedrich Ohmann, which lasted until June 1914. Thus, the building of the Split Archaeological Museum, along with the building of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb from 1888 and partly the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1880, became the oldest purpose-built building, i.e., built exclusively for a museum in Croatia.

The new building has a large exhibition hall for smaller objects, a garden with a lapidary was intended for stone monuments, while in the basement there were depots. The available space met the needs of the museum until the 1960s when there were thoughts of expanding it by building a new building in the back garden.

Until 1910, when the Ethnographic Museum was founded, there was no other museum-gallery institution in Split than the Archaeological Museum. Thus, it collected the testimonies of Croatia's past that would not otherwise belong to it in terms of subject matter, with the care of its directors who were interested not only in archeology but also in history, old and rare books, maps, archives, and works of art.

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May the 14th, 2020 - You might have read numerous articles (and we've published some ourselves) about Croatian Post and its new facilities and steps forward in doing business. Modernisation appears to be a company goal and with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continuing to create uncertain situations and delays across not only Croatia but the whole world, the decision to further modernise business operations can only be praised. 

With all of the progress Croatian Post has made, the endless emails and posts from people who have never received their mail, who received it bashed in, broken and in a poor condition, and those who simply watched postmen not even bother to ring on their doorbells and instead just wander off, leaving a note pretending he tried haven't lessened. One does need to ask the question of just why it is such an issue to do what should be a very simple job - deliver mail to people who ordered items.

Coronavirus can only be blamed for so much, but this issue with Croatian Post and the Magical Missing Mail (not quite a Harry Potter book title, but close enough), has been going on for donkey's years.

As stated, many, if not all of us, have heard the stories about postcards and letters taking half a century to arrive to their destinations, but this occurred mostly in the times when mail travelled slowly, with horses and carriages, slow trains and planes that could only travel for a short range carrying them.

Above all, this occurred way back in those now distant-feeling times when there was no internet.

In the meanwhile, man has invented tracking so anybody who owns a mobile phone can follow and be totally updated on the journey of the parcel they are eagerly waiting for and have paid in full for.

This doesn't seem to be quite the case with Croatian Post however. Here is a case that took place in Zagreb about two weeks ago, when we sent an enquiry to the official e-mail address of Croatian Post, to which there has been no reaction or answer to this very moment.

Our reader who inspired us for this article was expecting two deliveries, one in a bigger envelope, and a mere 6,00 kg parcel, respectively.

In his words, he was sitting on his balcony and saw the postman entering and leaving the building. Some hours later, he found the notice of undelivered parcel in his mailbox. Obviously left by the mailman who, obviously, did not even bother to ring the doorbell. Not without justified irritation, he contacted the post office.

He was told that - first and foremost, he was obviously either not at home (!) or did not answer the door. When he told the Croatian Post ''customer service'' helper that he had seen the postman with his own eyes, and that sitting on the terrace clearly means that he was at home and fully conscious, he was informed that in these times of the coronavirus pandemic, the postmen are entitled to their own discretion of choosing where to deliver or not.

Apparently Croatian Post deems it fit to instil the power of epidemiologists into their employees. It is really not a statement, but rather an insult to common sense.

The very next day there was another notice of undelivered parcel in this man's mailbox.

Good news, it means that his other order has arrived, for him an important one. Yet, how is it that he did not hear the door bell once again? He, who has spent almost two months in voluntary self-isolation, leaving just occasionally to get some food from the shop across the street. Then it dawned on him: he was fully asleep as one without commitments can be at 07:30 in the morning, when he thought he had heard his doorbell ring for less than half a second. Sleepily realising that it was only 07:30, he thought he either hallucinated or somebody had pressed the bell by mistake. After a minute, his phone rang. As it was from a ‘No ID caller’, he did not bother to answer.

Another phone call to the post office was then on the cards, he is offered a repeated delivery that should occur within two working days. Six days pass by. Nothing. Another call to Croatian Post is made.

''Yes, the parcel is ready for pick up at the post office.''

''How about the repeated delivery that I was provided with?''

''Sorry, Sir, I cannot help you because I can't see it from my computer.''

''But your colleague made the request, can’t you track it down?''

''Sorry, Sir, I don't know from which office it was sent.''

''Is there a phone number of that particular post office?''

''I'm afraid not, Sir.''

More calls take place in the following days, each of them as useless and as much of a waste of time as the last, more windmills, more ''I'm sorry, Sir’'. Hopeless.

Running the risk of the expiration of that delivery, he went to the designated post office to pick the parcel up in person. It meant driving, looking for somewhere to park, queueing for 45 minutes and - to be told he had to pay 24,00 kuna for storage for a parcel for which the delivery fee been paid, for the false confirmation that it would be delivered after two more working days, after a number of calls and, finally, after personal physical engagement with a Croatian Post employee who had all the warmth of an arctic breeze.

After having paid (again) for this complete and utter lack of professionalism and even basic service, the box was damaged, had holes in, and was in a poor condition.

Again, the delivery to the address was paid for by the sender. The service was not done. And then you have to pay for the storage because Croatian Post just decides not to deliver it, And if they do, it will occur at 07:30 in the morning. Followed by calls from private numbers.

The motivation to follow this case came not only from the fact that our reader who asked for help is a serious, trustworthy person, but because it fits in well among the numerous complaints of people whose parcels were lost or never delivered by Croatian Post. Furthermore, as we at TCN attempted to make contact with Croatian Post ourselves to shed some light on this matter, we were ignored.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 20th of April, 2020, during these difficult times of crisis as coronavirus continues to wreak havoc with the economy, the queues in front of the post offices are really large, and Croatian Post, when it comes to parcels, is launching a project worth a massive 108 million kuna.

The move should reduce queues when it comes to picking up parcels from Croatian Post offices as it will be possible to come and pick up parcels and packages at any time, on any day. All of this is in line with the Post 2022 Development Strategy, according to a report from ICT Business.

Croatian Post have stated that they are very pleased to have a partner on the project, Estonian Post, which is the most advanced example of the use of parcel machines (paketomats), due to the fact that as much as 90 percent of parcels are delivered in this way.

Paketomats will be installed in urban frequency centres over the next two years, Croatian Post emphasised in response to an inquiry from ICTbusiness.info.

The increasing influence of online commerce in recent years and the growth of the market in the Republic of Croatia at the level of twelve percent annually are opening up a continuing need to improve the user experience. During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic when less contact is better, the estimates are that ecommerce usage has increased by more than fifty percent.

Guided by the needs of the market and the trends of its counterparts from other European countries, Croatian Post has decided to invest in the procurement of 300 paketomats that will be deployed in urban centres that ae heavily used throughout Croatia.

The first installations are expected in the last quarter of this year and it will certainly improve the service Croatian Post provides to the country's residents, which otherwise leaves rather a lot to be desired for in the eyes of very many.

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