ZAGREB, 20 June, 2021 - The coronavirus pandemic has continued to adversely affect the Croatian postal services market, with the number of postal services provided in the first quarter of this year dropping to 70 million or by nearly 8% compared with the same period in 2020, the HAKOM regulator said.

HAKOM said that the volume of all postal services, except express parcels relating to online shopping, had declined in the first quarter, noting that, compared with the fourth quarter of 2020, the volume of express parcel delivery services had also fallen, by 3.1%.

The fall was mainly due to the distribution of printed matter, which declined by 20% compared with Q4 2020 and by 28% compared with Q1 2020.

The fall in the number of services provided also affected revenues, which dropped by 5% compared with Q4 and rose by 10% compared with Q1 2020. HAKOM said that the increase was due to a 23% rise in the delivery of express parcels relating to online shopping and an increase in prices of some of the so-called universal services.

The number of postal service providers on the Croatian market has remained the same. At the end of the first quarter of this year, these services were provided by 23 companies, among which Croatian Post (HP) remains the largest, with an 84.1% share in total turnover.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 20th of November, 2019, a tportal rreader found a note in his mailbox on Monday saying that his parcel was delivered to him on Friday, so he went to Croatian Post himself to find out what was really going on with his package.

The time before Christmas is the peak season for all courier services, and it's no different for Croatian Post (Hrvatska Pošta), through whose hands go the largest number of various packages and shipments ordered from online stores worldwide. Two months ago, Croatian Post was banned from charging for the delivery of smaller packages weighing less than two pounds, so, unfortunately many people noticed that their parcels were often not even delivered to their home addresses.

A tportal reader complained that a mailman left a message in his mailbox claiming that his parcel was waiting for him to come and pick it up at his local Croatian Post office, and the item in questioned was of course ordered from an online store, and getting certain large online stores to actually deliver to Croatia is already a task in itself. As previously stated, the reader found a note in his mailbox on Monday saying that the package was delivered to him on Friday, so he went to the Post Office to find out what was going on.

He was told, as he claims, that Croatian Post no longer delivers small parcels since their payment of 4.5 kuna was abolished and that the item was too large to be left in the mailbox, so the postman decided to leave a notice of attempted delivery only, but the reader claims he didn't even ring the doorbell.

The Post Office says that small ordinary parcels that have arrived from abroad and other ordinary parcels are, as a rule, delivered by inserting them into people's designated mailboxes.

''Before the cancellation of the payment (to Croatian Post), small packages were delivered personally to customers, but solely because of the obligation of payment. As this obligation no longer exists today, small parcels, like other ordinary shipments, are put into mailboxes - if the dimensions allow it,'' they explain.

It's worth mentioned that Croatian Post no longer has to charge an additional postage of 4.50 kuna for the delivery of small packages from abroad, as this was forbidden by HAKOM.

HAKOM, as explained, ruled that Croatian Post can no longer charge their fee for the delivery of small parcels. The good news for all citizens is that despite issues with simply not receiving parcels and mailmen not even ringing the door bell, Croatian Post cannot appeal this decision, although it may bring an administrative dispute before the High Administrative Court against HAKOM, but a possible lawsuit will not delay the enforcement of the ruling.

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