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.

Nationwide yes, numbers no

Swiss Post has had an infrastructure mandate since 1 January 2004. It must operate a nationwide post office network. Moreover, a post office providing the universal service must be available within a reasonable distance.

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.

But what is a reasonable distance to a post office? If a home delivery service exists, the Federal Council considers an average journey of 20 to 30 minutes by public transport to be reasonable.

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. The Federal Council approved the relevant dispatch for the attention of Parliament on 20 May 2009.

The new legislation is intended to create operating conditions under which all providers will be subject to the same rules, and to ensure that the quality of the basic service remains high. Swiss Post (which will in future be a public limited company owned by the Swiss Confederation) will therefore still have to provide a basic postal and payment transaction service throughout the entire country. Private postal service providers will also have to conduct negotiations via a collective employment contract and observe industry-standard working conditions.

Two steps, two chances to have a say

The Swiss market will be deregulated in two steps. The first step – a reduction in the letter monopoly to 50 grams from 1 July 2009 – has been decided by the Federal Council in the form of an ordinance. Full liberalization will take place via a federal decree to be presented to Parliament by the Swiss government one year after the law comes into effect. This decree will be subject to an optional referendum. So Parliament and the people will be able to have their say on the subject of the postal market twice: once on the new postal legislation which, like all laws, will be subject to an optional referendum; and again on complete market deregulation.

What’s happening abroad?

In the European Union (EU), the only remaining monopoly is for letters (currently 50 grams). The European Parliament voted in favour of complete liberalization of EU postal markets, effective from 1 January 2011. New and small EU member states and those on the extreme periphery or in an insular position will be able to defer this deadline by two years.

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.