“One way or another we come, we come, we arrive, we arrive”

Over the past few months, the activities of Russian Post have attracted close attention. Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko spoke about the work of the operator and its economic efficiency. Ministries, departments and participants in the online trading market are arguing about the advisability of introducing an infrastructure payment from marketplaces in favor of Russian Post.

The general director of the company, Mikhail Volkov, seems to take criticism of Pochta calmly. In an interview with Vedomosti, he explained in detail what the idea of ​​​​an infrastructure payment is based on, what the “mail phenomenon” is and how the company copes with the shortage of personnel in the growing logistics market.

– This is a normal, productive conversation. I am grateful to Valentina Ivanovna for the attention she pays to Russian Post. In general, with the Federation Council, in my opinion, we have a very close working relationship and a common understanding that the Post Office is an important state institution that bears a great social function and responsibility. At the same time, Pochta has been living in self-sufficiency mode for many years, without budget funding, and this fact surprises many. In the first half of the year, as our reporting shows, I believe we managed to stabilize the situation in the company.

But, of course, the budget deficit that has arisen in 2022 and the tasks that we are working on do require immediate decisions, because the Post Office is a large organization of almost 300,000 people, carrying out a number of social and government tasks, and we simply cannot allow the situation to get out of control. It is very important for us to be as open and transparent as possible for the state – our shareholder and society. Therefore, we welcome the decision of the board of directors to conduct an independent audit of the situation that occurred in the company in 2022 and the financial recovery plan that we have now developed and presented to the board of directors. We expect that the audit will be completed by the end of November, and based on its results we will make decisions for the future.

– There are two blocks of solutions. The first, fairly large block is already being implemented – it depends on the work of the team. This is process optimization – the translation of products and processes into digital solutions. We must better meet the demands of the modern market. You know, we are still searching for the right metaphor that reflects the essence of “Mail”. The working version is this: we must reformat from traditional mail into a logistics partner in the fast-growing e-commerce market, while simultaneously fulfilling all the current social functions and other needs that our residents and clients now have, only in a more modern form. People still send handwritten letters and put stamps on the envelopes themselves. In the modern world, these are ineffective actions; moreover, they cannot be automated in sorting; such items cannot be tracked. The index is not always indicated there, and as a result, literally manual processing is required.

The second block is initiatives aimed at maintaining the social function of the Post Office. We are talking about our work in remote regions, in rural areas. By virtue of the law and historical function, the Post is a guaranteeing delivery provider and is obliged to provide postal services and financial services to any citizen of our country, wherever he may be. At the same time, Russia is a large country, with more than 140,000 settlements. Two-thirds of our infrastructure is located where, often other than us, [как операторов] there is no one, and more than 30 million people live there – our compatriots, whom we cannot leave under any circumstances. With our branches we cover 26,000 settlements, and in all the rest one way or another we come, we come, we fly, we sail. And these are very high costs. In the context of this, the introduction of a so-called infrastructure payment from marketplaces to cover these costs is being discussed.

– E-commerce, in my opinion, is generally a great benefit, and I have great respect for marketplaces and companies that develop this market. But e-commerce also has, in my opinion, a very large social aspect: residents of small towns, thanks to the development of e-commerce, have the opportunity to purchase goods that were available only to residents of large cities. After all, getting a child ready for school somewhere in a remote region, in a small village, for example, is a rather difficult exercise. According to statistics, the regions where orders are most actively delivered, along with Moscow and the Moscow region, include Chukotka, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, etc. For many residents of these regions, e-commerce is an important bridge that connects them with the mainland. We believe that ensuring equal access of all citizens to such basic, important services as logistics, communications, and e-commerce is an important task for the state and for society as a whole. Russian Post, having an already established infrastructure exactly where it is unprofitable for other commercial companies, is ready to lend its logistics leverage.