The Communications Regulation (Postal Services) 2011 (the Act) was enacted in August 2011.

Requirements of the USO (Universal Service Obligation)

Under Section 17 of the Act, An Post is designated as a universal postal service provider for a period of 12 years. Under Section 16 of the Act, Universal Postal Service means that on every working day, except in circumstances or geographical conditions deemed exceptional by ComReg, there is at least:

Universal service shall include the following minimum facilities:
(a)(a) the clearance, sorting, transport and distribution of postal packets up to 2kgs;
(b) the clearance, sorting, transport and distribution of postal parcels to a weight limit to be specified by order of ComReg (or in the absence of this 20kgs);
(c) the sorting, transportation and distribution of parcels from other Member States up to 20kgs in weight;
(d) services for registered items;
(e) services for insured items within the State and to and from all countries which, as signatories to the Convention of the Universal Postal Union, declare their willingness to admit such items whether reciprocally or in one direction only;
(f) postal services, free of charge, to blind and partially sighted persons.

Access to Universal Services

An Post provides access to its services through its network of 57 Company post offices, 1,099 postmaster-operated post offices and 175 postal agents. In addition, some 2,234 retail premises are licensed to sell postage stamps, as active licensed agents. To facilitate physical access to the service, approximately 5,000 post boxes are distributed widely throughout the State. There are 43 designated acceptance points for bulk mail services.

Tariffs

The following is a summary of the current prices for standard services weighing up to 50gms†. 

*The fee payable for the basic registered service covers compensation up to a maximum of €320. Further compensation up to a limit of €1,500 is available for €4 and up to a limit of €2,000 for €5 based on declared value at time of posting.

** Availability of service dependent on postal administration in destination country. Compensation up to €320 in GB; €150 in Europe; €100 for parcels and €35 for letters outside Europe.

† With effect from 1 May 2012, An Post is changing tariffs within the Universal Service for items weighing over 50gms. The rates above which apply to items weighing up to 50gms remain unchanged.

A full list of USO tariffs is available in the Guide to Postal Rates.

Quality of Service

International

The quality performance standard for the delivery of intra-Community cross-border mail was set by the European Commission and was transposed into Irish law under Section 32 and Schedule 3 of the Act. The quality standard for postal items of the fastest standard category is as follows:

D+3: 85% of items; D+5: 97% of items, where D refers to the day of posting.

Domestic

The Act requires ComReg to set a quality-of-service standard for the universal service and the standard set for domestic mail must be compatible with those for intra-Community cross-border services. ComReg have set a quality-of-service target for domestic single piece priority mail as follows:

D+1: 94% D+3: 99.5%, where D refers to the day of posting. 

Quality monitoring

Monitoring of performance against the international targets is carried out by Research International on behalf of International Post Corporation (IPC). Monitoring of the domestic quality of service is carried out by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of ComReg. Details of the most recent results are available from our website (new window) www.anpost.ie, with domestic performance also available on ComReg’s website (new window) www.askcomreg.ie.

Customer Complaints

An Post is required to maintain records of customer complaints taking into account the relevant European standard IS: EN 14012:2003. The table provides, in relation to mail, a breakdown of written complaints received from customers during 2011. The total continues to represent a minute fraction of the entire mail traffic handled during the year.

Included in the total figure are complaints about registered items, which number 7,949.

In 2011, 511,827 telephone calls were made to An Post Customer Services. Most of these were routine or general enquiries rather than complaints. During this year, Delivery Services Unit telephone lines were centralised into the Customer Services Centre ensuring a more standardised and co-ordinated service to our customers.

The An Post Complaint and Dispute Resolution Procedures are set out in (new window) ‘Getting it Sorted’, which is available on our website, in retail outlets, and from our Customer Services Centre. We also have a Customer Charter, containing specific pledges to customers regarding our services.

Further information

Additional information in relation to services provided by An Post is available by phoning An Post Customer Services on CallSave 1850 57 58 59, by email at customer.services@anpost.ie, by visiting (new window) www.anpost.ie, or by calling into your local post office.