Russia’s Post Office gets fined for late deliveries

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The country’s mail service has been given a financial slap on the wrist.

This comes after a check on express delivery performed by a state watchdog in which supervisors sent express letters to different regions in Russia and monitored their arrival time.

During the check, the mail service delivered four out of ten letters late, signaling that even if you pay for express service, the letters will still arrive very slowly – maybe even after letters posted in normal mail.

The supervising body initiated court proceeding, and the court found the Postal Service guilty and fined it 30,000 rubles (about $1,000). Although the sum is not particularly large, the supervisors hope that it will serve as a wake-up call.

“As a matter of fact, the situation with mail deliveries is getting worse, as previous checks did not discover any delivery-time problems,” Sergey Ukhartsev, from the Federal Service for the Oversight of Communications, told RT. “Or perhaps we were just looking at the most problematic regions. Anyway, we hope that the fine we've issued will make them improve the delivery process.”

This is not the first time that the reliability of Russia’s Postal Service has been questioned.

Back in April, there was a problem with international delivery, which, the Russian Post said, was connected to their foreign colleagues’ delays. In response, companies such as eBay threatened to blacklist Russia.

In addition, recently Russia’s Postal Service has come in for sharp criticism for anti-competitive practices in tendering suppliers.