Posti is about to outsource its postal deliveries for sparsely populated areas of Finland that still require the Universal Service Obligation. These are areas that are also not covered by the early morning newspaper delivery service.

According to a statement from Posti, interested companies can sign up for the competitive tendering through the Posti website from January 22.

This comes after the Finnish Parliament amended the Postal Act, that will come into force from the end of July 2018. Posti has to put out to tender the five day delivery of universal service letters in areas that are not covered by the newspaper early morning delivery service and that have been agreed upon commercially. The plan is to introduce more delivery activities to the sparsely populated areas of the country.

In the eyes of the postal operator this new cooperation is a very positive move. “This is the first time we are organizing a competitive tendering on the delivery of universal service letters under the Postal Act. The sourcing procedure has been assigned to Posti, and we want to perform this task transparently and impartially. We will develop the process further in the future based on the lessons we learn and experiences we gain now,” said Kaj Kulp, Vice President who is responsible for the procedure at Posti.

According to Posti the outsourcing of its services will not affect the delivery of newspapers in Finland’s sparsely populated areas. This will continue with existing contracts.

There are already more than 600 subcontractors in mail delivery and transport services that work with Posti. Most of these are SME sized companies. Currently, the postal operator outsources around €200 million of work annually.

Kulp commented: “Posti wants to support small businesses in sparsely populated areas. The share of subcontracting grew by 44 percent last year, and the volumes are increasing even without the competitive tendering. Another aim of the subcontracting and combined transports is to lower our delivery costs.”