The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom is responsible for overseeing compliance with the Postal Act (415/2011) and the rules and regulations issued under it. Posti has now submitted its 2024 report to Traficom. This report applies to items covered by the Postal Act.
The universal service covers 3.7% of all Posti’s mail and parcels items. For letters, the universal service covers letters paid for by postage stamp and other form of cash payment. For parcels, international parcels paid for in cash are included in the universal service. In addition to universal service letters, reporting also applies to other addressed mailings, e.g. letters sent by companies.
Newspapers and magazines, unaddressed advertisements and most parcels are not covered by the Postal Act and therefore are not included in this report.
Under the provisions on quality control of postal services, all postal companies are required to annually publish information on the quality of the postal services they provide under the Postal Act.
Fulfillment of the delivery obligation
In areas that are difficult to reach, there was a deviation from the legal collection and delivery frequency in the case of 153 households (around 100 in 2023). The number varies from season to season depending on factors such as the timetables of the archipelagic vessels. As of October 1, 2023, the maximum permitted number is 500.
Based on special personal needs, 23,074 households were eligible for delivery services for Special Groups (27,627 in 2023). The right applies to persons over 75 years of age and to persons with reduced mobility or functional capacity.
During 2024, delivery services based on special needs that have already ended have been reviewed and removed, which is the reason for the visible change compared to the previous year.
Delivery speed of letters covered by the universal service
The delivery speed requirement based on the Postal Act applies to letters paid for by postage stamp or equivalent cash payment indication, which are generally sent by consumers.
According to the quality standards set out in the Postal Act, domestic letters shall be delivered so that at least 50% of the letters arrive at the latest on the fourth weekday from the day of deposit and at least 97% on the fifth weekday after the day of deposit.
Of the domestic letters delivered in 2024, 95.3% (94% in 2023) arrived by the fourth day and 98.2% (97.6%) by the fifth day. The figures take into account the industrial disputes that affected the delivery speed of the letters in the form of a force majeure.
The delivery of letters paid for in cash involves more processing steps than the bulk batches sent by businesses. Individually mailed letters are usually left in letterboxes and then picked up to be transported to sorting centers. At sorting centers, postage-stamped letters go through a dedicated processing and sorting procedure.
Inquiries for mailed items
The information on lost and damaged items is based on the information recorded in the account management system. The result, i.e. lost, found or unresolved, is recorded for the inquiries.
Unresolved cases include incorrect entries or notifications where it has not been possible to ascertain the arrival of the item in the Posti network. They also include cases where the item may still be on its way or items for which Posti has the handover information but the recipient denies having received the item.
There were 16,889 inquiries concerning ordinary letters (18,343 in 2023), i.e. 0.0054% of the volume sent. Ordinary letters are not tracked. Therefore, their delivery or non-delivery cannot be reliable verified. However, 264 (436) items were recorded as lost. The number of items recovered was 5,708 (6,382) and the number of items unresolved was 10,917 (11,525).
Most of the inquiries concerning ordinary letters were related to international items. The number of inquiries is also affected by the EU legislation concerning inbound items subject to customs clearance. Starting from March 15, 2021, electronic advance information has been required from the post office of the country of origin for each item arriving in the country. From July 1, 2021, eCommerce purchases and publications from outside the EU have been subject to customs clearance and VAT. This also increases the number of inquiries for letters.
There were a total of 2,897 (2,854 in 2023) inquiries concerning registered letters, i.e. 0.350% of the volume sent. Of those, 2,292 (2,321) were recovered and 218 (162) were recorded as lost. The number of unresolved cases was 387 (371).
Damaged letters represented 0.0185% of the total volume. The number also includes items that were damaged before entering Posti’s sorting process. A cover letter addressed to the recipient was attached to damaged mail items.
Parcel inquiries
The information on parcels includes only items covered by the Postal Act, i.e. parcels sent abroad and paid for in cash.
During the year, Posti processed 820 (932 in 2023) postal parcel inquiries, i.e. 0.45% of the volume sent. A total of 94 (108) parcels were confirmed as lost. The number of items recovered was 681 (773), and the number of unresolved cases was 45 (51).
Linguistic rights and responding to feedback
Posti monitors the fulfillment of linguistic rights through customer feedback and by monitoring the quality of its customer service. No changes have occurred in the service compared to the previous year.
Posti serves customers in Finnish, Swedish and English through multiple channels. Customers can get advice and give feedback through Posti’s website and electronic forms, telephone customer service, online chat, social media and personal service at outlets. Feedback can also be provided by sending a free-form letter to Posti.
Posti’s main information channel is the website www.posti.fi, where almost all bulletins are published in both Finnish and Swedish. In bilingual municipalities, regional bulletins, for example on the grouping of mailboxes or changes to the Service Point network, are given in Finnish and in Swedish.
Feedback on postal services, which is recorded in the system, totaled 16,884 (21,580 in 2023) entries. This number includes all contact requests by telephone, email or chat. Posti’s goal is to process and respond to all customer feedback within 10 working days. On average, feedback was processed in 3 days.
Posti’s Retail Network
At the end of 2024, Posti had about 3,000 service points in the whole country, of which close to 1,850 were parcel lockers and about 1,000 service points providing in-person service.
What is important to the user of postal services is that the network of service points works well. In addition to full-service outlets, Posti’s Retail Network consisted of various limited-service outlets (postage stamp retailers, mailboxes, pickup points, Parcel Lockers) as well as a home delivery and pickup sign service in certain sparsely populated areas. Parcel redirection service is also available.
At the end of 2024, there were 3,695 mailboxes for outgoing mail around Finland.
Millions of items pass through Posti every weekday. Mail volumes vary greatly depending on the weekday, the time of the month and the season. The needs of sending customers set the pace for postal work.
Items delivered incorrectly by other delivery companies
Besides Posti, there are 14 other delivery companies in Finland that deliver letters.
According to the Postal Act, each postal company must provide a service for returning incorrectly delivered mail items.
In addition, the Postal Act requires that postal companies mark their mail items in such a way that they can be distinguished from mail items delivered by other postal companies. Therefore, each letter carries on it the delivery company identifier. Posti’s identifiers are POSTI ECONOMY, PRIORITY and POSTI GREEN.
Instead of Posti, the recipient should have returned the incorrectly delivered items directly to the delivery company responsible for the delivery. Errors can be corrected more quickly when feedback is addressed to the right company.
Traficom maintains a register of the delivery companies and their identifiers.