IMPACT OF A NEW CONCEPT OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATIONS ON REVENUE INCREASE IN THE POST OF SERBIA

Abstract

The European postal directives and Serbian legislation as well define the quality standards for universal service obligations at the aggregate level, i.e. for all postal items transferred by the postal operator. This paper proposes a new concept where the transit time is defined by the customer and specified for each shipment. The paper considers three different models of this new concept. However, the one where a customer could choose between two alternatives: D+1 and D+3 transfer, is analysed in details. By using the attitudes of examined customers, forecasting methods and analysis of revenues from the past, it is assessed at what price the new postal service should be offered to achieve the highest revenue. The proposed methodology was tested and verified in the case of the Post of Serbia. The results indicate that the best would be to offer the service D+1 at the 40% increased price compared to the existing prices.