In accordance with the Strategy for the development of postal services in the Republic of Serbia 2021-2025, the activities and measures foreseen in its Action Plan, and provisions of the Law on Postal Services, RATEL, as of July 2021, started to perform expert supervision over the work of postal operators. Up until the end of 2021, expert supervision was carried out in relation to 14 postal operators in total, 10 out of which are express service providers and the remaining 4 provide courier services. Operators with larger postal market share in the Republic of Serbia were in the focus of this measure.

Crucial activities of expert supervision include monitoring of the fulfillment of prescribed quality parameters for the provision of postal services, compliance with the deadlines for postal delivery and resolution of users’ complaints (punctuality, grounds for rejection, deadline for answering etc.), application of current price lists for the calculation of postal fees, and compliance of the work of postal operators with the General Terms and Conditions for the provision of postal services approved by RATEL.

As part of the preparatory activities for the supervision process, the data intended for the users, published on the postal operator’s website, are verified in order to check the availability and accuracy of the information about prices, types of services and conditions for the postal service provision.

The enhanced development of e-commerce, both globally and nationally, causes the express services to grow, putting new challenges before the postal operators, in terms of pricing and quality of services. The increased volume of postal items also brings more complaints about provided services. Many postal operators, therefore, as observed during expert supervision, plan to improve the quality of their service provision by investing heavily in business expansion, renewal of equipment and modernization of technological capacities, including better monitoring of collection, sorting and delivery of postal items.

Over 2022, expert supervision is planned for the postal operators that have not been scrutinized in 2021.