The provision of universal service

Universal postal service is the postal service, provided on the entire territory of the country without interruption.

The obliged universal postal service provider is AB Lietuvos Paštas. It is obliged to provide universal postal service throughout the whole of the national territory for seven years till the end of 2019.

The universal postal service provider doesn’t have right to delegate the provision of universal postal service to another postal service provider.

The scope of the universal service is:

• the clearance, sorting, transport and distribution of postal items up to two kilograms,
• the clearance, sorting, transport and distribution of postal packages up to 10 kilograms,
• the clearance, sorting, transport and distribution of registered and insured postal items,
• the distribution of postal parcels up to 20 kg received from other Member States of the European Union.

The bulk postal items (>1000 correspondence items or >250 parcels per month) and the postal service with added value are not attributed to universal postal service. The postal service that has an added value:

• the delivery and collection of postal items at the time and/or place preferred by the user;
• acknowledgement of the delivery of the postal item, the change of the course of delivery of the postal item;
• the possibility to receive information about the location of the postal item at any time;
• the provision of another postal service that has an added value.

Universal postal service must comply with the requirements and conditions for provision of universal postal service, established in The Rules for the Provision of Universal Postal Service.

The provider of universal service must: 

• ensure the permanent provision of universal postal service in the territory of the country without discrimination to all users on every working day and not less than five days a week except in cases of force majeure, also to ensure one clearance of postal items and one delivery to the home or premises of the addressee of postal service, save in circumstances deemed exceptional by the Communications Regulatory Authority;
• regularly provide a sufficiently detailed and up-to-date information to users of universal postal service regarding the universal postal service, the general conditions of access to this service, prices, quality requirements or standards thereof;
• in accordance with the features of the postal network, install a sufficient number of access points meeting the needs of users;
• organise the monitoring of the quality of universal postal service every year and provide the results of this monitoring to the Communications Regulatory Authority;
• issue and withdraw from circulation the means of postal prepayment;
• compensate for the expenses of posting literature for the blind and of letter-post items of prisoners of war or internees;
• publish on it’s website an annual report including the number of complaints handled and information about the manner in which they have been dealt with;
• base the tariffs for universal postal service on the costs of the provided universal postal service;
• apply Lithuanian standards approved by the Ministry of Transport and Communications as mandatory, and other publications, international and European specifications and (or) recommendations, related with the provision of postal service.

Universal postal services can be provided:

• at stationary places of provision of universal postal service,
• at mobile places of provision of universal postal service,
• at working places of postal agents,
• by using letter-boxes, intended for public use.

The distance to the places of provision of universal postal service must be the following:

• in urban residential areas for stationary and mobile places or postal agents – not farther than 3 km from users of universal postal service, and for letter-boxes – not father than 2 km from postal service users,
• in rural residential areas – one stationary place or one working place of postal agents in the territory of eldership,
• mobile places of provision of universal postal service may be installed in remote areas.

The conditions for siting the places of provision of universal postal service and the requirements for equipment of the places are regulated by the Characteristics of the postal network of a provider of universal postal service. 

A provider of universal postal service must ensure uninterrupted provision of universal postal service to each and every user of universal postal service at equal conditions on the entire territory of the country each business day and no less than five days per week in observance of the quality requirements, established according the time periods of sending of correspondence from the sender to the addressee.

The quality requirements (standards) of provision of universal postal service with regard to the items of correspondence, sent inside Lithuania and between the Member States of the European Union must be compliant with the requirements, provided in the table below:

*A priority item of correspondence means an item, processed and sent in a more urgent manner (by terrestrial or air mail), for the sending of which the sender pays a greater charge.

Universal postal service must pass the quality requirements for universal postal serviceprovided by the Order of the Minister of Transport and Communication.

The universal postal service provider is obliged to apply the following standards:

EN 13850 Postal services – Quality of service – Measurement of the transit time of end-to-end services for single piece priority mail and first class mail;

EN 14012 Postal services – Quality of service – Measurement of complaints and redress procedures.

The tariffs for universal postal service must be based on the costs of the provided universal postal service; however they must be affordable to all the users of postal service, transparent and non-discriminatory.

The tariffs of universal postal service are approved by the Director of the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania.