Latvia, Post Office, Transport

Currently LP provides postal services six days a week.

A number of printed media publishers support the idea of switching to a five-day work week as they also plan on reducing the frequency of publications.

Postal deliveries five days a week would allow LP to significantly reduce costs. In order for these changes to become effective, a number of laws and regulations will need to be amended.

In addition to the plan to switch to postal deliveries five days a week, LP also plans to carry out optimization and reorganization of the postal network as a budget saving measure.

LETA has information that LP and press publishers are in talks over the proposal to stop press deliveries on Mondays.

Chairman of the board at the newspaper Diena Arvils Aseradens admitted to LETA that at this point he cannot support or criticize LP's decision to switch to a five-day week without knowing the economic grounds for such a decision.

Aseradens pointed out that, naturally, each publisher understands that it is better to have a postal company that works at least a limited number of days each week than none at all, however, it is difficult to assess the decision without knowing the economic consequences that could follow.

Aseradens underlined that in case switching to a five-day week is unavoidable, his newspaper would be in favor of keeping Saturday deliveries and giving up postal deliveries on Mondays.

Chairman of the board of the daily newspaper Lauku Avize Viesturs Serdans believes that, due to the current crisis, a five-day work week for Latvia Post is the only viable option, and it would benefit both publishers and the postal company.

On the other hand, chairman of the board at the publishing house Mediju nams Armands Puce pointed out that reducing the number of days when the press is delivered might also not give the expected financial benefits.