THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
From the Internet:
“The Ukrposhta joint-stock company is the only national postal operator of Ukraine.
The network covers 100% of the territory of Ukraine (over 27,000 settlements, except for temporarily occupied ones). We provide postal, logistics, financial, and trade services for private individuals and corporate clients. The founder and shareholder of the Ukrposhta joint-stock company is the state represented by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine…
Today, Ukrposhta includes 24 regional branches, the Mail Handling and Transportation Directorate, and Avtotransposhta. We are one of the largest companies in Ukraine: almost 50,000 employees receive, sort, transport, deliver, organize, analyze, and help customers every day.
Our mission, vision, and values.
The mission is to provide high-quality, simple, and affordable services, blurring the boundaries between people, countries, cities, and villages. By changing ourselves, we change the country for the better.
The vision is to build a company that simplifies the life of every customer and contributes to the success of the business, employees, and shareholders. A company that Ukraine is proud of.
The values envision that success is cool. Each of us is responsible for success: our own teams, companies, and countries. And this is what inspires us to new victories.
Change is a necessity. We understand the importance of innovation and are ready to constantly evolve to meet the demands of the times and the needs of our customers.
Simplicity is our choice. We want to be simple in communication, products, and services. Therefore, we remove the excess, leaving only what the client needs….”
Sounds great, but the reality, to put it mildly, differs from what is written
Talking to the editor of one of the newspapers from Khmelnytskyi, I heard that the position of a mail carrier was reduced at the Ukrposhta mobile branches. They said that now the driver of the mail car is responsible for delivering newspapers. I did not believe it and decided to clarify the state of affairs in the regional directorate of Ukrposhta.
Maybe I typed the wrong words into Google, but these contacts turned out to be somehow elusive.
I enter “Khmelnytskyi Directorate of the Ukrposhta JSC,” and there, the YouControl counterparty verification service reports that the status of the Khmelnytskyi Directorate of Ukrposhta as a separate enterprise has been TERMINATED.
Under the heading of “Enterprise structure,” which should lead to contacts with the Khmelnytskyi Directorate, instead of a list of departments, departments, and directorates, contains the following information: “The service “Transfer of funds from card to card” has been resumed.” There are also many other items, but not a word about the structure.
On the direct phone line 0800 300 545, I was informed that they do not have contacts of the regional directorates; they advised going to the Khmelnytskyi Directorate itself and getting to know about everything there. When I replied that I was in Kyiv, not in Khmelnytskyi, they responded with the words: “Go to any branch, and they will tell you.”
I received help when I found the contacts of the operations director of the South-Western region of the Ukrposhta JSC based in Khmelnytskyi. They did not talk about the situation in the Khmelnytskyi Region, referring to the fact that such information can be obtained only in Kyiv at the main office, but they provided the necessary contacts.
***
A play on words – “The position is not reduced, but combined…”?
I filled out all the required items in the Telegram chatbot. The machine politely wrote: “Done. We will contact you today or tomorrow to clarify the details and the time frame for preparing the answers. Glory to heroes”. (But why did they place the words “Glory to heroes” here?).
The response:
“Congratulations! In response to your request, we would like to inform you that the position of a mail carrier of mobile offices in the Khmelnytskyi Region has not been reduced but has been combined with the position of a driver. Accordingly, while the mobile unit is in motion, the employee performs the duties of the driver. Mail carrier functions are carried out in a settlement.
Best regards
Press service of the Ukrposhta JSC
Chatbot for inquiries @Ukrposhta_media_bot”.
Probably, combining the functions of a driver and a mail carrier is destined to improve and help blur the boundaries between people, countries, cities, and villages?
***
“Optimized” not only in regions
It happened so that I had not needed to visit the Central Post Office in Kyiv for a long time. But recently, I visited it and was not happy. I’d rather say I was shocked: half of the main operating room of the country’s main post office was empty.
In the beginning, several years ago, the large wing of the Central Post Office building, where the parcel department was located, was leased to the Rozetka online store. The branch was popular both among Kyiv residents and its guests, who often sent things by parcels in order not to carry extra luggage on trains and buses. It was, as they say in their advertisement – convenient, comfortable, and reliable.
Now, parcels are received in these premises through the popular online store Rozetka because now, this company works reliably, comfortably, and conveniently in the former parcel department of Ukrposhta. And now a pharmacy and a coffee shop have joined the space, creating additional conveniences for visitors.
Subsequently, Rozetka received other premises of Ukrposhta – a large operating room, to which the door leads from the lobby of the central entrance to the Central Post Office, above which the monumental inscription says “The Main Postal Office of the Country.” In the lobby itself, there are cute shops, although they have nothing to do with providing postal services.
***
The main operating room shocks: half of its windows, near which people always crowded, are now empty.
Editors of local newspapers often say that post offices in the countryside had always been the center of communication where people could send and receive parcels and buy calendars and newspapers. Mail carriers and post offices had always been active participants in subscribing to print media.
The same center of communication and meetings was the capital’s Central Post Office, where you could often see how letters are written and sent or received, how collectors communicate – exchange stamps and share novelties of philately. Metropolitan newspapers and magazines held subscriber days here, and these meetings between publishers and readers were quite popular and interesting for both parties.
Today, only half of the main operating room is open. The second half of it is washed and cleaned and it seems to have been like this for more than one day.
Maybe we write fewer letters and postcards now, they have been replaced with phones, Telegram, Viber, and other Internet platforms. But mailboxes for correspondence both in Kyiv and in Ukraine, which are located at the entrance to the Central Post Office, are overflowing with letters.
Those who send them are cut off from even thinking about the comfort of the main hall of the post office. Tables built into the floor still divide the hall in half, but there is not a single chair left near them: here, it seems to hint that there is no need to linger and arrange gatherings. You can hardly see the layouts with newspapers and magazines, calendars, and envelopes.
I don’t want to think that this hall will be given to Rozetka. Or, maybe this is the place for the future the Nova Poshta company, which is increasingly conquering the postal services market?
***
And again, there is a question: does the state not see what is happening to the main post office of the country? What can our media expect if the presence shows that drivers are united with mail carriers and the Central Post Office of the whole of Ukraine fits into a few working windows? And, probably, it is not for nothing that editors and publishers are increasingly thinking about how to organize alternative delivery of newspapers and magazines.
Olha Voitsekhivska, Journalist of Ukraine.
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