Post office in Tel Aviv.
The reform is an adjustment to the changes that the traditional postal practices are undergoing in most countries of the world (Photo: Sharon Bokov)
The new license of the post office is supposed to take into account the drastic decrease in the scope of postal activity, which amounts to a rate of about 10% each year.
This decline is expected to continue, with the expansion of digital services and the transition of many citizens to receiving digital mail from banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and telecommunications companies, instead of receiving mail in the mailbox.
According to the new license, and out of an attempt to adjust the postal activity to the sharp decrease in the company's activity volumes, the frequency of mail delivery will decrease.
Some of the postmen who have been vacated will move to serve as couriers in the post's growing package system.
Those who need to send mail faster will be able to do so.
In addition, the retirement of the post offices, which up until now required the company to operate a post office at a distance of one and a half kilometers from 90% of the parents' homes in Israel, will adapt itself to the new reality of a decrease in the scope of the company's activities and from now on the company will be required to place a post office at a distance of 3 kilometers from 90 % of parental homes.
Another change concerns the days of mobile mail distribution.
Until today, the postal company was required to reach 1,200 settlement points in the rural and urban areas every day with mobile mail - something that causes the company a loss of tens of millions of shekels a year, due to the fleet of trucks and drivers that operate the mobile mail service.
The company presented to the Ministry of Communications data on mobile mail trucks that travel hundreds of kilometers every day to settlements in the Arabah, without bringing even a single letter with them.
The plan was designed to reduce the company's losses that brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.
As it became clear in last month's discussion in the Finance Committee of the Knesset, the post office loses a million shekels for each day of operation.
The company is expected to end the year 2022 with an estimated loss from operations of NIS 270 million, in addition to an accounting loss of hundreds of millions of NIS as a result of the company's recovery plan.
According to the company's recovery plan drawn up by the company's new management, 1,050 postal workers will be laid off and dozens of unprofitable branches will be closed.
60% will go on a retirement track and the rest on a layoff track.
700 employees have already finished their work at the company at the end of December 2022. The
post office will also start charging for the counter services it performs in branches, but its rates will be lower than the rates charged by the banks.
In coordination with the government ministries, it was determined that the weak populations - the recipients of the disability allowances, the old age and the rest - will be excluded from the rate increase.
The recipients of the allowances will pay a rate 50% lower than the newly established rate or the previous rate they paid - whichever is lower.
Even after it was decided to collect commissions for operations, the rates will be lower than the rates charged in banks (photo: PR)
Beyond digital
At the same time as the cutbacks plan, the Post Office is launching an extensive plan to transition to the digital worlds.
Among other things, pension recipients will be able to receive the pension using a loaded credit card, without having to go to the branches.
According to the data of the postal company, on the day the allowances are distributed, the 28th of each month, many elderly people who come to receive the allowance fall and get injured and sometimes their money is robbed.
In the coming weeks, the company will start a first project in collaboration with the Jerusalem Municipality, to guide populations that need to learn about the digital worlds - the ultra-orthodox, the Arabs and the elderly - to use digital solutions that will replace the need to go to the post office.
The program was initiated by the mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon.
In addition, in parallel with the decrease in the volume of letters and the increase in the volume of packages arriving from trade websites in Israel and abroad, the Post Office will expand the number of delivery points all over the country where packages from trade websites such as Amazon and Ali Express can be received. According to Ali Express company data, Israel is the sixth largest country in terms of The sales volume of Ali Express in the world.
The mail's recovery plan is part of a plan to change the face of the company, which has been underway for the past few months. As part of the plan, a professional board chairman and CEO were appointed who came with a background and experience from the business world - Michal Vakanin, the chairman, and David Laron, the CEO. L.
The management of the company was also changed: the number of VPs was reduced from 13 to 8 and new management members with proven experience in the business sector were appointed.
At the same time as the management changes, the company formulated a plan for operational improvements and an accelerated transition to automation in the company's sorting center in Modiin - to meet the growing demand for packages.
The purpose of the new plan is to balance the company's activities during 2023, with the intention of completing the sale of the company to private investors at the beginning of 2024. The state decided to sell all its shares in the postal company with the understanding that such a logistics activity requires huge investments on the part of the owner - something that does not suit the state.
In many countries of the world, the privatization of postal companies has already been carried out and Israel is one of the last to go through the process.
At the end of the recovery process, the service received by the citizens of Israel will be better and more advanced and above all suitable for the digital reality in which we live.
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