The Romanian market of postal and courier services--monitorization and control.

Georgescu, Silviu Dorin

Although the literature on services has identified the characteristics in detail we are interested in more than that, we wish to highlight the manner in which services enter the aggregate good produced and delivered, the manner in which provide differentiation as regards the competition's products (Gary Akehurst, 2008).

The market of good scan be split in two: on the one hand, the market of physical, material, tangible products (automobiles, construction materials), on the other hand the market of immaterial products (services, informations). Services belong to the second category.

According to the American Marketing Association, services represent activities, benefits and utilities offered on the market or provided in association to the sale of a material good "(Commitee on definitions of the American Marketing Association, 1960, apud, Ion Criveanu, 2007, p.8). Services are defined as " any activity, idea or performance provide by a part to another, without the existence of property transfer, but having, in essence, an intangible character"(Militaru Gheorghe, 2010, p.1).

At present, as services sector is in a continuous change, diversification, theoretical and practical approaches are difficult. Services have complex forms of manifestation, been involved in all compartments of economic and social life, they have an etherogenous character. The evaluation and measuring of services sector is done through some indicators such as: occupied population (quota towards total) and its evolution in time, services participation to the creation of gross domestic product.

The occupied population indicator highlight the fact that the more a country is developed, the more its third sector holds an important part from the total amount of work force. In the developed countries over two thirds of the occupied population is hired in services sector while in countries with a medium or low level of development this indicator shows as that around 30 to 50 percent of the occupied population works in services. An analysis of the third sector at international level shows as that services have growth trend, the work force moving towards the activities in this sector.

In Romania, the occupied population in sector services has grown during 2003-2008 reaching 42%.

Another indicator used to dimension the services sector is represented by their participation to the creation of the GDP. As in the case of occupied population, one observes a growth tendency of services as against material production, services having an enhanced share to the creation of GDP. In Romania, although in relation to other East-European countries and developed countries where the share of the third sector to the creation of GDP is greater, one still observes an increase in its contribution to the creation of the GDP.

Coordinates of the appearance and evolution of postal and courier services in Romania

The courier market is the one that perceives most rapidly the evolution and fluctuations of the economy, the courier services suppliers are strongly influenced by these modifications. Following the appearance of the first courier companies in Romania until the present moment, the national and world economy has known periods of growth but also periods negatively influenced by the world crisis from last years.

If in the 1990-2000 period the courier companies did not make their presence felt on the Romanian market, after 2000, with the economic growth in Romania, courier companies have experienced an ascending evolution, favoured on the one hand by Romania's accession to the European Union, growth of the foreign direct investments in Romania but also by the technique and technological progress of economy. The economic crisis started at the end of 2008 has influenced the activity of courier companies. Some companies were strongly affected by this crisis, thus the migration of courier companies' clients was much more accelerated in relation to the preceding years. The courier companies with a solid position on the market have the opportunity to attract new clients even in this period.

Although the Romanian Post has represented for a very long time the only provider of postal services, as a consequence of the more rapid development of this sector, of the need to communicate, of the greater requests, private courier companies have appeared powerful competitors for the Romanian Post.

At present, in Romania, there are numerous companies that offer divers services of courier characterized by flexibility, speed, efficiency, transparency etc.

Companies such as TNT Romania SRL, DHL International Romania SRL, DPD, Fan Courier strive to offer a package of services as complex and attractive as possible to answer the greater requests of clients.

In Romania, the courier services market is regulated by the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), institution with the role of applying the national policy in the field of postal services. In its activity, ANCOM follows the protection of the final users' interests, stimulation of investments, as well as the promotion of competition, a priority objective in the context of the postal services' market liberalisation in Romania. In our country, G.O. no. 31/2002 regarding postal services, approved with later amendments through Law no. 642/2002, with later amendments, establish the conditions for providing postal services and ensuring the access to the universal service, in order to create a competition market and to promote the users' interests.

The evolution of the number of postal services providers during 1999-2010 is represented in the next figure.

Analysing the manner in which the postal services suppliers' process of authorization occurred in the last years, we have to point out the following:

After 1999, when the market of postal services liberalised, one has to take into account an evolution of the number of suppliers, reaching 248 in 2007.

In 2008 an increase in the number of authorized suppliers occurred (from 248 to 789) of 218,14% as against 2007. This spectacular increase was due both to the economic development at national level, to the national growth strategies of courier companies through the franchise system and contractors and to the change in the conditions of granting functioning authorizations as supplier of postal services through Decision no. 2858/2007.

In 2009 the rhythm of growth was slower, the growth being of about 12,67% as against 2008 (889 related to 789). However, the year 2010 outstands through a significant decrease in the number of postal services suppliers to 465, with 47,69% less than in 2009. This fact was due on the one hand to the economic crisis of 2009-2010, and, on the other hand, to the decrease in the number of suppliers which hold a mandate to provide postal services in the name of other suppliers from 611 in 2009 to 138 in 2010.

According to the data collected by the ANCOM, in 2009 83,46% of the postal services suppliers (889) have effectively provided these services (742), compared to 2008 when their share was of 90,11%.

The human resource employed in the postal sector experienced an ascending evolution, both in the private and within the universal supplier.

The work force employed in the private postal sector at the end of 2010 was of 10662 employees, 8179 employees being hired full-time (representing 76,71% of the employees in the private postal sector), and 1442 being hired part-time.

The number of employees in the postal sector has increased in 2010 in relation to 2009 with 4,78%, although the number of employees of the Romanian Post (the universal service provider) has decreased with 0,08% while in the private sector the number of employees increased with 25,76%. The main private companies in the sector experienced a growth in their turnover, confirming the fact that the courier services sector is one of the few sectors of activity which marked increases during the economic crisis begun in 2009.

Following 2007 when the postal services market experienced the highest value in Romania, the 2008-2009 period was characterized through a decrease in traffic, in 2009 experiencing a decrease of the market of over 30%, the decrease being due to the law traffic of the universal sector provider, especially to its internal traffic which decrease with almost a half in relation to the previous year.

Conclusions

Courier services market is an extremely dynamic field having a positive evolution in the last couple of decades since its appearance. This positive evolution was determined by several factors: the economic growth, Romania's integration to the European Union, the market liberalisation, the entrance of foreign investors, the development of the IT&C sector. Postal and courier services sector remains an important source of jobs provider. According to the reports disseminated by the European Commission, this sector comprises 0,75% of the number of employees in EU Member States.

References:

Akehurst, Gary, What do we really know about services?, Service Business, 2008, nr.2, p.1-15, source: vmw.akehurstonlme.co.uk

CRIVEANU, Ion, Managementul Serviciilor, Sitech Publishing House, Craiova, 2007

MILITARU, Gheorghe, Managementul serviciilor, C.H.Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2010 http://www.ancom.org.ro

The Ministry of Public Finances--www.mfinante.ro

Silviu Dorin GEORGESCU, University of Craiova, Faculty of Economy and Bussiness Administration

E-mail: g_silviu2000@yahoo.com

Table 1 The contribution of main activities to GDP in 2007

Country          Agriculture,         Industry       Services
                 hunting, forestry,   including
                 fishing              construction

Austria          2                    31             67
Belgium          1                    24             75
Bulgaria         6                    32             61
Croatia          7                    32             61
Denmark          1                    26             73
Switzerland      1                    28             71
Estonia          3                    30             67
Finland          3                    32             65
France           2                    21             77
Germany          1                    30             69
Italy            2                    27             71
Norway           1                    43             56
Netherlands      2                    24             74
Portugal         3                    24             73
United Kingdom   1                    23             76
Romania          7                    41             52
Spain            3                    30             67
U.S.A.           1                    22             77
Hungary          4                    30             66

Source: Romanian Statistical Yearbook, 2010, p.1029

Figure 1 The civilian employed population, on the main
activities of national economy

       Services   Constructions   Industry   Agriculture,
                                             hunting,
                                             forestry

2003   35.7       4.8             24.8       34.7
2004   38         5.1             24.9       32
2005   39.1       5.5             23.5       31.9
2006   41         6.1             23.2       29.7
2007   42.5       6.8             22.5       28.2
2008   42.7       7.8             21.9       27.6

Source: National Institute of Statistics, Romanian
Statistical Yearbook, Edition 2010

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Figure 2. The evolution
of authorized postal and
courier suppliers between
1999-2010

       Number of
       authorized
       suppliers

1999   5
2000   7
2001   8
2002   67
2003   118
2004   138
2005   190
2006   238
2007   248
2008   789
2009   889
2010   465

Source: Author's own
analysis based on data
gathered by the ANCOM

Note: Table made from
line graph.

Figure 3 Evolution
of the total number
of employees in the
postal sector 2004-1010

2004   40803
2005   43116
2006   43299
2007   44697
2008   47470
2009   45003
2010   47156

Source: Author's own
analysis based on data
gathered by the ANCOM

Note: Table made from
bar graph.

Figure 4 Evolution of
the number of employees
in the private sector
2004-2010

       Number of
       employees
       in private
       sector

2004   4730
2005   6835
2006   8364
2008   11578
2009   8478
2010   10662

Source: Author's own
analysis based on data
gathered by the ANCOM

Note: Table made from bar graph.