The calculation of costs of postal network and universal postal service based on standard and average cost principles

Abstract

The provision of universal postal service involves high costs for operator, especially in rural areas. The aim of this paper is to propose and test tool for managing the cost of providing universal postal service and maintaining the postal network in order to facilitate understanding of the problem in the sector. The proposed approach use standard prices and standard quantities (the redefined number of postal units, the number of employees, etc.) as well as average costs for calculation of the costs of the universal postal service and postal network. The methodology provides the efficiency analysis, benchmarking and identification of causes of poor performance of management and resource allocation. It can be used for postal operators that do not have modern accounting systems.

Keywords

• postal network
• universal postal service
• postal operator
• costs