The universal service is every person’s right to benefit from the permanent provision of certain postal services (services within the scope of universal service), at a certain quality level and at affordable tariffs, in any point on the Romanian territory.

 

The services within the scope of universal service are:

 

a) the clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of the domestic and cross-border postal items up to 2 kg;

b) the clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of the domestic and cross-border postal packages up to 10 kg;

c) the distribution of the postal parcels up to 20 kg, sent from outside Romania to an address located on the Romanian territory;

d) the service for registered items dealing with the postal items from the category under letter a);

e) the service for insured items dealing with the postal items from the categories under letters a) to c);

f) the clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic and cross-border cecogrammes.

 

Attention! The services with additional characteristics to the postal services within the scope of universal service (Cash-on-delivery, Change of destination, Special delivery, Advice of delivery, Express) are not included in the scope of universal service.

 

ANCOM may designate one or several postal providers as universal service providers. As well, ANCOM establishes and publishes the conditions and procedure applicable for the designation of the universal service provider/s, as well as the obligations and special conditions these must observe and the rights they benefit from in the provision of the universal service.

 

The universal service provider has, among others, the obligation to cover with postal services the entire national territory so that each inhabitant has access to the postal services, irrespective of the locality he/she lives in. The universal service provider has therefore the obligation to provide services at affordable tariffs on the entire national territory, including in the areas located in exceptional geographic conditions or with low density population, where the correspondence volume is low and therefore the activity can be non-profitable. As well, the universal service provider has the obligation to make available to the users at least one postal box and at least one contact point in every locality from Romania.

 

At present, the Romanian Post National Company ensures the provision of the universal service on the Romanian territory. See framework contract for the provision of the postal services included in the scope of the universal service.