13 May Interview with Zoran Anđelković, Acting Director of PE Post of Serbia
How has Post of Serbia contributed to the country for the past 185 years and how has it retained this importance over time?
Post is a fundamental institution in every country. Whether in the USA or in Serbia, it has always been essential to a country’s development. Post has always enabled communication between people, starting from the times when mail was delivered by horse carriages, until today, when digital technologies are transforming the industry, which represents the thematic activity of our PTT Museum. The Post of Serbia, just like the State of Serbia, is at the forefront of digital transformation, introducing all kinds of new technological achievements. We are soon opening two new logistics centers in Belgrade and Novi Sad, where robots will be engaged in sorting all types of postal items. The plan is to equip three more logistics centers with robots, in Niš, Kraljevo and Kragujevac. In addition, we have installed a large number of parcel lockers throughout the country, where our customers can collect their postal items. Our goal is for Serbia to be the country with the largest number of parcel lockers. At the moment, Poland and Lithuania are leading the race, but I hope we will catch up with them soon. This system uses digital tools, which is crucial for e-commerce and Post Express.
Together with the Ministry of Telecommunications, we are working on a new law on postal services that will facilitate e-delivery. The law stipulates that the use of electronic delivery notes will become mandatory as of January 2026. Both natural persons and legal entities will have to issue electronic delivery notes for all goods. We cooperate with eGovernment of Serbia to enable official documents, certificates, registers and other materials to be delivered via e-delivery. Of course, our mail carriers still perform on-site physical deliveries. We currently have 1,575 post offices and our mail carriers reach 4,700 places throughout the country every day. Digitalization helps to reduce the administrative burden, which will not endanger the jobs of more than 14,000 employees at the Post of Serbia. Also, in cooperation with international financial institutions, we enable our expats living in the USA to quickly and safely send money to their families in Serbia. Transfers are often carried out the following day.
Last year, Serbia hosted the PostEurop General Assembly 2024, where we exchanged expertise with our European colleagues. It is interesting to note that Serbia was one of the 22 countries that founded the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874, one of the oldest international organizations.
You have recently signed a bilateral agreement with the Hungarian Post and you cooperate with global logistics players such as Amazon and UPS. How does the Post of Serbia maintain a competitive advantage through these collaborations?
We generate a large number of postal items via Amazon, Ali Express and the Chinese platform Temu. E-commerce in Serbia is growing significantly, recording a growth of 50% compared to the previous year. In fact, our business in this domain is increasing at a fast pace: in January, we had an increase of 30% compared to January 2024.
We cooperate with the Hungarian Post and other posts in the surrounding area. We are currently negotiating with the Italian Post, the distribution center of which in Milan is a key delivery point for postal items generated through 50 online platforms. This cooperation will contribute to an even greater number of postal items, which is why robotization in logistics centers will be of great importance to us.
The Post of Serbia is committed to the development of environmental responsibility, with more than 15% of our vehicles being electric vehicles, our fleet including motorcycles and bicycles and with many of our logistics centers using solar panels. Our goal is to produce more energy than we consume, which is not possible right away, but we are trying to be self-sustainable in the production of electricity.
How does the Post of Serbia help citizens bridge the digital divide and ensure access to basic services?
We have signed an agreement with the Ministry of Rural Welfare, because we want to be of service to elderly households in addition to our main activities. The low birth rate, especially in rural areas, brought about an increasing number of elderly households. We have adopted the French model, according to which mail carriers also take on a social role. They not only deliver letters or bills, but also spend time talking to our senior citizens and help them obtain food and medicine. The idea is not to diminish the role of the mail carrier, but to provide assistance to people, including with the challenges brought by digitalization. Among other things, we help citizens access and use digital services. This is what we call the “the last mile” in postal services.
What are some of your personal ambitions while at the helm of the company? What big projects and big transformations would you like to carry out for the company?
I was appointed on May 17, 2024 and already on June 7, we had a celebration of the Day of the Post of Serbia, which was attended by the line minister, our employees, the media and on that occasion I promised them that, a year from now, for the celebration of our 185th anniversary, they would see robotic systems in our sorting centers. We managed to complete the bidding procedure in just seven months and deploy the robots in the two largest logistics centers, while three more will soon be equipped. In addition, the Post of Serbia makes deliveries throughout the country, through hundreds of postal parcel lockers that we have installed. Parcel lockers can also be seen in our largest shopping centers and we are working intensively on their development.
I am proud of the fact that the Post of Serbia does not hold a monopoly over the services and that, with more than 300 postal services in its assortment, it operates in a free, competitive market, with many other private companies that offer the same services. This is not the case in many countries where national postal companies do hold a monopoly. Nonetheless, the Post of Serbia remained an essential economic player and a successful company that managed not only to survive but also to strive in a radically transformed industry. In the future, we expect even more changes and transformations, including the upcoming Law on Postal Services, with e-commerce and e-delivery as fast-growing important segments for the future of postal services.
These months felt like a couple of years and we have had our hands full with various projects. When I was appointed in May last year, I already had a clear idea of the company and the competition at the local and global level. I had a clear roadmap and from the first day of my appointment I set clear agenda and priorities. In January 2025, we signed a Collective Agreement with the representative unions of our company, which enabled an 8% salary increase, provided for the final payment of employees’ salaries to be made by the 15th of the month, the 13th salary to be paid in twelve installments and the 14th salary to be paid in one lump sum in December of the current year.
We need strong international partners to strengthen our market, our services and expertise. We use Toshiba’s software systems and the Post of Serbia works with Toshiba’s machines on the sorting of postal items. Our mail sorting centers already use robots and we plan to expand this technology in the following year. Also, we are working on the further development of parcel lockers and the creation of a competitive market in which the Post of Serbia successfully endures. As an entrepreneur, I want to encourage further changes and transformations that will contribute to our competitiveness.
What is your final message to the readers of USA TODAY?
An individual, just like a company, must never stand still. I follow the fast river principle. If you swim against the current and do not swim hard enough, you will go downstream. This is why we should not stand still. We need to move forward and embrace new technologies such as artificial intelligence and everything else that represents the future. One should always fearlessly move forward.