Since the beginning of the year, Slovak Post has submitted 75 proposals for the cancellation of its brancheswhile the Office for the Regulation of Electronic Communications and Postal Services assessed 19 proposals by April 20. As the regulatory authority confirmed for TASR, the reason for the proposals to cancel post offices is the economic development trend influenced by the increase in input costs, the decrease in revenues of some products and the achievement of expected savings in personal expenses and costs associated with the operation of post office facilities.
“The office assesses each proposal for the cancellation of a specific access or contact point of the public postal network, from the point of view of compliance with the requirements for the quality of the universal service. In the proposals, the impact on users and the maintenance of access to the universal service is assessed, in particular the territorial availability and ensuring the delivery of postal items after the cancellation of the post office.” explained Simona Hyravá from the press and information department of the regulatory office.
Despite the fulfillment of qualitative indicators, the Slovak Post will ultimately decide on the final cancellation and the date of cancellation of the branch, according to the office. “Requirements for the quality of universal service establish minimum requirements for the availability and density of the public postal network to ensure universal service. The number of branches is not precisely determined by legislation in the Slovak Republic, as for example in the Czech Republic.” stated Hyravá.
As part of the transformation, the Slovak Post Office closed a total of 45 post offices in 2025 – 22 in district cities and 23 in regional cities. The optimization of the network will continue, of the current 1317 branches, 1067 are lost. “The Slovak Post operates on the basis of a postal license, which imposes geographical rules on where the post office must be. According to this license, 852 post offices would currently be sufficient,” pointed out the CEO of the company, Vladislav Kupka. According to him, most municipalities in Slovakia do not have a post office and have never had one.
According to the requirements for the quality of universal service, the distance of any inhabited place from the built-up part of the village, which has at least 25 inhabitants, the nearest post office is at most ten kilometers away. There is a post office in every village with more than 2,500 inhabitants, and at the same time its catchment area has more than 3,500 inhabitants. In a village or city with more than 22,000 inhabitants, there is at least one post office for every 22,000 inhabitants. There is at least one post office in the urban districts of Bratislava and Košice, which have more than 22,000 inhabitants.
Slovenská pošta is preparing a completely new concept of the so-called small post office. He is planning it in villages where the post office was and will no longer be, or never was. A small post office could be operated, for example, by municipalities, shops, pubs or other interested parties. The post office would supply a checkout terminal that doubles as a scanner. There could be a post office in every village.
“In the summer, we will start delivering parcels and letter parcels to our own hands, and this year we will also add financial services, i.e. the possibility to pay SIPO and postal orders. It will also be possible to get to the parcel, where it is necessary to pay customs duty.” Kupka zoomed in. So they want to cover most of the services for which people go to the post office.
