Correo Argentino seeks to transform itself so as not to perish in a context of global transformation of the business model, with a change in the branch model and a significant reduction in its staff.
The president of the state company, Camilo Baldini, detailed in dialogue in Infobae the budget consolidation process, since last year they recorded a deficit of $100 billion. The objective is to reach a balanced result at the end of this year, said this accountant who graduated from the University of Salvador, an expert in logistics management and distribution chains. In April 2023 the deficit was 55% of turnover and a year later it dropped to 20%.
In the last 15 years, the volume of letter transportation has decreased by 80%; The Post Office’s main business now is the transport of packages from e-commerce companies, which has a lower volume than other countries in the region despite the progress in recent years.
“The Post Office is going through a modernization process that will benefit the common citizen because it will stop costing them money as taxpayers. The company had planned a deficit of $222 billion pesos for 2024, basically for two reasons: for having an oversized structure and for having too many branches with the traditional format,” he explained.
In this context, “the Post Office will have a greater geographic reach, reaching more points throughout the country. This will be achieved with a change in the branch model: many of the traditional offices will be replaced by mail windows installed in bookstores, warehouses, service stations and other locations.”
Currently, the Post Office has 1,452 branches in all provinces, and 3,675 postal units.
With the new model, it will reach approximately 5,000 service points, with greater distribution throughout the country.
The intention is that businesses that accept to receive and send mail packages receive a 14% commission and allow these operations to be carried out throughout the day, so that these transactions are not limited to the limited hours that operate until now.
“This modernization process contemplates that the Argentine Post Office continues to provide, with increasingly greater quality and efficiency, the Universal Basic Service (SBU) to which it is obliged by law. This means reaching all the inhabitants of the Argentine territory, permanently, with a certain quality, at affordable prices,” he explained.
Among other issues, the Post Office will continue to be in charge of paying pensions and several key social plans, such as the AUH.
“Among the services provided by Correo Argentino is providing electoral logistics, as established by the National Electoral Code. “That will continue without variations,” Baldini clarified.
In this sense, he explained that Correo Argentino has 13,600 employees, but the holding of elections involves approximately 76,000 people throughout the country, including, in addition to telepostal workers, transportation companies (outsourced personnel), the electoral command and other electoral justice personnel.
In 2025, it will act in the same way, although the plan is to continue reducing the workforce, which in 2021 reached 19 thousand people (since the restructuring began in 2022, in the government of Alberto Fernández) and, in the change of government, to 16 thousand; In addition, there are 93 unions grouped into four union federations that coexist in the state firm that is on the list of companies that could be privatized according to the Base Law.
In addition to maintaining the separation program, a voluntary retirement program was proposed, which has already achieved the participation of 3,000 employees and another 800 cases are under analysis.
The management of the company intends to invest in better technology and will advance in a better complementation with Customs to speed up the delivery of international parcels that historically was very slow in the Retiro building, a process that has already begun with the enabling of a warehouse near the AFIP organization near the Ezeiza International Airport.
In parallel, work is being done with other areas of the Government so that, just as there is a regime for the import of parcels, there is another for the export of products sold from Argentina.
