THE CHALLENGES OF UNIVERSAL POSTAL SERVICE COST MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The provision of information with an accurate and timely description of all business processes holds a prominent position among various activities for enhancing the operations of network industries. Since price pressure is the primary consequence of competition in network industries, it is necessary to perform a cost analysis of the business processes of the industry’s monopolists. The realisation of all business activities that make up a production chain at as low a cost as possible, without affecting the quality of products and services, is the main issue of concern to network industry management. A key problem of cost management in network industries is their specific structure characterised, inter alia, by high participation, rapid growth and diversification of overhead costs.

The research subject of this paper is the theoretical identification and understanding of the basis of a potential Universal Postal Service (UPS) cost accounting model of the Public Postal Operator (PPO) in Serbia. EU Directive 97/67 represents the starting point for providing the guidelines for the development of this model, such as separate internal accounting for several PPO service segments. The existing legislative framework which defines the relations on the national postal service market pays special attention to the cost of UPS, which provide the basis for service pricing. Тhe relevant result of this research, which has a significant practical application, is the basis of the model for calculating the cost of universal postal service, designed to provide informational support to management in the process of service pricing.