Russian Post for Dummies

Russian Post is a large, complex and not very friendly structure. It is customary to spit on it in social networks, and going for a letter or package often turns into a small quest. They say about this: "Life did not prepare me for this."







Want to send a book as a gift to a friend. You come to the department, and a tired woman asks: "How do we ship, by registered packet with a declared value or first class?". And you understand that it will be more complicated than high-load systems, big data and neural networks.

')

We at Dadat are strongly associated with mail: we correct addresses and are well versed in the features of its work. We wrote a detailed guide to the services of the Russian Post, for dummies. The author of the article is Sergey Korol, editor and post boom.

What are the departures

For a start, let's look at the two basic types of shipments.



A simple shipment is sent independently, without separation - just thrown into the mailbox. These are ordinary postcards and letters.



Registered mail is sent only from the department. For him, fill out the paper, and get a track number to track. Such a shipment is received only with a passport. Additional options are “attached” to registered items:

• A Notice of Delivery is a legally significant confirmation that you have received a letter. He is loved by all sorts of government organizations and private companies. Any military registration or enlistment office or court will send you a letter with acknowledgment of delivery.
  
  
  
  
• The inventory of the attachment is proof that the letter contains
  
  what is contained. For example, you send a claim to the contract. You make an inventory, and the post office officer stamps it - this means that he has become your witness. Now the recipient will not say that he received congratulations on the anniversary. Usually such letters are sent both with an inventory and a return receipt - a CC!
  
  
  
  
• The declared value is, in fact, insurance. If the mail loses the package or damages it, then the value of the declared value will be returned to you. Also, part of the cost will be returned for violation of the delivery time. The higher the declared value, the more expensive the shipment. In fact, to return something difficult. This thing is better not to use.
  
  
  
  
• Cash on delivery is the amount that the recipient of the parcel will pay. She will return to the sender by money transfer. With cash on delivery, old online stores often work (normal ones accept cards on the site or send by courier). Cash on delivery cannot be greater than the declared value.

Simple postcards and letters

Everything is simple: take a postcard or letter, stick stamps and throw in the box - everything will come. A postcard in Russia now costs 13 ₽, in the world - 30 ₽. A letter from an envelope and a pair of A4 sheets in Russia costs 20 ₽, in the world - from 31 ₽.



Tips:

1. Simple letters are not registered anywhere, with the loss of them it is almost impossible to return. Do not send them important information: for example, the last family photo of the grandfather.
   
   
   
   
2. Nevertheless, simple letters go pretty well. If you are a freelancer and often exchange documents with customers, feel free to send them in simple letters and do not stand in queues.
   
   
   
   
3. Buy home a stock of stamps for a couple of hundred rubles, envelopes, and prepare letters yourself. Ask for mail stamps of 20-25 ₽. With this denomination is convenient. Sending a small letter - glue 25 ₽, a bigger letter - 50 ₽. You can not count grams and pennies.
   
   
   
   
4. Always glue stamps with a margin. Mail has all sorts of oddities. So, letters are rated by weight: the heavier, the more expensive, but in increments of tens of grams. Some bore in the sorting center will return your letter back, because you did not add marks for an extra gram. But 50 ₽ will almost always suffice.
   
   
   
   
5. Letters are accelerated, or air. If you want air travel - just write about it on the envelope. You can show off and write PAR AVION (the international language of mail is French).
   
   
   
   
6. I advise you to throw the letter in the box near the post office. It is theoretically possible in any street, but there is a danger that it is broken and forgot about it.
   
   
   
   
7. Write the address as detailed as possible. Always specify an index. On the sorting centers of the post office there are devices that read the index by machine vision, and quickly sort the letters - so they reach faster. If you do not know the index, then just google it to the address .

How to sign an address

Registered letters and parcels

They are sent from the department. Bring the shipment, select the options, give the shipment to the operator and get a check. The easiest way to calculate the cost of departure is on the Russian Post website .



Tips:

1. To save time, fill in the accompanying documents in advance - there is a designer on the Russian Post website.
   
   
   
   
2. If suddenly the operator takes care of your documents printed out on a printer, then take the stock of their forms with you for the future. You can also call the telephone hotline and have a fight; on the Post, such cases are specially monitored.
   
   
   
   
3. If you do not understand what options you need, choose a registered item. The declared value is one ruble. Everything.
   
   
   
   
4. For packaging in the mail there are packages and boxes. It is more difficult with boxes - things usually hang out in them (so that they don’t hang out, I buy the cheapest sawdust for hamsters at the pet store and fill them with voids). Theoretically, you can come with your packaging, but often they react nervously. If you often send, then buy a container home, in reserve.
   
   
   
   
5. Packages sign with a ballpoint pen, smear gel.
   
   
   
   

If you send documents of state importance, say so: “I want to send a letter with an inventory of the attachment and notification of delivery,” the employee will do everything himself. It is also important not to seal an envelope with such an attachment, because the operator must check it by inventory.





Mail boxes and packages

Parcels

A parcel is a cool mail shortcut, something between a letter and a parcel, but only for printed products. In parcels send books, newspapers, magazines, packs of documents.



A parcel is cheaper, and it does not need to fill in forms. Just put the book in the package, write the address and give it to the operator. The main thing that weighed less than two kilograms (otherwise only the package).



Theoretically, in a parcel you can send a small thing like a T-shirt - the operators do not really watch what is inside.

Class 1 shipments

These are any registered letters, parcels and parcels with a jet attachment. They are more expensive, but reach twice as fast.



For class 1 shipments, there is also no need to fill out godless forms. It is enough to write the address on the envelope or package.

EMS

This is a superstructure above the mail, in the manner of a courier delivery service. In fact, there is nothing to write about it: long, expensive and terrible service. If you really need to send something by courier, choose a private courier service.



⌘ ⌘



Any rules and advice:

1. Install the application Russian Post - perhaps this is the best that is in this organization. It is convenient to track the departure, it is easy to find the nearest branch.
   
   
   
   
2. Use the new site Mail. I say this not because I participated in its development. The site turned out really convenient: with a calculator of items and a generator of forms.
   
   
   
   
3. Do not send money and jewelry. At best, they will be identified and returned to you, at worst - withdrawn.
   
   
   
   
4. You can also not send a typical set of prohibited items: weapons, explosives, caustic and toxic materials. From the strange: you can not send parts of the saiga, but you can live bees.
   
   
   
   
5. Post offices work on Saturdays, on Saturday there are fewer people in them. More bursts are usually not immediately after lunch, from 15 o'clock.
   
   
   
   
6. To get registered items you need a passport. If you wear it too lazy, there are two ways. First - make yourself a notarized copy. The second way is on the verge of social engineering - make sure that you are remembered at the post office as “I know this nice person, you don’t need to ask for his passport”. To do this, it’s enough to write a few thanks in the book of complaints and suggestions.
   
   
   
   
7. If you see a person in a queue in front of you with a stack of envelopes - you can leave at once, this is a representative of the organization sending out notification letters. In general, it is convenient to multiply the number of people in front of you by seven, you get a fairly accurate waiting time in minutes.

Four main councils:

1. Buy envelopes, stamps and send documents yourself, without mail.
2. Send books and magazines by package.
3. Send parcels in 1 class, if you want to quickly and fearlessly pay an extra couple of hundreds.
4. Use the new Mail site and mobile app.

Well, if you need to correct a million errors in the addresses - come to Dadata , we will cope quickly and without queues.