History
The basis for the postal organization was the trading postal service, which derived from the merchants' need to communicate on commercial matters. These merchants were from Germany, and later on also from Italy, therefore most active relationships were maintained with them. In the 14th and 15th centuries Kraków was communicating with German towns through messengers, who were remunerated by commercial confraternities. The best designed trading post of this type was owned by the Fugger family who at the end of the 15th century established their factories in Kraków. Initially they were used for the trade of copper. With time, though, they started to also deal with financing operations. The Fugger Post was primary used only for the maintenance of communications between these factories and the central office in Augsburg. In later years, its services were used by the king Sigismund I of Poland, the queen Bona Sforza and the vice-chancellor Piotr Tomicki.
The second serious trading postal service was the Seweryn Boner's post. Boner's banking house kept permanent agents who facilitated the forwarding of the correspondence of private persons. Seweryn Boner, in agreements with the Thurn und Taxis family post, tried to establish a regular postal service in Kraków, which was enabled on a small scale, however the enterprise was closed down after his death. The death of the Polish queen Bona Sforza in 1557 was the factor that influenced the emergence of the Polish Post, because King Sigismund II Augustus had to maintain permanent and regular correspondence with Italy in order to collect his inheritance. On the 18 October 1558 the monarch granted the right for the establishment and management of the post to the Italian Prospero Provana. In connection with that event, 18 October is the official Polish Post holiday. The services of this post, which ran from Kraków to Venice, could also be used by private persons, despite the fact that the costs of its maintenance were borne by the crown. Provana, however, started a conflict with the Thurn und Taxis family, who controlled postal communications in Austria, Hungary and Italy. This resulted after four years in the withdrawal of the benefit granted to Provan.
On 11 July 1562 the king concluded a New agreement with Krzysztof Taxis, the executive director of the imperial post in Vienna, on the basis of which, he acquired all posts in Poland, establishing the institution under the name of Poczta Polska (Polish Post), i.e. Royal post. It was composed of the Italian post (Kraków–Vienna–Venice) and Lithuanian Post (Kraków–Warsaw–Vilnius). The postal messenger left Kraków each Sunday morning, arrived in Vienna on Wednesday and then left for Venice, where he arrived after seven days journey. The courier set off to Lithuania each week on Wednesday, in order to arrive in Vilnius after a week's journey. Therefore, the letter from Kraków to Venice took 10 days and from Kraków to Vilnius 7 days. The postal charge amounted to 3 grosz from 1 lot of weight of private parcel. The king's and court's parcels were free of charge, but the monarch paid yearly subsidy for the benefit of the post in the amount of 1500 thalers (1200 for the Italian post, 300 for the Lithuanian post). This amount was collected in instalments from the Kraków duty. The director, who received the total income from the post, in return had to take care of the maintenance and its supplies. Although the Polish post under the management of a new director created new extensive and proper international connection, the contract with Taxis was terminated after two years due to various intrigues.
Italian Piotr Maffon, a Kraków bourgeois, became a new postmaster, who on 9 January 1564 was granted a special right to run the postal service within a period of five years. Within this period a significant regress of this institution was indicated, among all, there was lack of permanent connection with Venice. Due to this fact, the contract with Maffon was terminated before the deadline and Sebastiano Montelupi, who was one of the richest Kraków bourgeois, applied for the position of the postmaster. He was granted a relevant privilege on 18 November 1568, however, he took up a position of the postmaster only under the extended privilege of 22 June 1569. As of the date of taking up the post, referred to as “royal post”, by Sebastian Montelupi, its initial development phase finished. Montelupi's Royal Post was responsible for delivering the parcels to the king once a week, when the ruler was residing in any location within the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, or once every three weeks when he was residing in Lithuania. The route to Venice was operated every 15 days and to Vilnius every 17 days. For his services Montelupi received 1300 thalers yearly and used the payments for private consignments. Furthermore, the royal carriages were also at his disposal. The Montelupi Kamienica located in Kraków at Rynek Główny no. 7 was the principal office of the post office.[5]
In 1928 the government-owned enterprise Polish Post, Telegraph and Telephone was established. In 1939 the Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig (Gdańsk). In 1944 the Lublin postal district was established, which is considered to be the beginning of the contemporary Polish Post. In 1991 a section providing telecommunication services was separated from the state organizational unit PPTiT, (Telekomunikacja Polska) was created. On January 1st, 2006, Polish Post introduced the cash on delivery services, at the same time resigning from linking the cash on delivery service with other services (letters, parcels). In 2008 a new sorting center was opened in Zabrze.[6] On 1 September 2009, Polish Post, as a result of commercialization, was transformed into a joint stock company. Until 31 August 2009 it functioned as Public Utility State Enterprise "Polish Post". On 1 January 2010 the Polish Post introduced the "E-PARCEL" service. On 1 January 2012 the company was reformed with the introduction of a new organizational structure, part of which 62 district branches were transformed into 17 Regions of the Network. In January 2012 the Post Office introduced the "Dimensional package" and the "Business package" services. In January 2013 the Polish Post presents a new visual identification, first post office facility of a new type was opened and a new website of the Post Office was launched. In May 2013 According to the UKE, the Polish Post delivery of letters and parcels is faster than before. On September 2013 the Polish Post introduced electronic notice[7] In October 2013 the Polish Post introduced postal e-services: neo-stamp, neo-letter and neo-postcard. On June 2014 Polish Post launched "ecommerce.poczta-polska.pl" platform – a place comprehensive support for customers conducting business on the Internet.
In February 2024 Sebastian Mikosz was appointed as the Chairman of the Polish Post with the goal of restructuring the company which was in a deep crisis. According to the new strategy adopted by the company management, the Polish Post is to transform itself from a traditional "letter and transfer" company that is not adapted to the needs of the market and the consumer to a modern courier-retail-financial-digital enterprise. The priority areas of transformation for 2024 and 2025 are employment, improvement of the quality of services, organizational changes and investments in the IT area.[11] As part of the transformation plan, Polish Post plans to increase its share of revenue from parcel delivery services, retail sales, and digital and logistics services from 18% in 2022 to 59% in 2028. The share of letter distribution, hybrid services, and traditional money transfer services is to fall from 82% to 41% in the aforementioned period. Over the five years (2023-2027), the transformation plan is also to increase the share of revenue from retail trade, which currently stands at 2.7% to 13.6% in 2027. The plan envisages reduction of about 8% of the workforce,[12] digitalization and improvement of the IT systems with the goal of getting rid of the long-standing technological debt related to both hardware and outdated digital systems. The transformation plan assumes, among others, the creation of the IT Shared Services Center and the introduction of modern solutions enabling the optimization and automation of processes.[13]
In May 2024 Mikosz reaffirmed the company's commitment to the development of parcel machines.[14] In the same year a new sorting center, one of the largest in Poland, was opened in Ciemne, Gmina Radzymin.[15]
On January 1st, 2025 the Polish Post began operating a new e-Delivery service. To use the new service, one needs to set up a special mailbox via the mObywatel e-government website. People who do not use the Internet and do not have e-mail are able to go to the post office who will manage the mailbox of the person who does not have it, then print the letter and deliver it as will be sent electronically to Poczta Polska, being printed packed in an envelope and delivered by the postman in the traditional way.[16][17][18]
