Smartpost is an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

company which specializes in delivery of goods and self-servicing post offices. Founded in 2008, Smartpost currently operates 332 parcel lockers and parcel points over Estonia through a solution called ''Delivery Point Solution'' (DPS). Peetri

Currently, the DPS system is used by online shops for product delivery as an alternative to regular post services. Private customers can send their parcels through the system as well and pay for the delivery on the spot with a

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a cred ...

or credit card. The system also encompasses an

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

-based notification system, notifying clients when an item has been delivered. Smartpost's solution was implemented in April 2009. Unlike other similar systems (such as the Packstation solution in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

), Smartpost has placed its Delivery Point Solution indoors (e.g. in shopping malls), making them convenient to use even with bad weather. In July 2009, Smartpost reported it was in negotiations with an Italian company interested in licensing Smartpost's Delivery Point Solution for usage in Italy. Currently, Smartpost is servicing roughly two hundred distant selling companies and online shops in Estonia. During its first year of operation, Smartpost reported a 13.8 million EEK (about 1.2 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

) turnover with an 8.3 million ($740,000 USD) profit loss. SmartPOST's member of board Antti Oolup said that the loss was expected and planned, with monthly profits planned for the end of 2009. Smartpost reported that over 33 thousand parcels were sent through its service in Estonia in December 2009. Smartpost was chosen as the Logistics Deed 2009 at the annual Purchase Management and Logistics Conference. At the end of 2009, Smartpost also reported that it will expand its business to Finland. Currently, only one-way packages can be sent from Estonia. In November 2010, Smartpost's CEO position was taken over from Indrek Oolup by Risto Eelmaa.

Controversy regarding advertising

In October 2009, Estonia's national postal company

Eesti Post Omniva is an international post and logistics company based in Tallinn, Estonia, that targets the Baltic region, Baltic states. The name Omniva was adopted in June 2014; the company was previously called AS Eesti Post, whose history can be trac ...

filed a complaint with the Estonian Consumer Union, claiming that Smartpost's television advertisements were damaging the reputation of Eesti Post and also "calling viewers up to violence against elderly people". Smartpost responded that the claim was untrue and damaging reputation or calls for violence were not their intention.

Sale to Itella Corporation

In July 2010, the Estonian Development Fund (majority shareholder in Smartpost) sold its share to the Finnish postal service and logistics company

Itella Group (previously during 1994–2007 and during 2007–2015), trading internationally as Posti Group Corporation, is the main Finnish postal service delivering mail and parcels in Finland. The State of Finland is the sole shareholder of th ...

. Raivo Vare, Head of the Estonian Development Fund commented on the sale, saying: "Risk investment is a field where there are few success stories, but Smartpost is definitely one of them. Sale of Smartpost is even better than it looks." The Estonian Development Fund reportedly earned €1.3 million from the sale of Smartpost. Production and intellectual rights for the Delivery Point Solution remains in the hands of

Cleveron Cleveron is an Estonian company which produces robotics-based parcel terminals for retail and logistics sectors. Cleveron headquarters are located in Viljandi, Estonia. Cleveron was established in 2007 when online furniture store ON24's logisti ...

, a separate entity from Smartpost.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

SmartPOST's controversial television advertisement
Logistics companies of Estonia 2006 establishments in Estonia