Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.09.2019, Blaðsíða 13

reflected by price. “Sometimes there
were good reasons for price increases,
but the business was not run as effi-
ciently as it could have been.” He went
on to say that he can’t make any prom-
ises about cutting the price for the
post. However, he is willing to prom-
ise that they will give back the value
for money by raising the service. He
also said that as soon as his team get
the post into profit, he is sure they
will have enough leverage for them to
decrease prices. “To be honest that will
be a big reward for me and my team,
because that will mean we did a good
job of turning the company around.”
He says, smiling, “I really hope we can
meet in 12 months time and we can
talk about lower prices.”
What took so long?
Birgir met with Hanna Katrín
Friðriksson, along with the chairman
and the vice-chairman of the board,
on September 2nd,
in front of the Trans-
port and Communi-
cations Committee.
Hanna asked, essen-
tially, what took the
post office so long to
make these changes.
“I can’t answer that.
I don’t know. I’ve
been there for three
m o n t h s ,” B i r g i r
says. “I can say we
are doing it now.” He
smiles.
The general audi-
t o r o f t h e s t a t e
released a report in
June, which shined
a light over the past
problems and issues with the post
office. Birgir found this report help-
ful, because it highlighted a number of
areas that needed improvement. So he
devised a plan to fix the areas that the
report highlighted. However, he still
has to contend with the free market.
“It is changing a lot over the first of
January because we are losing our
monopoly,” he says, referring to legis-
lation that recently passed. Birgir says
that his official position on this legis-
lation is neutral. “If the state wants to
pull the company out of the competi-
tion market, then it’s fine by me.”
The future
The post office doesn’t have a lot of
time. “We are almost technically
bankrupt,” Birgir says, adding that
the state gave the company about 1.5
billion ISK which will have to get them
through this year. After that, they have
to stand on their own feet.
In that timeframe, he hopes that
people will see and appreciate the
changes he imple-
m e n t s . “ I t w i l l
always be too slow,
and we will never be
good enough, but I
hope people will see
progress.” As for the
business side, he
is optimistic. “I’m
pretty sure we will
be operating with a
profit next year, based
on the restructuring
programs. I think the
main business of the
Icelandic post is the
parcel business. So
I think the focus is
going to be on that
for a while.”
Hopefully, one day that means no
more paying ridiculous fees.
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13 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16— 2019
“The good thing
about this
industry is that
we don’t have
to reinvent the
wheel. We just
have to look at
other countries
and do what
they’re doing.”
Sending some expensive mail