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Preduzeće za Poštanski saobraćaj Republike Srpske a.d. Banja Luka

About Post

Poste Srpske a.d. Banja Luka is a designated postal operator which, in accordance with the provisions of the Law and on the basis of a license issued by the Agency, provides users, in the entire territory of Republika Srpska, with the universal and other postal services according to the same conditions and established world quality standards.
The primary activity of Poste Srpske and the most important segment of business operations is the provision of universal postal services, including admission, dispatch, transport, arrival and delivery of mail items domestically and internationally.
Fulfilling one of the basic principles of public postal service, principle of availability, Poste Srpske are considered as modern, market oriented postal system. 
With its extensive network of post offices in the most distant parts of the Republic of Srspka, and with ability to provide its services at the door step through its postmen, Poste Srpske are defined as ideal partner in work with population,

History of Post

According to the saved documents from the Ottoman empire, the first posts on the territory of today's Republic of Srpska were opened during 1864. Višegrad, Zvornik, Bijeljina, Brčko, Gradiška and Brod had the privilege to get first the postal stations
Twelve years later, precisely in 1876, the postal stations were opened in Čajniče and Rogatica. Interestingly, the existence of a post in Banja Luka was first mentioned in salnami (the official yearbook of the Turkish Government) from 1874, when the position for postal officer provided, although the existence of the telegraph station had been mentioned in that same salnami since 1874
However, it is very likely that Banja Luka had its postal station much earlier, because in the historical writings at the end of the late sixties of the XIX century states that during this period every Thursday evening the mail with letters and pledges from Sarajevo was sent to Travnik, Banjaluka, Bihać and Gradiška
In the period of the Ottoman empire there were no arranged post offices nor postal lines with a certain direction and time of arrival and departure of items. As needed, the mail transfer was carried out by the tatars on horseback. Carrying the mail, tatars retained briefly at the postal stations during their trip, where they changed their horses, rested and ate.Turkish authorities built the postal stations on every ten hours of walking. The main postal line was Travnik-Carigrad, which tatars held over Sarajevo, Rogatica, Višegrad, Priboj, Kosovska Mitrovica and continued to Skopje and the capital of the Ottoman empire. On that line, tatars carried important official letters, government documents...
After all frequent robber's attacks on tatar's postmen in the first half of the VIII century, the Turkish Government were forced to change the direction of tatars in order to transfer mail safer.
The postal connection between Serbia and Bosnia started to function during 1851, and the mail transfer was carried out through boarder between Rača and Bijeljina.
When the first railway station had been built in this part of the Ottoman empire, that connected Banjaluka and Dobrljin, the items sent to Banjaluka and Gradiska were separated, while the other letters were sent by the railway to Banjaluka and Gradiska (former Bosanski Novi) and Dobrljin.
An official at the post office was obliged to mark every letter in ink with the weight and amount of charges paid and to put the seal on that spot.
Stamps and envelopes with stamps were sold in the bigger postal stations, and according to the postal regulations there were also possibilities of selling the postal stamps outside of postal facilities.
It was interesting that an address could be written in foreign language, although in Turkish language as well.

t the Berlin's congress, (June 13 - July 13) 1878, Austro-Hungarian took over the management of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the congress, the decision was made which confirmed that «... Austro-Hungarian will visit and manage the districts of Bosnia and Herzegovina...» The decision was strongly echoed in this part of the Ottoman empire which was slowly but surely falling apart. The news of the arrival of Austro-Hungarian army caused unrest among the population which in alomst every major places of Bosnia and Herzegovina they prepared to resist to the occupation. However, although in some places people resisted, Austro-Hungarian occupied the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 29th July to 20th October 1878. An integral part of extensive preparations for the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina included the preparation for the work of war posts. These post offices deal only with receipt and dispatch of correspondence, newspapers and remittance. Parcels and similar items could be sent only in exceptional cases... The first war post offices were established along main directive invasion of Austro-Hungarian troops, and depending of the conditions and terrain where battles were leaded, divisions of war post offices were organized with appropriate equipment.
By October 15, the war branches of post offices were opened in Banjaluka ( at Austro-Hungerian 36th Division), Zvornik ( at 31st Division) and Višegrad (at 1st Division) and stage postal stations were in Derventa, Doboj, Banjaluka, Prijedor, Bijeljina, Brcko,Vlasenica, Mokro, Rogatica, Nevesinje, Ljubinje, Trebinje Gacko and Bileca.
At the end of the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the number of post offices comparing to the period of the Ottoman empire was considerably changed and there were also differences in their location. In that way Austro-Hungerian among others abolished post offices in Bijeljina and Mokro. However, all strategic important places were covered with the postal stations and were connected into unique postal system. One cannot ignore the fact that in a very short period of time, in conditions of warfare was opened a large number of post offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only the following 1879 the expansion of the postal system stopped, and among three opened postal stations was the one in Mrkonjic Grad too
When resistance of rebels was broken and certain level of security provided on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Austro-Hungerian authority permited the civilians to use services of war post offices. Until then, they were used only for the needs of invading army. At that time the transport of items on directions Gradiska – Busovaca and Sarajevo – Kiseljak was done by a team of horses, that escorted by military postmen and cavalry. At the end of October and at the beginning of November 1878, the postal lines were established: Zvornik - Rajevo Selo, Banjaluka - Dvor, Doboj - Tuzla, Višegrad - Sarajevo, Rogatica - Goražde, Trebinje - Dubrovnik, Trebinje - Bileća, Ljubinje -Stolac i Gacko - Nevesinje, where the transport of items was done three times a week
Ministry of War in Vienna prescribed the time of departure and arrival of mail, and for the greater security the transport was carried out only during the day, which significantly slowed the transfer of items. A few couple of months of the Austro-Hungary empire until the roads and bridges were not repaired and railways built, the trasport of postal items was not much different from the one from the Ottoman empire.The items travelled for six, seven days because the mail transfered only during the day on the relation Brod – Sarajevo, so that in the middle of January 1879 the Postal Administration was forced to divide the transport of letters from parcels and messengers carried letters on horses in order to deliver the mail faster on its destination.After reconstruction of the road Brod – Sarajevo and building the railway Brod – Doboj the time of transport was considerably reduced. So that letters traveled by the railway about 13 hours on the destination: Brod – Doboj long 83 kilometers.
At the beginning of December 1978 the postal station Brod obtained authorization to receive and dispatch remittances and items of civilians. Civilians in other places obtained that privilage at the beginning of the next year. It was then when the first postage tariffs for domestic operations and for the operations with Austro – Hungary were regulated. Double tariff was introduced, so that in the domestic service five copper coins was paid for a letter and in case that it was sent to Austro – Hungary, the postage was ten copper coins. All postal stations were authorized to receive subscription to Austro – Hungarian and other foreign newspapers.
Regardless of the extremely rapid expansion of postal system after the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austro – Hungary, the connection between post and locals was very difficult. The official language was German but not many locals did understand it. On the territory of Bosnia there were forms which were issued by Hungary, and on the territory of Herzegovina the forms were issued by Austria, which was one more difficulty for cooperation between post officers and civilians. These forms withdrew from the use only on the 1st July of 1879, after introduction of form in German language for the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After the introduction of the Austro – Hungary Administration on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the items of military were free of charges from postage, so the charge of postage did not exist until the ordinary citizens did not start to use it. At the beginning the post offices used postage stamps of occupant countries, Bosnia used the stamps of Hungaria's posts and Herzegovina used issues of Austria's Administration. After the abolition of Management of the war post office Mostar, and creating postal-administrative territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, orders of postage amendments and the introduction of special postal stamps for the charge of postage in the domestic and international services orders were taken
The first postage stamps on which there was an imperial eagle and above him the denomination, were released on the 1st July, 1879. The stamps had their value of 3,5,10,15 and 25 copper coins.At the same time, yellow postcards were released into use with a printed stamp of 2 copper coins. These were the first postcards on the territory of current Republic Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the period from 1879 to 1918, the postal service in Bosnia and Herzegovina was expended with a hundred new units. Expending of postal service in this period was much slower than in the first year of the occupation. During the 1878 on the occupied territory, 49 postal units were opened and during the Austro-Hungarian occupation 150 post offices in total. About the achieved success in the expending of postal service shows the facts according to which in 1879 one post office covered the territory of 10.044 square kilometers and 23.636 civilians belonged to it, while in 1912, in average, every post office served 7.908 civilians and the territory of 212 square kilometers
On the territory of the current Republic Srpska, in the 1907 the new unit of postal service appeared– subsidiary post office as complementary form of military network of postal stations. The postal services were not available to many municipalities: Janja, Koraj, Obudovac, Topola and also to smaller places: Mokro, Palama, Sokolac, so in 1907 in these places as well as in Headquarters of other municipalities, the subsidiaries post offices were opened.
By the end of the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina , 153 subsidiary post offices were opened, mostly in smaller places, which were less important for its functions from the places where were located military post offices.
From 1878 to 1918 both primitive and modern transport means were used: hiker, packhorse, team of horses, a car, a bus and a railway. Despite of rapid development of the railway network, the transfer of postal items were carried on the roads. 
At the end of the first decade of the XX century mail transfer by cars were introduced on the destination: Banjaluka – Jajce, and a few months before beginning of the First World War, the postal traffic by car was established also between Sarajevo and Kalinovik, Rogatica and Mesica and on the destination Ustiprača – Goražde – Foča.

Postal service on the current territory of Republic Srpska was established during the time of Turkish empire, and developed into relatively modern service during the Austro – Hungarian occupation.
After the First World War and the declaration of the common state of Srbs, Croats and Slovenians on the December 1, 1918 the postal, telegraphic and telephone operations were of vital importance. When it comes to the postal service, the territory of current Republic Srpska was in very difficult position comparing to other regions of the Kingdom of SHS. Although in the bigger parts of the common state of South Slavs, the Post was owened by the locals, in the former Bosnia and Herzegovina as already mentioned, the postal staff were foreigners. Majority of postal officers were from Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, who did not show the will to stay in the newly established Kingdom of SHS.This created huge deficit in a proffesional postal staff.
After the collapse of Austro – Hungary, 291 foreign postal officers remained to work in the Post. Jobs that were left vacant, filled by competition, and at the same time the courses and other forms of training were organized. In this way, the initial difficulties in functioning of postal services were moderated in the central district of the Kingdom SHS.
The transitional period in the work of the PTT system of the Kingdom SHS lasted from 1918 to 1921. In that period, the postal service is performed in the accordance with the regulations which were brought by the authorities of Austro – Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro.
At the beginning of 1919 the county authorities asked for opening the new posts in Ugljevik, Rudolfstal (current Aleksandrovac) and Razboj.
Until the beginning of the First World War, alignment of the postal system with the needs of the society and economic opportunities was done. At that time, on the basis of financial transactions the differentiate of posts was done on the Main Vault and Collection of Vaults. The Main Vault was located in Banjaluka, and Collection of Vaults in Brcko and Novi Grad.
At the time of the Kingdom of SCS , according to the acceptance of letter item and parcel items, there was division on the contracting state post offices, subsidiary post offices and ancillary post. In the contracted state posts were those post offices whose annual turnover did not exceed 35.000 work units». Working units were: registered mail, parcels, insured letters, telegrams, money orders, local and long distance telephone calls, radio subscribers and similar. Contracting state posts were in: Raca, Bratunac, Drnjaca, Han Pijesak, Janja, Kozluk, Lopare, Mokro, Palama, Rudo, Trnovo, Kostajnica, Aleksandrovac, Kobas, Budimlic Japri, Gornji ribnik, Hrvacani, Kozarac, Ljubija, Nova Topola, Srbac, Avtovac Gacko and Hum.
The auxiliary post offices where were optimal conditions were converted into ancillary state post offices, while other post offices abolished. The procedure lasted until 1941 until the former ancillary post offices converted into contracting state posts: Stanari, Skender Vakuf (Kneževo), Ustikolina, Omarska, Šipovo i Gornja Slatina.
When in 1929 the Kingdom of SCS was renamed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the entire state divided into regional units, the Postal Administration was established in Sarajevo which included Uzice, Zeta, Dubrovnik Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar, Travnik and Vrbas region. That was until then the biggest administrative division in the field of the postal services in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the financial law of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for 1938/1939, the Ministry for PTT Operations obtained the authority for the budget year «...that can make all previous actions and take measures for the establishment of Postal Administration in Banjaluka for Vrbas region, not burdening the budget of the state expenditures for this budget year...». However, the implementation of this provision has never occurred.
Delivery of postal items « at home » ( ordinary, recommended letters, newspapers and money letters, item delivery, value letters, telegraphic and money orders) was introduced even at the time of the Austro-Hungarian occupation in the twenty major places of BiH. This method of delivery is accepted by the Postal Administration of the Kingdom of SCS ( Yugoslavia). Since 1920 it was determined that all postal stations on the territory of the Directorate Posts of Sarajevo should deliver money order amount, value letters and sacks (parcels of small-scale and weight which used to be put in sacks) to the house, while the parcels on the territory of current Republic Srpska delivered only the post offices in Banjaluka, Bileca, Bijeljina, Bosanski Novi (Novi Grad), Brcko and Prijedor.
Backbone of postal transportation at the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia consisted of mobile or ambulance post offices in the composition of railway stations. Between 1920 and 1941 the ambulance post offices were existed on the relations: Sarajevo - Brod, Banjaluka - Zagreb, Bosanski Novi (Novi Grad) - Bihać, Prijedor - Knin, Vinkovci -Brčko, te Sarajevo – Višegrad - Užice – Čačak – Kraljevo - Stalać i Sarajevo –Valjevo – Lajkovac - Beograd.
In the unreachable mountain locations, the rocks of Herzegovina and on the poor roads for the delivery of postal items, the primitive transport vehicles were most frequently used: pedestrians, loading and riding horses and wagons with horse. Pedestrians and workhorses were used to transfer items on short distances, while on the long and bad roads items were transported by team of horses and on the better roads that was done by the private carriers who obtained a job of transferring items by auctions.
Already at the beginnings of the XX century the transportation of items was carried out by cars on many profitable lines, and the most frequent were: Banjaluka - Okučani, Banjaluka -Jajce, Jajce - Mrkonjić Grad, Goražde - Ustiprača, Goražde - Foča Čajniče - Pljevlja, Tuzla - Zvornik, Tuzla – Brčko - Bijeljina, Zvornik - Vlasenica i Zvornik - Srebrenica.

National Committee for Liberation of Yugoslavia, as an executive body of AVNOJ (Anti-fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia), managed the state administration affairs through Commissions. Post, telegraphs and telephones were located within the Commission for transport, whose highest authority was General Directorate for Post, Telegraph and Telephone.
Decision on the establishment of General PTT Administration was issued on November 10, 1944. The organizational structure of the General Administration was based on the Regulation from the year 1940, because all legal acts which the German armed forces and their colleagues made during the Second World War were canceled. At the Second Session of AVNOJ the Decision on the invalidity of legal acts that were enacted during the occupation was adopted. The decision was applied throughout the liberated territory, making the organization and functioning of the PTT in the postwar period based on the Law from the 1940s. The transition period lasted until March 07, 1945. , when the Temporary Government of the Democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia established the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone as an independent department of the federal interest. A few months later, on the November 29 of the same year, Democratic Federal Yugoslavia has changed its name in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and on January 31, 1946. the Constitution of the new state was adopted, stated that PTT system is within the Ministry of Posts. Within this Ministry, there were two main departments: postal links and telegraph and telephone and radio links.
The first year of a five-year plan changes the organization of the Ministry of Posts when instead of the main administration two general directorates were established: the Directorate of Posts, and Telegraph and Telephone Directorate. With the regulation on the establishment of the General Directorates, PTT system established commercial account, and PTT network units became the economic base of a large system. On January 01, 1949 both general directorates were abolished and its competences were transferred to the newly-established Main Directorate of the postal and TT system. It is interesting to mention the number of post offices at that time. In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in the year 1939, there were 2001 post, telegraph and telephone offices, and in the year 1949 there were already 3542 offices.
After the Second World War, on the territory of today's Republic Srpska, first post offices were established in Prijedor, Banja Luka, Bijeljina and Trebinje, and soon after, in year 1946. post offices in Janja, Ugljevik, Raca, Brodac, Dragaljevac, Srbac and Kobas were established. Although the period after the bloodiest war in human history was known for its strong economic and political development, it was not the case with the development of the PTT. In this post war years its development was extremely slow, with frequent periods of stagnation. By the early fifties of the twentieth century only bigger post offices were repaired, while reparation of post offices in small towns lasted much longer.
During the war, postal facilities in BiH have suffered the greatest destruction.
The PTT Directorate in BiH in post war reconstruction gave the priority to towns and cities where the postal facilities were destroyed and in which the work of the postal system because of the number of residents and businesses was necessary. In some cities, like Banja Luka, the pre-war post office was razed to the ground, so the postal counters worked in buildings with minimum working conditions. If necessary, post offices were opened in villages, so until 1950s the villages like Dvorovi, Suho Polje, Crnjelovo, Razboj Lijevce, Kukulje, Nozicko, Kriškovci, had the privilege to have the Post office.
After 1950s, the rapid development of the PTT began, which is reflected primarily in the construction of new postal facilities and the modernization of transportation means. Special vehicles for transportation of mail were purchased, mopeds and bicycles, postal equipment was modernized and traveling post offices were introduced again. In general, receipt distribution and delivery of shipments was raised to a higher level than it was in the postwar years, and the time from receipt to delivery of the item was shortened from 7-10 days to 3-5 days. Due to the specific field configuration and adverse road network in BiH, the conveyance of postal items was significantly slower than the conveyance of items in the other Yugoslav republics. In more favorable position was the area of today's Republic Srpska, in particular the region Lijevče Polje, Posavina and Semberija, through which run the main trunk lines, which were paved, and in winter regularly maintained so it made the transportation of postal items much easier.
Development of postal system continued in sixties and seventies of the last century, and at the end of the eighth decade, it has been brought almost to perfection. It is important to mention that from January 01, 1971 the usage of postal code was introduced on all shipments and seals in Yugoslavia. This has had multiple benefits, one of which was faster and easier processing and routing of shipments, using mechanization and automation of technological processes. Thus, the postal code has become an integral part of the address on letters and parcels, and items in domestic traffic without the postal code were considered as items with insufficient address.
The sudden development of telephony has led to a slight stagnation of the volume of postal services in the first half of the eighties and their constant decline in the second half decreased the number of postal services before the civil war in the territory of Yugoslavia to the level of the early seventies.
The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the bloody civil war further reduced the scope of postal services in all the former republics, and the phone takes absolute precedence over the means of communication.

At the beginning of the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina PTT system of BiH broke up as well. Although the date of official beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina is April 06, 1992. , when the European Community recognized this former Yugoslav republic as an independent state, postal traffic in the territory of Bosnia began to disintegrate in mid-February this year. At that time, armed attacks on postal vehicles were very often, barricades that prevented trains with mail wagons to get to the destination, and closure of some postal facilities because of different types of provocation. In late February and early March 1992. , the war started, which caused the destruction of postal facilities and converting them into command of individual units of the Croatian Army.
Former postal network units that were located in the territory with a majority Serb population were separated from the PTT of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, in the Republic Srpska 258 posts offices and two sorting centers in Banja Luka and Bijeljina were left. Postal system of Republic Srpska had a lot of problems at its very beginning, such as the lack of postal lines and dispatch connections, lack of vehicles to transport items and fuel and lack of facilities for the processing of postal items, i.e. lack of sorting centers.
On May 24, 1992 Government of the Republic Srpska passed the decision to form a Public PTT Enterprise of Republic Srpska. It took a few months to connect all post offices into a single network, new sorting centers were formed and regular exchange of dispatches was established. International Operations of PTT of RS were established in early June 1992. and all international postal operations during the war were performed through the Office of Exchange 11003 Belgrade.
Civil war in BiH caused the cessation in conveyance of postal items, so already in May 1992. The connection of western parts of RS and Republic Srpska Krajina with Bijeljina and therefore with Serbia was cut off. After May, the only connection, and the only way to convey items, was through the airport in Mahovljani, twenty kilometers north of Banja Luka. Items transmitted by air, were franked according to the postage rates at that time and rate for air transfer was not charged.
On the basis of UN Security Council resolution, after June 1st, flights were forbidden over Bosnia and Herzegovina and all civilian aircraft flights were suspended. Only military transport airplanes flew occasionally to Belgrade and that was the only opportunity for postal items to be shipped to Serbia. The transfer of items was carried in this way until the end of June, when land connection between western and eastern part of Republic Srpska and therefore with Serbia was established again.
At the beginning of 1993. JJP for PTT traffic of Republic Srpska was reorganized and PTT units were formed with headquarters in Banjaluka, Doboj, Bijeljina, Pale, Foca (Srbinje) and Trebinje.
During the war, postal operations with Republic Srpska Krajina and Serbia (SR Yugoslavia) was treated as domestic traffic, so for franking of items the appropriate (domestic) postage rates were used. Mail items from Republic Srpska were shipped (via Belgrade) to all states established in the territory of former Yugoslavia, except for the Federation of BiH, where postal connections were established after the war. Also for Croatia, there were certain limitations, because all items for Croatia were accepted on sender's own responsibility because JPP for PTT traffic of RS could not guarantee their delivery to recipients in Croatia.

The Enterprise for Postal Traffic of Republic Srpska, JSC Banjaluka, was formed on December 10, 1996, after dividing former joint PTT system of Republic Srpska into two enterprises – Poste Srpske and Telekom Srpske. Poste Srpske operates as an independent entity since January 1st 1997.
Poste Srpske are part of the global postal family and represent one of the three designated postal operators in BiH, operating economically and technologically independently throughout the entire territory of the Republic of Srpska, providing its customers universal and other postal services. Poste Srpske has over 2.400 employees working at the headquarters, ten regional units and 226 post offices and 481 counters.
Covering a territory of 25,000 km², with an extensive network of facilities and over 650 postmen who are on the ground every day, Poste Srpske represents an ideal partner in work with the population.
Великим трудом и преданим залагањем Поште Српске су постале водећа компанија у поштанском саобраћају. Тимови састављени од младих, али и од искусних професионалаца, свакодневно усавршавају своје стручне вјештине и своја знања.
Operating on the profitable principle, Poste Srpske as a public company, pays special attention to the quality of its services, the optimization of the postal network and human resources as the only correct course of action in the fight against competition and survival in the market,
The main motive in the work is certainly the formation of a strong and stable postal system that will remain the leader in the postal services market socially responsible and financially independent.

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