Pony Express will increase rates by 20% before the end of the year

According to Day, the company can no longer slow the growth of staff salaries. Over the past year, the salary of the company’s couriers increased by 37% and the pressure of salary increases on the business remains high, the senior manager said.

At the same time, offering above-market salaries “is not always effective,” he said. For example, the company tried to offer paid packagers 10% above the market, but this did not have a significant effect. The country’s talent shortage is making candidates more picky about the brand and work environment, and they have a variety of offers to choose from, Day said.

Furthermore, Pony Express’s pricing policy is affected by the shortage of storage capacity. The current warehouse vacancy rate is 0.3% and available space is being used at 96% capacity, which Day said is impacting order processing speed. In Moscow, Pony Express cannot rent new warehouses due to a lack of free space, the company director added.

Pony Express was founded in 1992. In addition to Russia, the company has offices in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Thailand. According to its own data, the operator serves 40 thousand settlements in more than 220 countries.