Australia

The Deloitte Access Economics Report declares that Australia Post supports some 11,000 jobs and a $10.6 billion e-commerce market, and is increasingly important in remote and rural areas. In response to the report, Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate said that Post serves areas other services cannot reach. Due to recent bushfires, post offices have become increasingly important to deliver information, shelter, and some basic services.

Brazil

Correios has launched a new service that allows delivering packages to recipients’ neighbours. A sender can now indicate an alternative address of a person living close to a recipient in order to deliver a package to them at no additional cost. In this way, even if the recipient is not home, the package can still be delivered. Correios introduced the new service based on customer demand. It is available throughout the country for its Sedex express service and its PAC service for parcels containing goods.

Côte d’Ivoire

La Poste Côte d’Ivoire is partnering with UNCTAD, the UPU and other eTrade for All partners, and Germany to evaluate its preparedness for e-commerce. The assessment mission took place from March 2 to 6, in the capital, Abidjan. The assessment was funded by the German government. German trade minister Stephan Bethe expressed that while many developing countries want to benefit from e-commerce, they do not know where to start.

Croatia

Hrvatska Pošta has invested almost 60 million HRK (approximately 8.5 million USD) in the construction of a sorting hub in Bakar-Kukuljanovo in order to improve the quality of postal services. It will become the fourth modern hub of its kind introduced across the country, following others located in Zadar, Osijek, and Velika Gorica. The Kukuljanovo hub will have its own solar power plant and will occupy a total area of 5,000 m².

Egypt

Egypt Post has implemented a new postcode system across the country in order to improve the quality of service. Each group of locales in Egypt has received a unique postcode comprising seven digits. The project was developed over a span of two years based on data received from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The new postcode system will simplify the work of delivery companies by helping them find addresses in a more accurate and timely way, cutting shipping costs.

Finland

The Finnish postal operator Posti is acquiring three new sorting machines, called “MSM sorting machines,” which are capable of sorting letters, publications, and other addressed mail. They will be placed in Oulu and Helsinki, important shipping hubs, and are being added to the Post’s existing six machines. This will benefit customers with better speed and tracking.

Germany

Deutsche Post DHL has launched the podcast series – “Living Logistics” – focusing on sustainability, corporate responsibility and volunteering. The series has five episodes, starring and prepared by the company’s staff, who have spoken about their volunteer work in disaster risk management, training, biodiversity, and transport networks.

India

India Post has launched a new delivery service, which allows customers to collect their packages from digital lockers for free. Pilot lockers have been installed in two post offices in Kolkata, where hundreds of migrant professionals work. The service is expected to ensure more convenient deliveries for these customers as they often do not have anyone to receive their packages on their behalf and do not prefer their packages delivered at work. Instead of an address, a recipient only needs to indicate a locker number in order to collect their package at any time of the day using a one-time password.

Ireland

An Post has launched zero carbon emission deliveries in Dublin after the purchase of two postal electric vehicles delivering 100,000 parcels and letters to more than 70,000 premises on a daily basis. By the end of 2020, postal items will be delivered carbon free in Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford to 700,000 people. An Post has invested 7.5 million EUR in its electric fleet, which currently includes 212 electric vehicles but in two years is expected to reach 900. The postal operator is using renewable resources for all of its electricity needs, bringing forward its commitment halve its carbon footprint to 2025 rather than 2030.

Italy

Poste Italiane plans to expand its available services across several sectors: finance, insurance, payments, mobile services, and logistics. The operator plans to use internal innovations, such as its Postepay QR system, to help Italy transfer from cash to digital payment systems. Poste Italiane has partnered with start-ups through its Open Innovation IT platform to accomplish this. The Post plans to invest 2.8 billion EUR in the Deliver 2022 program. The investments will go toward technology infrastructure, for example, cloud, API, and data management, in order to enable the development of new services.

Malaysia

Pos Malaysia has adopted a new development strategy focused on digitalization in order to make the country’s current postal system more efficient and innovative, and to seize new market opportunities. The postal operator has already begun implementing digital solutions by launching its own track-and-trace service, as well as cashless payment options. Within the next two years, the Post plans to start its own online data analytics system. The budget allocated for the implementation of other digital transformation projects totals approximately 72.8 million USD.

Netherlands

PostNL and postal operator Sandd have merged. Only 4,000 of Sandd’s delivery workers have signed up to deliver for PostNL, with 300 drivers and sorters also transferring to the Dutch designated operator. The operators had been competitors for 20 years. Before the merger, PostNL controlled 70% of the postal market, and Sandd virtually all the remainder.

Norway

According to 2019 financial results, Norway’s postal operator Posten Group has become 1.3% more profitable. The growth was fueled by e-commerce, digital services, and more cost-effective operations o the company’sf package and freight networks. Posten intends to add more capacity to Sweden and Denmark. To deal with declining letter mail volumes, which have dropped by 9.9%, the Post will deliver letter post every other day beginning in July. Packages will be delivered every weekday in large parts of the country.

Switzerland

Swiss Post and American technology company Matternet have resumed drone deliveries of medical laboratory samples starting with Ticino EOC hospital group in Lugano. After the postal operator terminated the deliveries in May 2019, it asked independent aviation consultants to investigate the safety of its drone deliveries. The review concluded that the flights meet all safety requirements. The companies have implemented technical recommendations from the consultants.

Ukraine

Ukrposhta improved its financial results by more than 1.2 billion UAH (approximately 42.9 million USD) in 2019. Last year, the postal operator eceived 607 million UAH (approximately 21.7 million USD) net profit before taxes compared to 2018, when the company lost 627 million UAH. Due to the improved financial results, Ukrposhta can now invest in the expansion of mobile post offices and the construction of new postal sorting centres.

United Kingdom

Royal Mail has reached its quality of service target of delivering 98.8% of second class mail within three working days, according to the company’s recent performance report. The new result exceed the previous target of 98.5%, which was set for the first three quarters of the financial year 2019-2020 by the regulator. Royal Mail has also shown high service standards in delivering first class mail across the country the next working day within the same time, achieving a 92.9% target.

All items by Olena Muravyova.