Has postal reform had any effect on the US Postal Service? Mike Plunkett, President at PostCom, and Mark Fallon, President of the Berkshire Company, discuss the impacts of recent legislative reform:

• Why reform of the US postal system is important to the rest of the world
• UPU reforms show US is willing to take the lead
• Main components of the Postal Service Reform Act 
• Mandated six-day-a-week delivery
• Pre-payment of future retiree benefits
• Will removal of this burden have an impact on postal rates?
• Limitations on the USPS's ability to raise its rates
• Monitoring and transparency on delivery performance
• Queries over the reported delivery volumes
• Is it important to track letter delivery service performance?
• Flats processing (large letters, catalogues and periodicals)
• Revenue vs costs for processing flats
• Processing equipment for flats
• Providing government products and services via the USPS post office network
• Are post office closures on the USPS agenda?
• Integrated package and mail services network
• Drone delivery
• Is there more postal reform to come?
• Will the USPS expand beyond its borders?

 

Swiss Post is encouraging innovation through partnering with and investing in start-ups. Swiss Post Director Open Innovation and Venturing Thierry Golliard explains.

• Why should a postal operator be interested in start-ups?
• Partnering and investing in start-ups, and accessing talent and resources that aren’t currently inside the post
• Ensuring that start-ups aren’t “lost” inside the post
• What success looks like for start-ups
• The importance of teams in creating success
• Swiss Post start-up success stories
• The strategy of investing in start-ups and “selling” the idea to internal stakeholders
• Financial services
• Posts as incubators of new ideas
• Swiss Post’s innovation and start-ups team

Asia Pacific Post Cooperative (APP) Managing Director Sid Hart on APP’s work and initiatives in the postal world, including cross-border packets and sustainability objectives. We cover:

• What the APP is and the geographic spread of its members
• Providing commercially-focused postal solutionsThe changing nature of the postal business
• Bringing postal operators together and formulating products and services
• Small island Pacific states
• Competition in parcel delivery
• APP's ePacket service for high volume lightweight packets
• Quality of service for ePacket
• ePacket now expanding from Asia to being a globally-accessible service
• Impact of climate change and emissions reduction on APP members
• How APP is supporting sustainability objectives
• Returning mail bags to country of origin

 

Three delivery experts join me to talk about the trends that will shape e-commerce and delivery in 2023.

Thiemo van Spellen, Group Global Accounts Managing Director at DPDgroup, discusses:

• Impact of geopolitical events on parcel industry
• Ecommerce growth trends
• Finding balance between managing price pressure and dealing with cost increases
• Retailers looking for cross-border growth
• Second-hand / second life marketplaces
• Sustainability and the circular economy
• Optimising end-to-end value chain
• Improving cross-border returns

Ann Snitko, Chief Product Development Officer at Omnic, covers:

• How delivery is changing
• Autonomous transport being used in logistics
• B2B sharing economy
• Delivery robots
• Hyperlocal delivery
• Growth in parcel locker networks
• Parcel locker partnerships

David Spottiswood, co-founder at Hurricane Commerce, gives us the low-down on changes affecting cross-border delivery:

• Regulation and compliance in international parcels
• Governments demanding greater visibility of cross-border parcels
• National governments seeking revenue
• ICS2
• Airlines demanding full and correct data for all shipments
• STOP Act (USA)
• Collecting accurate customs data for parcels
• Protecting market share
• Sustainability

 

There’s a lot of talk in our sector about sustainable logistics and green delivery… but how can it actually be done? Johan Peeters, an expert in sustainable logistics, talks about the role logistics and delivery plays in creating liveable cities:

• What is emission-free delivery?
• Eliminating tailpipe emissions and sourcing green electricity
• Creating healthier and liveable cities
• How do delivery companies fit into the concept of creating healthier cities?
• Creating different delivery options to offer to e-commerce retailers and consumers
• Value of green space to delivery companies and to people
• 15-minute cities and walkable cities
• Impact of car-free zones on last mile delivery
• Changing customer delivery preferences
• Customer experience and convenience when it comes to last mile delivery
• Sustainable profits
• Cost pressure on delivery, including last mile wage costs
• How delivery companies - including postal operators - can tackle the changing demands of the sustainable last mile
• Leveraging the experience that resides in the postal company
• Changing delivery vehicle, and what that means for volume and drop density
• Convenient solutions for customers - can doorstep delivery be sustainable?
• What form might convenience take for residential and out-of-home delivery?
• Drop density, efficiency, and network design

 

Escher Group CEO Brody Buhler deep dives into some of the major themes unearthed in Escher's Future of Posts 2022 research, including:

• The tale of two networks: delivery and retail
• Service models - including self-serve - in post offices
• Making delivery and retail networks work together
• Exploiting returns
• A problem for retailers - but an opportunity for posts
• Tailoring returns experiences
• Making returns via the post easier for consumers
• Collecting returns to compensate for falling letter volumes
• Omnichannel
• Streamlining customs declarations for cross-border parcels
• Optimising the customer experience
• Simplifying self-service
• Diversification
• Branching into grocery and local delivery
• Partner or do-it-yourself?
• Cross-border at the crossroads
• Regulatory changes hitting cross-border volumes
• Real-time calculation of customs duties and delivery times
• Cross-border returns

Roel Gevaers PhD, Professor in Last Mile Logistics and Supply Chain, University of Antwerp, joins me to discuss the trend of global shipping companies investing in e-commerce delivery:

• Cashed-up shipping companies investing in last mile delivery and e-commerce fulfilment
• European-based container shipping companies such as Maersk, MSC, and CMA CGM making e-commerce fulfilment and delivery acquisitions
• Are they going head-to-head with integrators such as DHL or even Amazon?
• Vertical integration from the port to the customer doorstep
• Should last mile operators be concerned by these acquisitions?
• Integration the full chain, creating a one-stop shop
• Offering a sustainable solution via maritime transport
• Lessons from the pharmaceutical sector in shipping and last mile delivery
• Amazon’s vertical integration journey
• Comparisons between Amazon and Chinese players such as Alibaba
• Larger e-commerce shipments, such as furniture and other two-person delivery items
• Rail’s disadvantages compared with maritime shipping
• The importance of data
• China Post moving from air transport to maritime transport with COSCO

Caryn-Ann Allen, Associate Director of Sustainability at DPDgroup, joins me to discuss DPDgroup’s strategy for achieving net carbon zero:

• DPDgroup's 2040 net zero target submitted to SBTi
• DPDgroup's interim target for 2030
• Why decarbonisation and lower emissions is important to DPDgroup's partners and customers
• How science-based targets work
• Getting to net zero across DPDgroup's entire business, including first mile, last mile, buildings, line haul, and company cars
• Shifting to electric vehicles in the first and last mile
• Going fully electric in 350 European cities
• Decarbonising line haul operations - including electric trucks and hydrogen
• EV charging infrastructure
• Addressing urban logistics challenges in different cities
• Going beyond electric vehicles
• Reducing distances from delivery hubs to recipients
• Urban depot network in Europe
• Low-emission alternatives to vans
• Consumer delivery preferences differing from market to market, for example some markets preferring out-of-home delivery
• What do consumers consider to be sustainable delivery?
• How consumer behaviour influences sustainable delivery
• Focusing on first-time delivery
• Raising consumer awareness of sustainability in delivery
• Reporting on emissions in delivery
• Urban depot trial delivering via cargo bikes as well as functioning as a PUDO
• Dressing room in PUDO
• Using urban spaces differently, for example transforming car parks into parcel distribution points
• Ecosystem thinking
• Understanding sustainability beyond the last mile
• E-commerce packaging
• ReLove initiative handling pre-loved clothing
• Stuart (France) collecting electronics for second life
• Creating a network that supports the circular economy

Professor Alan McKinnon, Professor of Logistics, Kuehne Logistics University, Hamburg, joins me to discuss five strategies to decarbonise urban logistics:

Rationalisation - Route optimisation

Realistic solutions compared to ambitious longer-term options

Switching to lower carbon transport modes

Rail

Cargo cycles

Filling delivery vehicles better and reducing distance travelled

Micro-hubs and consolidation centres

Can intra-urban collaboration be replicated at an urban scale?

Parcel lockers

Physical internet - open systems and remodularisation of transport

Improving energy efficiency of vehicles

Impact of regulation

Vehicles are becoming more efficient

Driver training is one of the best ways to improve vehicle energy efficiency

Delivering at different times of the day, improving fuel efficiency of vehicles

Why we need to worry about energy efficiency even as we move to electric delivery vehicles

Switching to alternative low carbon energy

Batteries will be central to a low carbon future - more so than solutions such as hydrogen

Factors constraining conversion of fleets to electric power

Total cost of ownership – and how many miles do these EVs have to drive to make them better than ICE vehicles?

Which vehicles should be prioritised for conversion from ICE to EVs?

Carbon penalty associated with fast delivery and free returns

Using price mechanisms to encourage sustainable practices

Daniel Rueda, CEO of Open Pricer, discusses parcel pricing strategies, dynamic pricing, fuel surcharges, and more:

• Key parcel pricing challenges
• Volatility, inflation, and fluctuating demand influencing costs
• Impact of fuel price increases
• Fuel surcharges (or energy surcharges) and limitations of fuel indexation
• Other surcharges, such as safety surcharges
• Differentiating price increases per customer
• Profile compliance (contract monitoring)
• Identifying churn risks and up-sell opportunities
• Implementing price increase campaigns
• Dynamic pricing
• Changing from annual reviews to more frequent reviews
• Surcharge incentives to move volumes to off-peak days or weeks
• Peak surcharges