Postal Hub podcast

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

Rob King, co-founder and CEO of Zedify, talks about his experience running a cargo bike delivery firm. We cover:

• Creating better cities via zero emission deliveries
• Delivering from urban micro-hubs
• Decoupling trunking and last mile delivery
• Consolidating consignments for local delivery
• Partnerships with 3PLs
• Recycling and reverse logistics
• Case study of battery recycling
• Practical aspects of delivering via cargo bikes
• Cargo bike capacity
• Short stem mileage
• Technology making cargo bike delivery work
• In-house developed route optimisation software
• Carbon efficiency of cargo bikes compared with electric vans
• Amazon's foray into cargo bike delivery in the UK
• Rider satisfaction
• Managing rider shifts
• Evri's trial with Zedify
• Future of last mile delivery
• Differences in cargo bike delivery in different markets
• Cleaner, safer city streets
• Infrastructure for cargo bike delivery

Dr Laetitia Dablanc, Professor at the University Gustave Eiffel and head of the Logistics City Chair, discusses recent research she co-authored entitled "Response to COVID-19 lockdowns from urban freight stakeholders". We discuss:

• A survey focusing on labour, traffic, regulations, and any other issues relevant
• Need to adapt to the volatility and variability of e-commerce orders
• Delivering "essential" goods
• Home delivery vs out-of-home delivery, and the challenges of returning to residential delivery in areas where out-of-home dominated
• Productivity issues during lockdown
• Contactless delivery
• Robot delivery
• City plannings failing to integrate logistics into future plans
• Deliveries not transitioning from vans to cargo bikes
• Urban and suburban warehouses
• Urban hubs and local regulations
• Working conditions of gig economy delivery riders
• Precarious workers prepared to work in gig economy
• Speed of delivery and resulting increase in emissions
• Future protections of gig economy delivery workers

Roel Gevaers PhD, Professor in Last Mile Logistics and Supply Chain, University of Antwerp, joins me to talk about the log-com bubble. We cover:

• Twenty years after the dot-com bubble, should we prepare for a log-com bubble?
• Quick commerce, easy and cheap money, and the drive to acquire customers/market
• The real business model of IT-driven quick commerce delivery companies such as Gorrilas and Getir
• Business models that are unsustainable in the long term
• Dark stores - mini distribution warehouses
• Necessary density of dark stores to enable fast delivery
• Amsterdam cracking down on dark stores
• Operations inside dark stores
• Delivery rider costs, and the real cost of delivery per order
• Quick commerce start-ups setting up their own retail brands
• Retailers such Carrefour and Jumbo buying shares in quick commerce (ultrafast) delivery companies
• Investors in quick commerce and the end-game
• What conditions will allow ultrafast delivery companies to survive?
• Labour laws in Belgium that directly impact on e-commerce delivery and warehouse operations
• Impact of labour costs and tax regimes on delivery and e-commerce operations

Professor John Colley from the Warwick Business School joins me to discuss the profitability of gig economy delivery and ultrafast grocery delivery (q-commerce). We discuss:

• Who is swimming naked in the fast grocery delivery sector
• The conditions that have led to funding flowing into grocery delivery startups
• Inflation and other factors putting downward pressure on consumers' spending power
• Investor funds drying up putting pressure on business models
• Network effects: customers, riders/drivers, and response times
• Ease of entering the ride hailing market (e.g. Uber), and implications for other similar business models, such as takeaway delivery
• Profitability and competition
• The cut major corporates have to take to meet overheads
• When will customers be charged the actual cost of delivery?
• Will gig economy delivery companies ever make a profit?
• Regulating gig economy delivery services and impact on future profitability
• Employees vs contractors, and impact on operating costs
• Governments looking for taxable revenue
• Funding consumers' champagne tastes on a beer budget
• Labour shortages and impact on costs
• Congestion, emissions, and availability of real estate for dark stores
• Forecasts for the future of the gig economy model and rapid grocery delivery

Abdulla Mohammed Alashram, Group CEO of the Emirates Post Group Company, discusses the impact of COVID on the Post's programme of transformation:

• How the entire company showed resilience
• Focus on digitisation and speed of digitisation transformation
• Building partnerships with startups and tech companies
• How the post can be involved in the Metaverse

Then Peter Somers, CEO of Emirates Post, discusses how Emirates Post is getting closer to the customer:

• Expanding delivery touchpoints
• Adding PUDO points, parcel lockers, and kiosks to the physical network
• Proximity, including via partnerships
• Mall kiosks and being close to where the customer is
• Why use a staffed kiosk PUDO model instead of a parcel locker
• 24/7 areas in post offices - including self-service kiosks
• Access to postal services outside major cities in the UAE

Seamus Yendole, Chief Sales Officer at Reason Solutions, joins me to discuss preparing the post for the 21st century:

• The role of the modern post office in communities and in the broader economy
• Postal networks serving new demographics
• The need for the post to be consumer-oriented
• How the post can avoid having its lunch eaten
• The importance of communication in providing an excellent customer experience
• Delivering best-in-class delivery communications with customers
• The need for data and customisable technology
• Advantages of a modular approach to acquiring new postal and delivery technology
• Plugging the gaps in existing postal technology systems
• Affordable retail postal solutions
• Enabling legacy systems and new systems to communicate
• Postal operators' market share eroding because of poor customer experience
• Fiji Post's e-commerce delivery options
• Postal operators focusing on improving consumer satisfaction

Dr Anne Goodchild, Director of the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center at the University of Washington, discusses urban logistics and parcel lockers, including:

• What the Urban Freight Lab is and how it works in understanding and testing urban freight solutions
• Seattle Neighbourhood Delivery Hub - providing access to goods in neighbourhood-friendly modes
• Collecting parcels by foot from parcel lockers, residential delivery via cargo bike, mobile lockers, and reducing the distances travelled by delivery vehicles
• Emissions, safety, and pleasantness of neighbourhoods
• Partnerships underpinning the Seattle Neighbourhood Delivery Hub pilot
• Evaluation of the pilot - measurable reduction in miles travelled per parcel
• Collaboration with carriers and local governments
• Understanding impact on infrastructure and economics of last mile delivery
• Ideal area for a cargo bike delivery service to cover
• Can cargo bikes feasibly replace delivery vans?
• Measurable reduction in emissions
• Impact on speed of delivery
• Community response
• Delivering large and bulky items
• Parcel lockers research, evaluating impact on operations, distance travelled, speed of delivery at the point of delivery and impact on curb space
• The importance of data when evaluating the impact of e-commerce delivery on cities, including congestion and emissions