Postal Hub podcast

Marek Różycki, Managing Partner at Last Mile Experts (and my co-host on the Last Mile Prophets), joins me to discuss Amazon's delivery, culture, and last mile innovation:

• Amazon France Logistique missing its parcel targets, and potentially losing market share
• Culture clash: Amazon leadership principles vs local culture, laws and regulation
• Strength of unions in Europe compared to the USA
• Shutdowns at Amazon's warehouses during the initial COVID outbreak
• Amazon entering local markets
• How e-commerce retailers have demanded last mile innovation
• InPost and Mondial Relay providing extra competition in the last mile
• The FedEx TNT deal
• The importance of local delivery partners

James Atkinson, Sustainability Programme Manager at DPD Ireland, joins me to discuss:

• Installing air quality sensors on DPD delivery vans in Ireland and across Europe
• Measuring PM 2.5, and why it's important to monitor PM2.5 levels
• How data will be used by DPD, local authorities, and other groups
• Commuter Exposure Assessment Tool
• How DPD can capture accurate data
• Monitoring on electric and diesel vans
• Ongoing electrification of DPD Ireland's fleet, and options for line haul trucks such as CNG
• Cost vs value in environmentally-sensitive last mile delivery
• Using technology to reduce distance driven in delivery
• DPD's route optimisation project which is increasing delivery driver efficiency
• Driver training and benefiting from local driver expertise
• Using technology to help new drivers learn delivery routes

Brody Buhler, CEO at Escher Group, joins me to talk about post offices, new technology, out-of-home delivery, and much more:

• Transformation in the delivery world means transformation of post offices
• Last mile capacity - and what the lack of capacity means for e-commerce
• How post offices can be used to add last mile delivery capacity
• Out-of-home delivery - preferred pickup destinations vs failed first-time deliveries
• Growth in parcel inductions via the post office network
• Fulfilling local e-commerce and the concept of continuous delivery
• Making fast delivery more affordable
• Last mile technology in post offices and PUDOs
• Customers' preferences for contactless interactions
• Self-assess kiosks for parcel lodgement (including OCR) and self-service solutions
• Making self-service frictionless and customer-friendly
• Creating 24-hour customer service zones, including parcel induction and parcel lockers
• Customers who want face-to-face service at the post office
• The evolving role of post office staff, including how counter operators add value to customer service
• The big issues facing postal operators in operating their post office networks
• Improving parcel flow
• Mobile point-of-sale technology

Out-of-home (OOH) delivery is a crucial part of preparations for peak and for building a smarter last mile. In this replay of this DPDgroup / Last Mile Prophets webinar, Yves Delmas, COO Europe of DPDgroup, joins Marek Różycki and me to discuss:

• Statistics on parcel growth during the pandemic
• Changes in consumer purchasing habits
• What's driving growth in OOH delivery
• Environmental benefits of OOH delivery
• Traffic, low-emissions zones, and urban logistics
• OOH delivery modes (including PUDOs and parcel lockers)
• PUDO and parcel locker networks
• DPDgroup and the Post Office (UK)
• Role of OOH in the reshaping of retail post-COVID
• The C2C challenge (including second-hand marketplaces such as Vinted and OLX)
• The technology that is the "secret sauce" to last mile delivery success

Sharick Mirza, CEO at Assurety Consulting, and Rex Bull, CMO at Assurety Consulting, join me to talk about using data to improve the customer experience in delivery and reverse logistics:

• Case study of how data improved the customer experience for a medical devices company's reverse logistics services
• Matching delivery data to customer communications
• Using the data to find optimum delivery times (e.g. 5-day delivery or 3-day delivery)
• Measurable results from improving the customer experience in reverse logistics
• Informed Delivery and enhancing the customer experience in letters
• Converting clicks to leads and sales
• How mail items represent a brand
• Informed Greetings
• How performance measurement tool Informed Visibility can improve the customer experience
• Using tracking data for digital marketing
• Analytics-based tracking platform
• Harnessing social media data (Instagram, Facebook, etc) to evaluate customer experience at post offices
• Using analytics to assess social media data, rather than using a manual process
• Improving post office processes via data mining

Peter Somers, CEO at Emirates Post, joins me to discuss digital transformation and e-commerce:

• Impacts of the pandemic on Emirates Post
• How Emirates Post now acts like a private company
• Future of letter delivery - including volumes and delivery to PO Boxes
• Last mile revenue growth - B2B and B2C
• Delivery partnership with Amazon
• Amazon's local presence in the UAE - and its own delivery network
• New e-commerce players entering the market
• Increasing last mile capacity in the face of growing demand
• Will pandemic-fuelled delivery trends "stick"?
• Dubai as a hub for e-commerce and parcels
• The new e-commerce zone
• The importance of people - the Emirates Post team - and service
• Improving communications with staff, especially during a period of transformation
• Future trends in the last mile in the UAE, including same-day delivery, out-of-home (parcel lockers and PUDOs)
• Challenges of delivering in extreme heat
• Winning the Industry Leadership Award at World Post & Parcel Awards 2021

James Atkinson, Sustainability Programme Manager at DPD Ireland, joins me to discuss:

• The "free pass" the world gave the delivery sector on emissions during the pandemic
• Sustainability being about people, planet and profit
• DPD Ireland's electric delivery vehicle fleet
• Key developments in electric vans leading to wider adoption in the delivery sector
• Charging infrastructure for electric delivery vehicles
• Managing electricity costs and charging as efficiently as possible
• Solar power, green electricity, and reducing energy consumption in buildings
• DPD Ireland trialling a CNG truck in linehaul
• DPD Ireland's urban delivery pilot - including cargo bikes and a bus
• How sustainable delivery relates to the delivery experience
• Promoting "green" delivery to consumers
• E-commerce packaging

Dean Maciuba, Managing Partner Last Mile Experts North America, joins me to talk about last mile delivery contractor models, including:

• How FedEx's acquisition of RPS started FedEx Ground's contractor model
• Low-cost shipment models and e-commerce growth
• Plans to merge FedEx Ground and Express - contractors or employees?
• Amazon Delivery Service Partner (DSP) model
• Key differences between Amazon DSP and FedEx Ground contracts, including:
  • Managing territory vs owning a territory
  • Up-front capital requirements
  • Long-term profitability
• Becoming a FedEx Ground contractor - including similarities to buying a franchise
• Applying to become an Amazon Delivery Service Partner
• Factors influencing differences in remuneration for FedEx Ground and Amazon DSP models
• Contract terms, and termination of contract - and risks to capacity
• Australia Post contractor models - including parcel contracts
• Tendering and awarding of Australia Post delivery contracts
• Calculating costs over the course of a last mile delivery contract
• Electric vehicles in contracted delivery fleets - including NZ Post
• Contractor models and reducing costs in the last mile
• Trends in contracting, including cost and capacity
• Out-of-home delivery in North America
• US Postal Service

Abdulla Mohammed Alashram, Group CEO of the Emirates Post Group Company, joins me to discuss postal transformation and the future for Emirates Post:

• What got the Emirates Post Group Company started on the road to transformation
• Creating a future-focused operational model
• Aspects of Emirates Post that are being transformed
• Three main business units: retail (post offices), parcels and express, and international
• COVID's impact on the transformation strategy
• Customers' response to Emirates Post's digitisation
• Addressing
• PO Boxes and e-commerce delivery, including:
  • Home delivery
  • Post office delivery
  • New PUDO network launching this year
  • Parcel lockers
• The role of post offices in Emirates Post's strategy
• Improvements to post office operations
• Digitisation of post office transactions
• Public reaction to postal transformation
• The future for postal operations - including automation

Retail and e-commerce consultant Richard Umbers (former CEO Star Track, Executive General Manager Parcel & Express Services at Australia Post) joins me to discuss:

• The rise of e-commerce and the importance of last mile distribution
• What COVID changes in e-commerce, including online grocery
• How e-commerce went from discretionary spend to spending on necessities
• Impact of pandemic on capacity (including cold chain capacity)
• Innovation in logistics and other parts of e-commerce
• The hallmarks of omnichannel supply chain
• Identifying individual parcels in the network, and how that tracking triggers actions
• Seamless flow of data between order management, CRM, and logistics
• Interactive Digital Management (IDM)
• Postal operators and digitisation - giving customers visibility of their shipments
• Shifts in technology that enable D2C e-commerce
• E-commerce returns and the omnichannel supply chain
• Last mile trends in online grocery (speed and type of delivery)
• Increasing sophistication of the supply chain - and the viabilities of models that rely on that supply chain
• How data and exchange of data enables modern delivery - including superfast local delivery
• Future innovation in the last mile and the supply chain