Postal Hub podcast

Bertrand Späth, co-founder Kizy Tracking and Business Development at Spectos, joins me to talk about squeezing more efficiency from parcel sorting:

• Responding to the pandemic's parcel surge
• Processing wildly fluctuating parcel volumes
• Availability of staff to work in parcel processing centres
• Profitability of parcels - making money on a service with thin margins
• Delivering more with the same capacity while satisfying customers
• Becoming more efficient in parcel processing - automation of parcel sorting
• Inefficiencies that currently exist in automated sorting machines
• Challenges in reading addresses (including cross-border parcels)
• What unreadable addresses mean in terms of volumes
• Saving 20 - 50% on sorting costs through automating the sorting of parcels that currently must be manually sorted
• Using OCR with video coding to achieve 99% automated reading of addresses
• How video coding can work with sorting machine technology
• Correcting incorrect addresses on address databases, and implications for improved sorting accuracy
• Managing teams in delivery networks
• Flexibility benefits of outsourced video coding

John Callan, founder and CEO of Ursa Major Associates, joins me to discuss recent news and developments at the US Postal Service:

• DeJoy's recent appearance before the House Committee
• Service failures
• Proposals to amend letter delivery standards
• Rate increases
• Air carriage of letters
• The legendary USPS strategic plan - again!
• Focusing on last mile capabilities, and reducing cost in the middle mile
• Frequency of delivery (6/7 days per week)
• Last mile capacity for parcels and letters
• USPS Board of Governors - President Biden's nominees
• New USPS delivery vehicle
• Why have one supplier instead of multiple vehicle suppliers?
• Electric delivery vehicles
• Consultation with unions on the USPS strategic plan
• USPS delivering last mile for Amazon, FedEx, and UPS (Parcel Select)
• Delivering to cluster boxes (community mailboxes) and what it means for USPS's delivery advantage
• Amazon and FedEx pulling parcels out of Parcel Select
• Letter pricing and impact on marketing mix
• Options available to postal operators to reduce costs in letter delivery
• Developing rate structures that encourage customers to use the US Postal Service

Marshall Hughes, Director (Oceania) at Packoorang, joins me to talk about packaging, recycling, and the circular economy:

• Boom in e-commerce means boom in cardboard and plastic
• Figures on cardboard and plastic recycling and wastage
• Consumer behaviour and packaging
• Box sizes and shipping air
• Government rules on waste and recycling
• Green zones
• What the circular economy is and how it relates to e-commerce and delivery
• Financial benefit to reusable packaging / courier bags
• Marketing benefit to being part of the circular economy
• Packoorang recyclable bags, packaging, and pallets
• Reverse logistics for recycling
• Dropping off recyclable products at retail outlets… or even lockers!
• Reporting environmental impact from Packoorang data
• The need for action - driven by the government or e-commerce retailers

Marek Różycki, Managing Partner at Last Mile Experts, joins me to discuss the forces and trends driving innovation in the last mile:

• What has been driving innovation in the last mile in Poland
• Lodging returns via parcel lockers
• Customer-centric delivery features
• Growth in parcel volumes over recent years – even pre-pandemic
• The future for cross-border parcels – including marketplaces
• Amazon creating local presence outside the USA
• Amazon's existing infrastructure in Poland
• Amazon Fresh expanding in Spain and Italy – what about Poland?
• Will Amazon's full offering be introduced in markets outside the USA?
• Background to Amazon launching Amazon Fresh
• Smart locks and in-home / in-garage delivery
• Solving parcel delivery problems by implementing existing technology
• The never-ending need to invest in last mile tech

Paul Yewman, CEO of PostTag, joins me to discuss the world's delivery addiction and making delivery more efficient:

• Transformation of shopping habits and pressure on delivery
• Comparison of delivery statistics between lockdown and non-lockdown periods
• Driver shortages and the competition for drivers - implications for capacity and last mile costs
• Food delivery drivers going cross-platform
• Investment in tech systems behind e-commerce and delivery
• How to create an efficient delivery (and returns) experience
• Creating more delivery windows - for example in supermarket delivery
• Finding addresses quickly and efficiently
• E-commerce players buying online portions of retailers' businesses - is this the death-knell for the high street?
• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the bricks-and-mortar retail world - and what that will in turn mean for omnichannel retail and delivery
• Is there a cure for the world's delivery addiction? Or better still: how does our sector meet customers' expectations?
• The importance of location data and address validation
  • Getting drivers to the right address first time and every time
  • The three reasons why shoppers get their address wrong
  • Are people shopping while under the influence?
• How PostTag is helping Hermes drive delivery efficiency and improve the customer delivery experience
  • A huge increase in first-time delivery success
• Address validation in different countries, including Ireland and places in the Middle East
• Delivering to green zones, ultra low emissions zones, and making delivery more efficient - and how address validation helps
  • Reducing kilometres driven
  • Navigating one-way city street systems
  • Range anxiety for electric delivery vehicles
  • Route optimisation
  • Utilisation of car parks as delivery hubs

Visit PostTag's website posttag.com for more.

Rachel Beddow, Principal Policy Manager for Postal Services and Telecoms at Citizens Advice, joins me to discuss customer research on delivery problems:

• Delivery issues that predate the COVID-19 pandemic
• Statistics on UK customers experiencing problems with delivery
• Which groups were disproportionately affected by delivery problems
• Delivery problems not limited to any one carrier
• Kinds of delivery problems experienced by UK customers - including people who were at home 24 hours per day!
• Why a delivery failure is only the beginning of a customer's delivery problem
• Difficulties in resolving delivery failures
• Public awareness campaigns in advance of 2020 peak season
• Spike in consumer complaints
• Factors behind delivery problems - more than just capacity issues
• Consumer protections not keeping up with the rapidly changing retail sector
• Lack of regulation of major parcel carriers in the UK
• Is parcel delivery an essential service? What does that mean for definitions of when a delivery is "late"?
• Current consumer protections in delivery
• Why some customers don't complain or try to resolve delivery problems
• How can consumers be made aware of their rights and ways to resolve delivery issues?
• What can carriers do without waiting for regulators to take action about consumer protections?
• Communications with the delivery driver to help ensure first-time delivery to disabled customers
• Using the available technology to improve the delivery experience for customers
• Delivery driver workload and meeting customer expectation

Is seamless global cross-border e-commerce a thing of the past? Brexit has already disrupted international parcel delivery. Martyn Noble and David Spottiswood, co-founders of Hurricane Modular Commerce join me to discuss:

• Barriers coming up in cross-border e-commerce
• How data can facilitate a return to seamless cross-border e-commerce
• The "wild west" days are over! Data is now hugely important
• The size of the global cross-border market - and how much is being carried by the world's postal operators
• Going from a hybrid paper/data international model to a huge scale market that requires data and digital processes
• The doorstep surprise - customers having to pay extra duties/customs charges to the delivery company for receipt of their cross-border purchases
• Mainstream media coverage of the doorstep surprise phenomenon
• The need for cost transparency at the point of purchase
• What happens to refused deliveries? The costly and inefficient returns process - in a very tight air cargo market
• Delivery companies, retailers, and 3PLs having to respond to Brexit, ICS2, Stop Act, and new VAT regulations
• Carriers don't want to deal with payments at the customer's doorstep
• ICS2 coming into effect on 15 March - implications for selling into the EU
• The importance of the UK and EU markets
• STOP Act - new implementation date of 15 March
• Risk of non-compliance with STOP Act for articles bound for the USA - could up to 750m parcels be rejected per year?
• Have retailers been lulled into a false sense of security over cross-border compliance?
• Item data: Product description, commodity description, customs coding, consignee/consignor information
• Regulation - cost or opportunity?
• 2021 is not the end of increasing regulation of cross-border e-commerce, including duty on inbound parcels
• China's increasing interest in compliance
• New export controls - including denied parties - for parcels coming out of China
• Increasing scrutiny of description of goods - "gift" will no longer be acceptable!
• An example of how bpost is already enforcing this at the post office counter (harmonised codes, HS6, etc)
• The importance of data in driving customs codes and customs inspections
• The first file to the last mile

The US Presidential election is over… but what's the future for the US Postal Service? Mark Fallon, President and CEO of the Berkshire Company, joins me to discuss the future of the Universal Service Obligation in the USA… and much more:

• USPS postal rate reform
• Pricing for letters (indexing)
• Non-controllable expenses – including pension payments
• What pension payments mean for pricing in practice
• Delivery density and its relevance to pricing
• Cluster boxes
• Why everything has to be resolved by litigation in the USA
• Lack of legislative framework for the postal sector
• Delivery standards during the USA elections
• Defining the universal service obligation (USO)
• Costing the USO
• Ensuring all users of the mail are considered when formulating a USO
• A Presidential Commission?
• The digitally excluded
• Regulation and monitoring USO compliance
• Parcels and the USO
• The postal service and e-commerce
• Catalogue distribution and online sales
• Sunday delivery (parcels)
• Amazon volumes for Sunday delivery
• What's next for the USPS?
• Postal reform legislation in the new Congress
• Continuing impact of COVID-19

Dean Maciuba, Managing Partner North America at Last Mile Experts, joins me to discuss recent developments in e-commerce returns from Walmart, FedEx, Amazon, and more:

• Walmart allowing customers to return online purchases without leaving the home
• Walmart's partnership with FedEx - including returns
• Who is paying for free collection? It's not the customer!
• FedEx looking for delivery density
• Availability of FedEx Small Parcel Pickup service: metro vs rural areas
• What will the US Postal Service do?
• Retailers telling e-commerce customers to not bother returning purchases
• Value threshold for returns
• Using third parties to manage returns
• Customer expectations on returns
• Processing of returns - including reselling, repackaging, and the tertiary market
• Is Walmart pushing Amazon to raise the bar further?
• What USPS and UPS are doing in returns - especially with regard to Amazon
• Amazon Hub lockers and returns
• Environmental aspects of e-commerce returns

Jonathan Reeve, General Manager APAC at Eagle Eye, joins me to talk about e-commerce, subscription models, and the role of delivery companies:

• The origins of subscription services, e.g. milk and newspapers
• What make a good subscription service?
• Building customer loyalty
• Recycling packaging
• Benefits to the customer of Amazon Prime
• Variations of Amazon Prime, including Wardrobe
• Competing subscription programmes, such as Walmart +
• Is it a mistake to try to compete with Amazon?
• E-commerce retailers managing digital connection with customers
• The digital initiative behind Amazon establishing a retail footprint
• Is click-and-collect (BOPIS) forcing retailers to get more information about their customers?
• Food retail chain Pret a Manger's subscription model
• What will subscription programmes mean for customer purchasing and delivery behaviour?
• Trends in grocery delivery – including same-day and next-day
• How delivery companies can position themselves to be the delivery partner for subscription services