Postal Hub podcast

Khazalin Ghuzal, Chief Retail Officer at Pos Malaysia, shares how Malaysia's postal operator is working to create a modern postal retail network. This interview was recorded at the 6th International Postal Retail Benchmarking Workshop held in Ljubljana in 2025.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Overview of the Pos Malaysia post office network
• Mobile post office services and technology
• USO for postal access
• The challenge of declining footfall
• Pos Shop concept - monetising unutilised space in post offices
• Customer behaviour and convenience
• PUDO partner pilot programme
• Self-service options to assist with queue management
• The omnichannel experience
• Creating a super app

Mindaugas Cerpickis, Partner at Copenhagen Economics, and Jacob Østermann, Lead Economist at Copenhagen Economics, analyse the changes in the Danish letters market, including PostNord's exit.

• Recap of the USO shake-up in 2024
• Alternative letter delivery service via DAO
• Targeted measures for shipments for the blind, letters to island communities, and international mail
• Service levels post-abolition of the USO
• Letter pricing over past two years
• Exemptions from Denmark's mandated digital mailbox
• Frequency of letter delivery
• How inbound and outbound international mail is handled after PostNord exited domestic letter delivery
• PostNord Denmark's defunct street posting boxes
• International parcels
• Lessons to be learned from the Denmark example
• How DAO is able to deliver letters, despite not being the traditional postal operator

Jakub Rymkiewicz, Market Research Manager at the IPC, shares some key findings from IPC's Cross-Border E-commerce Shopper Survey 2025.

• China's continued dominance in cross-border e-commerce
• Growth of Chinese marketplaces - in particular Temu
• Delivery speed for cross-border orders
• Shrinking delivery times from China
• Moving fulfilment centres closer to the consumer
• EU fees on cross-border orders
• Trends in delivery locations, including out-of-home delivery
• Continuing prevalence of residential delivery in some markets
• What powered growth in parcel locker usage
• Dwell time for out-of-home delivery
• How consumers travel to out-of-home delivery points for parcel collection
• Cross-border returns, including paid returns
• Retailers targeting serial returners
• Sustainable cross-border e-commerce delivery
• Who should fund sustainability in delivery?

Miloš Zlatković (Mily Technologies), Erik Wilhelm (Kyburz), Gordon Steward (The Information Factory), and Jorn Spiertz (Shiptimize) discuss delivery technology. This special episode was recorded at the OMNIC stand at Parcel+Post Expo 2025. Miloš Zlatković, Founder & CEO at Mily Technologies, covers practical applications of AI in the postal, delivery and last mile space:

• Moving fast with the right data set
• Using AI to select OOH delivery partner locations
• Leveraging publicly available data

Erik Wilhelm, Head of Research at Kyburz, discusses electric delivery vehicles:

• Factors driving interest in electric delivery vehicles
• Trend towards carrying greater parcel volumes in EVs
• Increase in battery capacity
• Experience with Swiss Post in battery life
• Customising to different local operating environments

Gordon Steward from The Information Factory discusses analysing delivery costs:

• Understanding direct and indirect costs in parcel networks
• Updating underlying costs
• Identifying and analysing potential cost savings

Jorn Spiertz, co-founder and COO at Shiptimize, covers shipping technology, inclyding:

• Automating delivery solutions
• The post-purchase experience
• Understanding e-commerce marketplaces

Part 2 of 2025's end-of-year special features Jonathan Bouaziz (Kardinal), Peter Balfour (imageHOLDERS), Clemens Beckman (Greenplan), and Amanda Martinez (HubBox).

Jonathan Bouaziz, co-CEO at Kardinal, discusses the e-commerce boom and being prepared for a volatile 2026:

• Emerging trends in cross-border fees, especially in Europe
• How consumers might perceive the €3 fee
• How Chinese marketplaces might adapt to changes
• Opportunity to reinvent delivery
• Fast, free delivery, or green delivery?
• The attitude-behaviour gap in green delivery
• Why can some last mile operators better adapt to shifts in the operating environment?
• Taking control instead of being reactive

Peter Balfour, VP Postal Sales at imageHOLDERS, covers helping customers adopt self-service in the post office:

• Getting the customer journey right
• Educate customers on self-service solutions
• Accessibility
• Importance of easy-to-use software
• Customising self-service for each post office network

Clemens Beckmann, CEO at Greenplan, discusses route optimisation:

• Planning and execution of planned routes
• Incorporating time windows into route management
• Real-time updating of stop sequences
• Helping the driver
• Avoiding time violations

Amanda Martinez, Network Partner Director at HubBox, on out-of-home delivery and the checkout experience:

• Offering OOH delivery at checkout in various markets
• Improving the user experience when selecting delivery locations
• Best practice in dynamic delivery selection
• Remembering customer delivery preferences

Part 1 of 2025's end-of-year special features Mark Fallon, President and CEO of the Berkshire Company, and Cathy Morrow Roberson, Founder at Logistics Trends & Insights.

Mark Fallon discusses news from the US postal sector, including:

• The new USPS Postmaster General and his vision for the postal service
• Industry reaction to the new PMG
• Leveraging the USPS post office and last mile networks
• USPS Board of Governors update
• Letter volume trends
• Stakeholder resources

Cathy Morrow Roberson discusses developments in heavy and bulk last mile delivery:

• Trends in outsourcing vs insourcing of delivery
• Value added services
• Case studies of Tractor Supply, Costco, Wayfair
• Big and bulky returns

Carmen Cureu, Market Research Director at Geopost, unpacks Geopost's most recent e-shopper barometer research, covering parcel lockers, returns, consumer communications and more.

• Key factors driving e-commerce, including convenience and price
• Parcel volumes and online shopper numbers in Europe
• Consumer delivery preferences and out-of-home delivery
• Growth in popularity of parcel lockers and parcel shops (PUDO points)
• Generational trends in e-commerce and delivery
• Factors influencing e-commerce return volumes
• Role of OOH in returns
• Cross-border shopping behaviour
• Delivery expectations for consumers who shop cross-border
• Electronic communications preferences, especially for younger shoppers
• Out-of-hours customer support
• Rising expectations of delivery

Bloq.it CRO João Lopes on finding locations for parcel lockers, maximising parcel locker usage, e-commerce returns, drop-boxes, secondhand marketplaces, and more.

• Priorities for setting up a parcel locker network, in particular proximity
• Analysing customer behaviour to determine locker locations
• Understanding why some parcel locker locations won't work
• Autonomous parcel lockers, including batteries and solar power
• Maximising parcel locker usage, including e-commerce returns
• Drop box solution and dealing with non-standard return parcels
• Monitoring and clearing drop boxes
• Drop boxes in parcel shops (PUDO points)
• Busting queues and improving customer experience
• Second hand marketplaces and parcel lockers
• Bringing hardware and software expertise to parcel and postal operators

CTT Chief Financial Officer Guy Pacheco discusses the transformation of Portugal's national postal operator. We cover:

• Significant events that started CTT thinking about transformation
• Key pillars underpinning CTT's transformation
• Importance of the pan-Iberian market in CTT's transformation efforts
• Designing a B2C-ready network covering all of Spain and Portugal
• Perception of Iberia as a single market
• Making CTT more customer-centric
• M&A as a competitive advantage and gaining new capabilities
• CTT's acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures, including logistics, insurance, customs clearance, and the DHL JV
• The future for letters, and continuing to be the USO provider

Laura Shields and Garrett Byrne from An Post, along with Peter DeSantis from Giro, share how An Post was able to deliver 48% more parcels to more delivery points without increasing the number of hours worked in its last mile delivery network.

• Taking a test-and-learn approach to route optimisation and network design
• Key pressure points for An Post, including falling letter volumes, growth in parcel volumes, and dealing with fixed costs in a competitive market
• Parcel growth trends for An Post
• Implementing change across numerous sites
• Need to keep staff and unions engaged during periods of change
• Creating a fair day's work for workers
• Merging collections and delivery in route optimisation
• Redesigning the last mile to reflect current letter/parcel mix
• Tuning Giro's Georoute solution for different postal operators
• Early buy-in from senior An Post executives
• National Route Design project objectives
• Parcel volumes up 48%, with 8% increase in delivery points, but final mile hours have not increased
• The need to stretch for peak season
• Tips for last mile transformation success

This episode is sponsored by GIRO. GIRO's route optimisation solution GeoRoute has been deployed by some of the world's most advanced postal and parcel networks. For more information about GIRO, visit giro.ca