Postal Hub podcast

Alexander Haneng, Director for Digital Innovation at Posten Norge / Bring, joins me to talk about delivery innovation in Norway:

• Background to the partnership with supermarket chain Coop
• Penetration of online groceries and home delivery
• Building a home delivery solution very quickly and integrating it into Posten's delivery network
• How the system works in practice, including picking orders, packaging, and choosing the right delivery network
• Keeping orders cool while out for delivery
• Same-day and next-day delivery of groceries
• Mapping the supermarket network and Posten's delivery network to come up with efficient routing
• Parcel lockers and parcel delivery preferences in Norway
• Key considerations when choosing parcel locker locations
• Promoting delivery options to online shoppers
• Contactless delivery via lockers and easy access
• Posten Norge's Amoi marketplace in Oslo
• Same-day local delivery for small retailers
• Innovating to find new revenue sources - especially as letter volumes fall
• Posten's digital letter - and a crafty way to test customer acceptance!
• Collecting parcels from customers' letter boxes

Here's the link to register for Parcel+Post Expo: parcelandpostvirtuallive.com

Marek Różycki and I will be online at 2pm (European time) on Thursday 15 October - make sure you add our workshop to your calendar!

How did the US Postal Service become a political football? And what happens next? Analysis from John Callan of Ursa Major Associates:

• Pre-paying pension obligations
• No governors on the US Postal Service board
• 2018 taskforce report and hints at privatisation
• President Trump and Amazon - and Jeff Bezos
• The USA's stoush with the UPU over terminal dues
• Megan Brennan's retirement as USPS Postmaster General - did she jump or was she pushed?
• The make-up of the US Postal Service board of governors
• Relief funding for the US Postal Service during the pandemic (CARES Act) and the terms of that "loan"
• President Trump's pressure on the USPS to increase parcel rates
• The influence of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
• Parcel volumes, revenues and margins… and the revelation that Amazon is a profitable parcel for the US Postal Service!
• Appointment of the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy:
  • The executive search agency's shortlist
  • How DeJoy's name was put to the USPS Board
  • DeJoy's background in logistics
• USPS Governor David Williams' resignation
• The USPS executive reorganisation
• Trucks leaving on time! And reducing overtime payments to employees.
• Eliminating street posting boxes
• Lack of clear communication from the USPS on changes to delivery
• DeJoy's management style
• Consultation and the decision-making process
• Congressional hearings
• Failure of Congress to deliver reform
• Postal ballots / voting by mail
• Will DeJoy continue in the face of this political furore?
• After all the political fighting is over, what happens next? Will any of these politicians carrying on about the USPS be able to address the core issues affecting the USPS?
• Privatisation of the US Postal Service (through work sharing, or outsourcing)
• If DeJoy resigns or is forced out, who would take over?
• And in closing… gopost (the USPS parcel locker network) and the concept of a carrier-agnostic universal parcel locker service (refer episode 208)

Chris Wong, General Manager Business Marketing NZ Post, joins me to talk about shopping behaviour and parcel volumes during the pandemic:

• Key events that stimulated surges in e-commerce parcel volumes
• The impact of lockdown (and the closure of businesses) on parcel volumes
• New online shoppers and established online shoppers - and what will be the effects on customer behaviour
• Online as a share of total retail spend in New Zealand
• Retail categories that accelerated during and post-lockdown
• Increases in weekly spend in online groceries
• How clothing and electronics performed - and what drove those changes
• Surge in buying locally during 2020
• Major players in NZ e-commerce, including marketplaces, pureplay online retailers, and omnichannel retailers … and the group that grew the most during the lockdown
• NZ Post delivery initiatives to cope with the pandemic, including contactless delivery, distancing requirements, and clarity on tracking and notifications services
• Investments in NZ Post's parcel and delivery network to increase network capacity
• Balancing the load across parcel processing network

Download NZ Post's e-commerce research from The Full Download.

Wayne Haubner, Escher Chief Technology Officer, and Ken Peterson, President, Customer Experience, QuestionPro, go in-depth on the future of contactless delivery and customer self-service:

• Impact of the pandemic on contactless delivery
• Pre-pandemic trends in self-service, such as parcel lockers and self-service terminals, as well as online
• Easy wins for postal operators to offer contactless deliveries
• Cost-effective customer-centric delivery tools
  • Self-serve kiosks - and reimagining what a self-service kiosk looks like
  • Reducing customer contact in payment
• Accessibility of self-service options, for acceptance and drop-off of parcels
• Will customers adopt contactless or self-service delivery experiences?
• Physical signatures for delivery acceptance - what will the future hold?
• Future identity verification systems - including digital ID
• Proving a customer's identity when collecting from a parcel locker
• Delivery of alcohol, drugs, and high value items
• The customer delivery experience
• Increasing convenience without increasing cost while improving customer experience
• Special trips to special locations are a thing of the past - and this might have implications for the post office network
• What the data tells us for parcel delivery and customer touch points
• Recognising customer preferences
• Immediate, authentic customer feedback
• Overcoming cultural resistance to real-time engagement with customers
• Working from home - implications for delivery (first mile and last mile)

Dean Maciuba, Director Consulting Services at Logistics Trends & Insights, joins me to discuss the universal parcel locker concept:

• Defining a Universal Parcel Locker (UPL) network
  • Managing the physical network
  • Parcels from different carriers and merchants
• Post-pandemic parcel volumes - implications for a UPL network
• Current parcel locker networks in the USA
• Access points (PUDOs) being set up in lieu of parcel lockers
• Contactless delivery and PUDOs/lockers
• Cost of lockers used by FedEx and UPS in the USA
• The race to reduce delivery costs (in part driven by Amazon)
• What sort of locker solution might the US Postal Service
• The US Postal Service's existing parcel locker network - called GoPost
• The USPS hosting a carrier-agnostic Universal Parcel Locker network
• Existing Parcel Select service
• Would carriers and e-commerce merchants pay the USPS to deliver to parcel lockers?
• Co-locating parcel lockers near a post office
• How postal operators can use parcel lockers
• Locations of USPS post offices
• Driving revenue and foot traffic at post offices
• Parcel surcharges for peak season (USPS, FedEx, UPS) - including volume-based surcharges
• Hiring surge in the US delivery sector
• Who will cover costs of parcel surcharges?
• What a Universal Parcel Locker network might mean for parcel costs in the USA
• Added bonus: Ian solves the peak season problem for the USA

Online retail strategist Tim Davies joins me to talk about eBay Plus – the service offering Australian eBay shoppers express delivery on their orders:

• Overview of the Australian e-commerce network, including leading marketplaces
• Why big retailers sell on eBay.com.au
• Size of eBay's Australian market (hint: it's big)
• eBay Plus loyalty programme
  • Express delivery (to selected areas)
  • Free returns
• The profile of eBay sellers participating in eBay Plus
• New sales vs used or collectibles on eBay
• The eBay deal with Australia Post-owned Fulfilio
• Coles supermarket selling on eBay (and is part of eBay Plus)
• eBay and click-and-collect
  • Collecting eBay purchases via Woolworths supermarkets and other retail shops
  • Parcel Point
  • Larger retailers can offer click-and-collect at their own stores

Cathy Morrow Roberson (Logistics Trends & Insights) joins me to discuss Amazon and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF):

• Amazon's announcement about SAF
• What's the rest of the air cargo sector doing?
• Retiring older fleets and using more fuel-efficient aircraft
• Reducing overall carbon emissions
• Amazon going for net zero carbon
• Groundside emissions

Also in this episode:

• Delta Cargo and its pledge to become the world's first carbon neutral airline
• EU initiative to boost take-up of SAFs
• How soon will we see electric or alternate-powered aircraft?

Melissa Obeid, founder of sustainable luxury beauty brand La Fervance, joins me to discuss brand values, the supply chain, and the last mile. We cover:

• What sustainability means for a brand
• COSMOS certification
• Building sustainability into a brand's DNA
• Packaging - including minimisation of plastic usage
• Minimising the carbon footprint in the supply chain
• Quality
• What happens to packaging after the consumer has used the product
• Refillable packaging
• Choosing the right logistics and delivery partners
• Carbon neutral delivery and green delivery options
• Growth in direct-to-consumer e-commerce
• Unboxing and its environmental consequences
• Size of parcels (with packaging) and the impact on the number of parcels that can fit in a delivery vehicle

Kathy Sivitier, assistant executive director of the National Association of Presort Mailers, on public-private partnerships and the future of the mail. We cover:

• Role of mail service providers in the US Postal Service mail system
• What the Intelligent Barcode does
• Co-mingling and aggregation of mail
• Broader applications for public-private partnerships
• Filling up half-empty trucks
• The future of mail
• Pricing (and impact on demand)
• Quality of service
• ...and much more

Kate Muth, executive director of the International Mailers Advisory Group (IMAG), joins me to talk about changes to international postal charges following the reforms passed in the UPU last year. We cover:

• Reform of the UPU terminal dues system
• Self-declaring rates
• Countries other than the USA changing international rates
• Practical impact of rates changes
• Differences between contract rates and retail rates
• Outbound international and inbound international rates
• Fixing distortions in inbound pricing
• Air capacity for international shipments
• Domestic express shipments and internal air cargo capacity
• Surface alternatives to cross-border air shipments