Postal Hub podcast

Bassel el Koussa, co-founder and CEO of same-day and next-day delivery company Quiqup, is my special guest. We discuss:

• How Quiqup was founded
• The original Quiqup concept and how it evolved
• Creating a model that works at scale
• Enabling same-day, next-day and time-slot delivery for retailers
• The growth in same-day delivery in e-commerce
• The importance of ship-from-store in omnichannel retail
• Reimagining retail stores - changing the retail experience and creating micro-fulfilment centres
• The technology that powers Quiqup's real-time view of its operations
• The continuous delivery concept
• How Quiqup's Task Operations Manager works - including dynamic task allocation
• Customer-facing interactive delivery management
• Quiqup's partnership with Parcelly (micro warehousing and express delivery)
• The Quiqup delivery fleet

Dean Maciuba, Managing Partner North America at Last Mile Experts, discusses FedEx Extra Hours and FedEx's expansion of out-of-home delivery options:

• What FedEx Extra Hours is (1:45)
• What it means for FedEx (3:35)
• Extending order deadlines for next-day delivery and optimising stock held in distribution centres (4:05)
• Driving scale and profitability (6:45)
• The profile of retailers that will offer next-day delivery (7:35)
• The problems big retailers are facing when taking on Amazon and other e-commerce players (8:30)
• FedEx expanding buy online, pick-up in store (9:15)
• FedEx's PUDO partnerships with Walgreens and other retailers (11:00)
• Redirecting residential deliveries to PUDO points (12:00)
• Do consumers really want to collect parcels from a PUDO point? (13:10)
• Amazon's home delivery strategy (14:00)
• Density of PUDO networks (15:40)
• Will carriers start charging more for residential delivery? (16:40)
• Amazon's home delivery network (17:30)

Mark Fallon, CEO and President of the Berkshire Company, reviews the US Postal Task Force report, including:

• Background to the Postal Task Force (2:45)
• The report submitted to the President and the report released to the public (4:30)
• Reactions from stakeholders (5:25)
• The need for a universal service obligation definition (6:00)
• Setting prices for parcels and letters (7:40)
• Allocation of costs in pricing parcel services (8:50)
• Horror of horrors… drone delivery! (10:10)
• Annual growth in delivery points (11:00)
• A silly proposal in the report (13:00)
• Staff costs, the role of unions in collective bargaining, executive remuneration, and a brief history of industrial relations in the postal sector
• Privatisation of the US Postal Service, and monetising the mailbox monopoly (20:05)
• Authorship of the report (25:00)
• Something light-hearted to round things off… (28:50)

Dean Maciuba and Marek Różycki from Last Mile Experts join me to review some of the major trends in 2018. We cover:

• Out-of-home delivery - including parcel lockers (2:05)
• What is driving out-of-home delivery options (3:15)
• PUDO networks (4:00)
• How home ownership and lifestyle choices influence residential delivery (4:55)
• What the two major US parcel carriers are doing in parcel lockers and PUDO points (5:48)
• Price incentive to recipients to accept out-of-home delivery (8:35)
• Deutsche Post DHL's delivery and PUDO network in Germany (10:33)
• Estonian out-of-home delivery market (11:55)
• Is the "gig economy" delivery model doomed? (13:00)
• VC-backed delivery start-ups (14:57)

Cathy Morrow Roberson, founder and lead analyst at Logistics Trends & Insights, discusses the big trends in air freight in 2018, including:

• Strength of global air freight in 2018 (19:55)
• Cross-border partnerships, including China Post and Lufthansa (21:00)
• Trends in pricing, including fuel surcharges (21:32)
• FedEx and UPS's air fleets (22:05)
• How retail is driving demand for air freight (23:05)
• Tariffs on Chinese imports and what that means for cross-border logistics (24:45)

Dean Maciuba and Marek Różycki from Last Mile Experts join me to review some of the major trends in 2018. We cover:

• Grocery delivery in the USA, in particular Walmart (2:25)
• Supermarkets integrating with technology and delivery companies (3:45)
• Walmart's locker technology in its supermarkets (4:35)
• Amazon making waves in grocery delivery (5:00)
• Grocery delivery in the UK (7:00)
• At-home or out-of-home delivery? What about the risks of food spoilage? (7:25)
• Problems with individual at-home parcel lockers (11:00)
• Threats to cross-border e-commerce (12:00)
• Impact of Brexit on cross-border e-commerce (15:15)
• Growth in importance of international shipping (16:30)
• Chinese merchants and shippers not offering a good customer experience (17:15)
• Amazon offering free delivery (18:05)
• How eBay could change the last mile at scale (20:15)
• Environment and sustainability (21:30)
• How local culture affects adoption of green delivery options (21:35)
• Traffic congestion and reducing the number of delivery vehicles on the road (24:00)
• A huge rant from me about city logistics, congestion, and a lack of town planning (26:40)
• How first-time delivery helps reduce emissions (29:45)

Garrett Bridgeman, Managing Director Mails & Parcels at An Post, is my special guest. We cover:

• The policy behind An Post's plan to eliminate carbon emissions (1:05)
• An Post's carbon savings to date (1:51)
• The details of An Post's emissions commitment (2:10)
• An Post's current fleet and the profile of the new environmentally-friendly vehicles (3:30)
• Reducing carbon emissions in the truck network (5:10)
• Putting solar panels on delivery units (6:50)
• Vehicle charging bays at the front of post offices for public use (7:20)
• An Post's corporate vehicle fleet (8:00)
• Predictions for An Post's peak season - including a big prediction for Amazon parcel volumes (9:15)
• Seasonal hires and additional deliveries (11:15)
• An update on DeliveryBox (12:25)

Mathew Galt, CEO and co-founder of e-commerce fulfilment company Fulfilio, is my special guest. We cover:

• What Fulfilio is and how it all started (1:20)
• Current spread of the Fulfilio network of sites (2:52)
• The affiliation with Australia Post (3:20)
• Delivery options at check-out (4:35)
• The e-commerce fulfilment scene in Australia (5:10)
• The difference between 3PLs and e-commerce fulfilment (5:55)
• Achieving speed of fulfilment in a big country (7:00)
• Consumer expectations in speed of fulfilment, e.g. next day (7:35)
• Fulfilio's ability to achieve same-day delivery (8:55)
• Time-specific (time-slot) delivery (9:50)
• Customised (or personalised) e-commerce fulfilment (11:00)
• The customer experience for same-day delivery (13:45)
• Fulfilio's deal with eBay (14:15)
• Australian merchants selling cross-border (16:55)

Mark Fallon, President and CEO of the Berkshire Company, shares his perspectives on the USPS's Informed Delivery service:

• How Informed Delivery works (2:00)
• Update on subscription levels (3:20)
• How USPS has been promoting Informed Delivery (3:55)
• The change of focus from the recipient to the sender (5:10)
• Integrating bill payment into Informed Delivery (6:15)
• How e-substitution and online payment are affecting letter volumes (6:45)
• Is Informed Delivery more trustworthy than email? (7:52)
• Do recipients and senders see value in Informed Delivery? (9:05)
• Combining digital and physical mailing campaigns (11:40)
• Is Informed Delivery making mail campaigns too complex? (13:40)
• What's next for Informed Delivery? (15:00)
• What the USPS's innovative Informed Address service is all about (17:25)
• Identity fraud and Informed Delivery (21:35)
• USPS seasonal hires for peak season (24:55)
• Australia Post's Mail2Day service (29:15)

Megan Brennan, US Postal Service Postmaster General, shares some comments on the USPS's full-year financial results and the challenges facing the postal giant. (30:45)

Could the Chinese e-commerce delivery model work in the West? Juan Sotolongo, Senior Partner at 722 Consulting, shares his perspectives:

• The composition of Western delivery networks compared to the Chinese model (1:10)
• Delivery vehicles and conditions (3:00)
• Is same-day delivery a premium service? (4:20)
• Location of sorting centres and service centres (5:30)
• Sorting plans (6:40)
• How regional areas benefit in faster delivery times (7:30)
• Delivery to parcel lockers, including usage and network density (8:33)
• Would this delivery model work in the West? (10:10)
• Carrier agnostic parcel lockers (11:25)
• Putting parcel lockers in residential apartment buildings (12:50)
• Amazon and the major US parcel carriers (13:55)
• Is there an opportunity to embrace elements of the Chinese model to improve "traditional" delivery? (15:20)

Kate Muth, Executive Director at IMAG (International Mailers Advisory Group), discusses the STOP Act and what it means for cross-border parcels, including:

• The background to the STOP Act, including how it will work (2:00)
• The problem of opioids being shipped into the USA via the post (2:35)
• The key deadlines associated with the STOP Act, including compliance for China (3:50)
• Exceptions to the deadlines (4:15)
• The deadline for 100% transmission of AED for parcels into the USA (4:48)
• What happens if advance data isn't provided (5:15)
• Could the US Postal Service refuse to accept inbound international mail? What are the solutions? (6:25)
• What does the proposed exit from the UPU mean for the STOP Act? (7:55)
• Why hasn't the UPU already developed international standards? (9:15)
• Impact of STOP Act on other carriers (11:00)
• Implications for inbound international e-commerce (11:40)