Postal Hub podcast

Kate Muth, Executive Director at IMAG (International Mailers Advisory Group), shares an update on tariffs, de minimis, and international low value parcels.

• Update on US Supreme Court hearings on tariffs
• Next steps for US tariffs
• Expectations and timings
• Scope of Supreme Court case
• What happens if the Supreme Court rules the President doesn't have power to impose tariffs?
• The prospect of a refund process
• Separate de minimis case
• Postal operators collecting and remitting US duties for postal items
• Low value goods in the international postal stream
• UK low value threshold for customs duties
• EU customs reforms and parcel fees

Why is out-of-home delivery popular in Norway? And can parcel lockers work in the freezing cold? Håvard Femtehjell, Head of Parcel Locker Development at Posten Bring, discusses:

• Overview of Posten's out-of-home delivery network, including parcel lockers and parcel collection points
• Long-term trends in out-of-home delivery in Norway
• Delivering small packets with letters
• Partnering for retailers parcel collection points
• Finding parcel locker locations
• Parcel locker performance in very cold climates
• Evolution of customer delivery preferences
• Role of proximity in customer delivery preferences
• Competition in the last mile in Norway, including from PostNord and Instabox
• Strategies to reduce parcel dwell times - especially during peak season
• Increasing parcel network utilisation during peak season

Håvard is one of the many expert speakers appearing at Parcel+Post Expo this year. Go to ParcelAndPostExpo.com for more information about this year's event being held in Amsterdam from 21 to 23 October.

Tim Davies, Head of Out of Home and SME Accounts at DPD UK, talks about PUDOs, parcel lockers, and out-of-home delivery. We cover:

• Growth in DPD UK's out-of-home delivery network
• Composition of the OOH network
• How the DPD Parcel Shop PUDO relationship works
• Partnerships with major retailers
• Exclusivity vs carrier-neutral PUDO approach from retailers
• DPD UK's relationship with the UK Post Office - more than just PUDOs
• In-store parcel scanning technology, including integrations
• Trends in UK OOH delivery, including parcel lockers
• Retailers' interest in OOH delivery
• Returns via OOH
• In-flight parcel redirections and DPD UK's OOH network
• Consumer notifications
• Dealing with customer complaints
• The customer experience
• Redirecting undelivered parcels to PUDO points

Tim is one of the many expert speakers appearing at Parcel and Post Expo this year. Go to ParcelAndPostExpo.com for more information about this year's event being held in Amsterdam from 21 to 23 October.

President Trump has decided to suspend duty-free de minimis for the USA, effective 29 August. Aaron Bezzant, Head of Supply Chain at Zonos, discusses the background to the President's Executive Order, what it means for e-commerce and the postal world, and what steps need to be taken to be compliant.

• The details of President Trump's Executive Order
• Previous attempt at eliminating de minimis for the postal stream
• Customs and Border Protection and USPS collection processes
• Duties for China Post and Hongkong Post shipments
• Tactics used to exploit previous de minimis crackdown on Chinese-made goods
• Compliance that has to be in place to meet 29 August deadline
• Effective mandate on DDP
• Bona fide gift exemption for low-value items
• How postal operators can start the journey to be compliant by 29 August
• Temporary simplified tariffs
• Remittance requirements and options from 29 August
• MFN and IEEPA tariff rates
• Role of third party in collecting funds and remitting to CBP
• Who ends up paying the duties?
• How Zonos can help pre-collect duties and taxes
• Why building a postal DDP network is central to winning in e-commerce delivery
• The importance of DDP for goods shipped to the USA
• Zonos tools and systems for postal operators for handling tariffs, including collection
• Other Zonos tools for posts to help e-commerce retailers
• Zonos app to facilitate over-the-counter lodgement of international parcels
• Simplifying the start online finish in-store process for post office parcel lodgement
• Helping postal operators no matter what stage of the digital transformation journey they're at
• Simple calculation tools

Dr Selene Silvestri, Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, discusses the environmental impact of e-commerce packaging.

• Measuring the cost of e-commerce packaging
• Growth in e-commerce and impact on packaging
• Benefits of recycling cardboard packaging
• E-commerce shifting the cardboard recycling burden from retailers to consumers
• Obstacles to higher recycling rates
• Current models to encourage recycling
• Regulations on reducing empty space in parcels
• Reducing the weight of packaging
• Reverse logistics framework to support recycling
• Efficiency and convenience of doorstep recycling collection
• Reusable packaging
• Consolidated recycling drop-off points

Roel Gevaers, professor in last mile logistics and supply chain at the university of Antwerp, discusses moves to impose fees on inbound low-value parcels from outside the EU.

• EU and EC proposal to add €2 fee for inbound international parcels
• Fee for cross-dock parcels from overseas
• Focus on import-free parcels
• Huge volumes of Chinese parcels entering Europe each year
• EU and EC intentions with this fee - is it a symbolic action?
• Timeframes - contrasting Europe with the USA
• Future plans for full customs reform
• Consumer protection and standards
• How the €2 fee will be collected
• Passing costs on to the consumer
• Likelihood of impact on low-value cross-border parcel volumes
• Impact of US tariffs on Chinese exports to other nations
• Is the proposed fee legal?
• EU member countries' responsibilities for customs

Also in this episode: An update on Belgium's legislation compelling parcel locker networks to be carrier neutral.

Lars Pruijn, Innovation Director at Prime Vision, breaks down different aspects of innovation and describes how innovation can work in the postal and logistics sectors.

• How do we define innovation
• Taking responsibility for innovation in the company
• Internal innovation - optimising and increase
• External innovation: core, adjacent, and transformative innovation
• Adding new technology to existing products
• Reshaping products and keeping core products relevant
• Being disruptive in specific markets or segments
• How can companie stimulate innovation?
• Internal and external cooperation on innovation
• Innovating with clients - not innovation in a basement.
• Case study of innovation in automated sorting
• Computer vision applied to sorting machines to detect sorting errors
• Hazardous material detection and computer vision
• Reading difficult barcodes

Jan Van Roey, Head of International at Poste Italiane, discusses cross-border parcel volumes and recent improvements to digital customer experience. He covers:

• Cross-border volume growth
• New Poste Italiane outbound international product
• Domestic parcel trends
• Coping with volatility and uncertainty in international parcels
• Retailers moving warehouses to Europe
• Poste Italiane's partnership with DHL eCommerce for inbound and outbound
• Locker Italia joint venture in parcel lockers with DHL
• Strategic reasons for setting up partnerships
• Parcel lockers and international delivery
• Recent changes to Poste Italiane's app and digital customer experience

Rohit Gunavanthe, Head of Fulfilment at Pos Malaysia, discusses the postal operator's e-commerce fulfilment business Pos Fulfill.

• Background to creation of Pos Fulfill
• Storage, order fulfilment, pick and pack, real time inventory management, and end-to-end-logistics solutions
• Warehousing, customs clearance, in-store deliveries
• Geographic coverage across a diverse region, including East Malaysia
• Integrating with Pos Malaysia's distribution network
• Eight sites across Malaysia
• Cross-border capabilities
• Handling e-commerce returns, including inspecting returned items
• Business growth
• Importance of certainty of service

International postal expert Alan Barrie along with CEP-Research Chief Editor Paul Needham have their say on 10 years that have changed the delivery world. Alan Barrie discusses:

• Keeping letters profitable to avoid draining postal businesses of cash
• The e-commerce runaway train
• Data and the digitisation of the post
• Transformation in the last mile
• Growth in out-of-home parcel delivery
• Facilitating international e-commerce via data

Paul Needham covers:

• Consumer behaviour changed by the pandemic
• Overall parcel volume growth trend in B2C and B2B
• International parcel flows and the growth in new lanes
• Fast growth in China and Asia
• Amazon's emergence challenging growth of traditional parcel carriers
• The profitability challenge
• Consolidation in the delivery sector
• Postal privatisation
• Diversification of last mile delivery options
• Sustainability
• Innovation and the impact on availability of labour