Abdulla Mohammed Alashram, Group CEO of 7X, discusses the transformation of the Emirates Post Group into a new enterprise.

• The strategy that drove the transformation and rebrand of Emirates Post Group to 7X
• The significance of the number seven and the letter X
• 7X's subsidiaries Emirates Post, EMX courier and parcels, Fintx, and EDC electronic document centre
• Technology underpinning the new group-wide strategy
• Digitising Emirates Post services
• Making EMX the carrier of choice in the UAE
• Fintx financial services, including realtime remittances
• EDC enabling customers to travel a digitisation journey
• Technology driving changes in customers' delivery needs
• Plans to grow delivery options, including out-of-home delivery
• Understanding consumers' delivery preferences
• Why EMX has been launched as a separate delivery entity, including cross-border growth
• Integrating delivery services into a central app
• Growth strategies, including mergers and acquisitions
• Visions for the future
• 2025 UPU Congress

Alan Barrie, delivery sector expert and Chair of Stamp Free, discusses research into delivery sector trends.

• Research commissioned by Stamp Free into postal and parcel trends

• Competition for market share

• Dynamism of the UK delivery market, with traditional and alternative carriers

• The growth and scale fuelling competition in the last mile

• Structural issues creating issues for established delivery companies

• Getting close to consumers

• Transformation of the delivery sector

• Three key aspects of out-of-home delivery: customer convenience, sustainability and business efficiency

• The potential impact of digitalisation on the delivery sector

• How data helped cross-border delivery

• Getting data right for C2C delivery

• The label - physical representation of data

• The Stamp Free concept

• How Stamp Free works in practice

• Data capture at source

• Stamp Free and parcel lockers

• Going beyond replacing stamps and creating a pre-validated physical delivery item

• Simplifying parcel assessment and drop-off for consumers and delivery drivers

Kathleen Cauwelier, PhD Researcher at Mobilise VUB, discusses her recent research on the green delivery attitude-behaviour gap, including consumers’ willingness to select "green" delivery options.

• How consumers say they want to behave and how they actually act
• Defining the attitude-behaviour gap
• Survey understanding consumers’ delivery preferences and habits
• Identifying groups of consumers with common attitudes towards green delivery, including the careless consumer, and ignorant consumers
• Education of consumers so they can understand environmental impact of their delivery choices
• Consumers’ willingness to pay for greener delivery options
• What should the delivery sector do next to help consumers make greener delivery decisions?
• Difference in actual consumer behaviour relating to green delivery across different clusters of consumers

Restaurant delivery expert Peter Backman - the brains behind thedelivery.world and The Delivery Prophets - discusses the differences and similarities between food delivery and parcel delivery.

• The difference between restaurant delivery and grocery delivery
• Why restaurant delivery is not a new thing
• Technology and delivery aggregators changing restaurant delivery
• Importance of timeliness to restaurant delivery
• Delivery problems in meal delivery
• How delivery aggregators are using tech to upend restaurant delivery
• Ability to plan last mile deliveries
• Batching of orders
• Timeliness of meal delivery
• La Poste delivering meals, and planned meal delivery
• Consumers tracking orders and deliveries
• Delivery pricing and menu pricing
• Restaurant delivery companies struggling to make a profit
• Fees, food prices, up-selling, and other ways to fund delivery
• Delivery costs and impact on restaurant profitability

Belgian postal operator bpost has launched its carbon calculator, which estimates the carbon emissions associated with domestic parcels. Karin Enzlin, Head of Sustainability at bpost, discusses how the carbon calculator works and what it could mean for e-commerce delivery.

• Background on bpost’s environmental and sustainability strategy and ambitions
• Electrifying the last mile and using out-of-home delivery
• Emission-free delivery in Ecozones
• Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
• Lowering emissions
• Reporting bpost’s emissions to e-commerce retailers
• How bpost’s carbon calculator tool works
• Validating the carbon calculator and complying with standards
• Applicable for bpost parcels in Belgium
• Predicting parcel emissions and future improvements to the carbon calculator
• Helping consumers understand the environmental impact of different delivery options
• How the carbon calculator tool will help bpost reduce its own emissions
• Standardisation and regulation of last mile delivery emissions reporting, including conversations with Belgian regulator BIPT

Axel Dekker, CEO and co-founder of Packaly, discusses delivery optimisation, reducing emissions, and reporting emissions.

• Overview of the Packaly network
• Freelance riders and local partners
• Consolidating orders  
• Ship-from-store and ship-from-hub
• Choosing the right vehicle for delivery routes
• Managing volumes (size) and routing for delivery vehicles
• Working with retailers and delivery partners to improve data
• Delivering to low-emission zones
• Sharing delivery hub infrastructure
• Giving retailers greater visibility of last mile emissions
• Calculating emissions at a granular level
• Need to standardise of emissions reporting

Kati Nevalainen, Director, Parcel Services at Matkahuolto, discusses parcel delivery across Finland and the Nordics:

• History of Matkahuolto carrying parcels
• Matkahuolto's public transport roots
• B2B, B2C and C2C deliveries
• Interacting with C2C via mobile apps as well as in-store
• Residential delivery and out-of-home delivery
• Matkahuolto's service point network
• Finnish consumers' delivery preferences
• Size of Matkahuolto's parcel locker network and service point network
• Density of out-of-home network
• Location of Matkahuolto parcel lockers
• Cross-border delivery and delivery partners, including Omniva, GLS and Bring
• Matkahuolto's sustainability commitments
• Customer experience and parcel lockers
• Using agnostic parcel locker networks and own parcel locker network
• Smartmile acquisition
• Publishing parcel locker data
• Redirecting parcels to nearby PUDO points

Peter Dunn, Director of European Relations, Cullen International, discusses the USO, how European postal operators are reacting to falling letter volumes, and more.

• The purpose of the Postal Services Directive, including letters USO and quality of service
• How local universal service obligations can be changed
• Flexibility provisions in Postal Services Directive
• Changes to letter delivery frequency in Italy (Poste Italiane)
• Letter volume declines in Nordic countries
• Introducing alternate-day letter delivery
• Lack of standardised EU approach to USO scope definition
• Parcels in the USO
• Local variations in letter volume declines
• Review of the Postal Services Directive
• State aid and government support for postal operators
• Letter trends and USO review worldwide
• Varying national responses to falling letter volumes
• Cultural and operational differences between postal operators and markets

Professor John Colley from the Warwick Business School discusses developments in gig economy delivery and ultrafast grocery delivery (q-commerce). We cover:

• Demise of rapid, ultrafast delivery
• Difficult economics of ultrafast delivery
• High costs of q-commerce never passed on to consumers
• Supermarket chains acquiring failed rapid delivery startups
• Availability of venture capital funding
• Gig economy delivery model
• Regulation of the gig economy
• Workers' rights and driver strike action
• Lack of profitability and growth in gig economy delivery
• Difference between markets
• Affluence vs low minimum wages as an indicator of gig economy delivery
• History repeating itself with ride hailing
• Batching of fast food orders

Rob King, CEO and co-founder at Zedify, discusses customer experience in the last mile, sustainability, greenwashing, and cargo bike delivery.

• Creating better delivery for customers and the environment
• Large vehicles vs small vehicles in urban delivery
• Microhubs in cities
• The last mile as an extension of the online retailer's brand
• Retailers paying more attention to delivery emissions
• Key factors in getting the customer experience right in delivery
• Estimated delivery times and electronic delivery notifications
• The human interaction at the doorstep
• Retailers' concerns about greenwashing in delivery
• Reporting emissions
• Cargo bike delivery trends
• Difficulties in decarbonising delivery