Postal Hub podcast

Thibault Guez, Out-of-Home Project Director Europe at Geopost, discusses out-of-home delivery, including PUDOs, parcel lockers, delivery preferences and more:

• What is out-of-home delivery?
• Size of Geopost's out-of-home network
• Getting closer to the consignee
• Dominance of residential B2C delivery in some European markets
• Understanding local cultural habits
• Refrigerated parcel lockers
• Striving for innovative out-of-home delivery solutions
• Location of temperature-controlled lockers
• Format of PUDO points / Parcel Shops
• Changing rooms in Geopost Parcel Shops
• Label-free returns
• Digital labels
• Increasing interconnection between Geopost delivery services
• In-flight redirections
• Maximising usage of parcel lockers
• Anticipating parcel drop-offs at lockers and PUDOs
• Role of consignee-facing app
• Improving the customer experience via the app
• Encouraging recipients to collect parcels quickly

Robert Jordan, CEO at the Information Factory, discusses how data can be used to drive profitability in delivery and logistics. We cover:

• Harnessing logistics and delivery data
• Data is not just about reporting
• Falling letter volumes, volatile parcel volumes, labour pressures
• Postal operators dealing with operational issues in the network and the last mile
• Revenue optimisation
• Using data for performance and sales reporting
• Being price competitive in delivery and logistics
• The importance of having a data strategy
• Receiving and transmitting data
• What to look for when it comes to data quality in logistics
• Making sure data is fit for purpose
• Creating a cost model (activity based costing)
• Tying in with the general ledger
• Allocation of costs
• Ops cost per move
• Assessing profitability of customers and lanes
• Data underpinning optimisation of logistics operations
• Ensuring data is fit for purpose
• Observability

Dean Maciuba, Managing Partner (USA) for Crossroads Parcel Consulting, discusses the ramifications of the UPS - Teamsters deal, FedEx's cost-cutting, USPS reform, and Amazon delivery contractors.

• Impact of UPS's deal with Teamsters
• How UPS was travelling prior to striking a deal with the union
• FedEx's efforts to reduce its operating costs
• Amalgamation of FedEx's Ground and Express networks
• FedEx's improved competitiveness with UPS
• UPS parcel volume loss
• Losing low-margin residential e-commerce business
• Potential for lay-offs at UPS
• UPS's focus on high-revenue express business
• FedEx's low-cost contractor model
• Potential for UPS-Teamsters deal to raise wages across the sector
• Earning potential of Amazon drivers
• The war for talent in the last mile
• Amazon remuneration of Delivery Service Partners
• Employee/contractor classification issue
• FedEx's experiences with mis-classification
• Dynamic pricing and surcharges in the USA
• The costs behind peak season
• Granularity of dynamic pricing
• Lack of transparency in parcel pricing
• US Postal Service reorganisation under PMG Louis DeJoy
• Volume decline at USPS
• Changes to USPS ground services
• USPS investing more in sales and communications
• Amazon's encroachment into non-metro delivery
• Rural delivery surcharges
• Peak season preparations
• The extension of peak season

Margaret Persico, Senior Director of Postal and Logistics Unit at Kantar, and Will Simpson, Client Director at Kantar's Postal and Logistics Unit, discuss what external measurement means for postal, parcel, regulators, and e-commerce players:

• Transformation of postal operators
• Changes in capturing and reporting transit measurements
• Accurate real-time results powering improved reporting
• Transition from letters to parcels and impact on USO and regulation
• Complex delivery requirements need better data and measurement
• Consumer expectations on speed and reliability of letters and parcels
• The risks of poor customer experience in the last mile
• Competing on quality of delivery, and how data powers that
• Benchmarking against other delivery competitors
• Using measurement to evaluate the impact of operational changes
• Driving efficiency through external measurement
• What is important to measure? Why isn't looking at scanning data enough?
• Kantar's sample-based approach, including panels and tracking items
• Real-time data capture and speed of reporting
• Identifying under-performing parts of the delivery network
• Simple and clear metrics on items travelling through delivery network
• Identifying cause of delays and bottlenecks
• Future of measurement, including regulation, customer expectations, and use cases for measurement
• Monitoring call centre customer support
• Using data to have a comprehensive view of delivery performance

Ann Snitko, UC Berkeley Researcher and Chief Product Development Officer at Omnic on parcel lockers, delivery efficiency, and emissions.

• Reducing emissions in transport under the European Green Deal
• Optimising routes with parcel lockers
• Modes of transport consumers use for collecting parcels
• Parcel locker density and encouraging consumers to walk
• Load capacity issues
• Reducing the vehicles loading lockers
• Improving customer experience
• The importance of collaboration in building sustainability parcel locker networks
• Inefficient locker networks being inefficient from an emissions perspective
• Omnic's supply chain and its carbon-free production facility
• Consumer behaviour and the last mile's carbon footprint
• Same-day delivery and unnecessary emissions
• Predictable levels of service
• Aggregating services into one parcel locker system
• Omnic at Parcel+Post Expo 2023 in Amsterdam

Kardinal's Head of Business, Michael Anderson, discusses key findings from Kardinal's recent research into last mile strategy and last mile operations:

• Understanding postal and delivery companies' priorities in the last mile
• The importance of service quality in parcel delivery
• Environment and sustainability as a high level strategic priority
• Profitability
• Getting fleet and depot design right and routes optimised
• Pricing and rate negotiation
• Price and quality of service
• Organising last mile operations
• Getting the employee and subcontractor mix right
• Managing resources in the face of fluctuating parcel volumes
• Residential and out-of-home delivery
• Forecasting environmental impact of delivery fleets
• Fleet conversion to low-carbon alternatives
• Electric vehicle range
• Volumetric challenges of different vehicles
• Key challenges for the next decade in the last mile, including sustainability, service levels, and resource management
• Reducing driver churn
• Solutions to overcome some of these issues
• Making data usable in planning and forecasting

Brody Buhler, CEO at Escher Group discusses key findings from Escher's 2023 Future of Posts research. We cover:

• Acceleration of letter volume declines
• Fluctuating parcel volumes
• Major challenges currently facing postal operators
• Postal operators struggling to achieve profitability
• Changing letter and parcel delivery
• Capacity constraints or lack of parcel volumes?
• Bringing inventory closer to the consumer
• Delivery speed and revenue
• Macroeconomic challenges: inflation, profitability erosion, and the reshaping of commerce
• Postal strategy
• Loss-making postal retail operations
• Bringing digital enablement to physical locations
• Increasing network utilisation
• Growing cross-border volumes
• Technologies to achieve strategic goals
• Purpose-built self-service solutions
• Parcel lockers

Should parcel locker networks be compelled to be "open"? Roel Gevaers, Professor in Last Mile Logistics and Supply Chain, University of Antwerp, discusses moves to force Belgian parcel lockers to accept parcels from other carriers.

• bpost and Budbee operate the two most significant Belgian parcel locker networks
• Where Budbee parcel lockers are generally located
• Overview of major last mile operators in Belgium, by geographic area
• Amazon's entry into the Belgian last mile - and seeming absence from the parcel locker scene in Belgium
• Why Belgian politicians are considering compelling all parcel locker networks to deliver parcels on behalf of all delivery companies
• Discussion about environmental differences between residential delivery and out-of-home delivery (i.e. parcel lockers or PUDO points)
• Consumer behaviour in collecting parcels
• Previous attempt at open parcel locker network in Belgium
• Commercial considerations in delivering parcels for other operators
• Operational considerations in open parcel locker networks
• Consumer enthusiasm for parcel lockers
• Keeping service levels and customer satisfaction levels high
• Comparisons with liberalisation of telecommunications
• Utilisation of parcel lockers
• Next steps in implementing the proposal
• Update on definition of delivery contractors (See Episode 293.)

Heleen Buldeo Rai, assistant professor at VUB, discusses her research into how urban logistics facilities can be good neighbours.

• Warehouses and logistics centres getting closer to the city centre
• What makes NYC an interesting city for studying urban warehouses
• Population density, strength of e-commerce and zoning
• Cross-docking operations in NYC
• Delivery activities happening at the kerb/curb
• Community ignorance of the supply chain
• Friction between local residents and e-commerce logistics
• Best practices for urban warehouses to be good neighbours
• Regulatory frameworks
• Streets accommodating personal mobility as well as delivery vehicles
• The aesthetical aspect of urban warehouses
• Eco transfer concept - consolidating urban parcels and using environmentally-friendly vehicles
• Blocks and buffers
• Organising traffic
• Urban warehouses and cities' sustainability transitions
• Reducing stem distance

Daniel Rueda, CEO at Open Pricer, and Jonathan Bouaziz, CEO and co-founder at Kardinal, on the combined power of route optimisation and dynamic parcel pricing.

• What parcel volume decreases mean for parcel and postal operators
• Retaining delivery drivers
• Optimising parcel margins - even to a postcode level
• Parcel pricing variations by the day of the week
• Improved cost modelling means improved pricing
• Increasing capacity utilisation
• Renegotiating parcel pricing with existing e-commerce customers
• Dynamic parcel pricing at checkout
• Breaking out delivery route profitability
• More frequent updating of pricing models=
• Environmental benefits of the new Kardinal / Open Pricer partnership
• Modelling and simulations of environmental impact of delivery decisions