Kahala Posts Group (KPG), the alliance of eight national postal administrations, is planning to addmore members after France’s La Poste joined this week, and to introduce new products alongside its
date-certain, guaranteed international Express Mail Service (EMS).Discussions are underway with postal administrations in other key regions of the world tofurther expand package delivery service in KPG member markets, a statement issued by the USPS said.La Poste president Jean-Paul Bailly signed the KPG membership agreement at the alliance’s annualmeeting in San Francisco this week.
In addition, KPG will broaden its product range by enhancing service features of Air Parcelproducts by the end of this year. It also has plans to further expand its product line withinnovative offerings as early as 2008, the statement added.
At their meeting, the eight KPG members (Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Spain,the UK and the USA) reported growth of more than 40% percent for their joint EMS service, which waslaunched two years ago. The KPG members account for almost half of the world’s total EMS (ExpressMail Service) traffic.
Backed by a guarantee and reliability on par with private couriers, the EMS product hashelped national posts regain share in the international package marketplace, and has provenespecially popular with small to medium business sector customers, USPS said.
“KPG has shown that both consumers and businesses can depend on their postal administrationsfor reliable express service whether they’re shipping to friends, family or business partners,”said U.S. Postmaster General John Potter, KPG chief executive officer and board chairman. “We areleveraging our expertise through shared technology and an integrated network to provide superior,dependable service at very competitive prices,” said Potter.
EMS growth was attributed to solid performance improvements, competitive prices with nohidden charges and full end-to-end visibility, he added. “Customers have found peace of mind withKPG’s tracking and tracing capability,” Potter commented.
“With a strong commitment from each of the KPG partners to deliver on our promise, ourpossibilities are endless,” Potter concluded. “We look forward to bringing the successes of thisalliance to other regions of the world.”
