Twenty-one Posts from around the world started using the Universal Postal Union’s new GlobalMonitoring System (GMS) this week to evaluate the quality of their letter-post service using
state-of-the-art RFID technology.The GMS is a truly global system using affordable RFID technology that is accessible to everyPost, from industrialised countries and developing ones, the UPU said in a statement.
From now until December 2009, in a first phase of the project, 530 independent panellistsfrom 38 countries will send 24,000 test letters containing RFID tags through 45 postal facilitiesworldwide. The data collected as the test letters pass through special gates will be transmitted tothe UPU and used to help postal operators identify service failures and improve operationalefficiency.
Posts will use the Global Monitoring System to measure their service quality againstestablished domestic standards. Improvements to a country’s domestic quality of service areexpected to have positive repercussions on international mail as well. The RFID technology beingused for the GMS could eventually have other applications, such as tracking parcels and managingassets such as postal equipment.
“Improving quality worldwide is a top priority,” says UPU Director General Edouard Dayan. “Nopostal operator today can afford not to have a performance-measuring system in place to monitor thequality of its operations and service in order to improve efficiency, remain competitive and retaincustomers. And what’s good about the Global Monitoring System is that it is for all postaloperators, not just those coming from industrialised countries.”
Posts participating in this first phase of the Global Monitoring System come from Aruba,Chile, Greece, India, Korea (Rep), Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Norway, Peru, Qatar,Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, United Arab Emiratesand Venezuela. More than 30 other countries are expected to join the GMS in the second phase of theproject from 2010.
The UPU said it has been developing the Global Monitoring System over the past three yearsand has managed to secure affordable RFID technology for use by all member countries. Using an openstandard, the RFID tags each cost an average of $0.30. Other tags can be as expensive as $20.
Spain-based AIDA Centre is supplying the RFID technology, while Germany’s Quotas is managingthe panellists located worldwide. The Universal Postal Union collects the data through aninformation management system developed by its Postal Technology Centre in Berne.
The Global Monitoring System provides postal operators a sophisticated tool to help thembring real improvements to their operations and processes. Additional results obtained through theUPU’s continuous testing programme, which measures the quality of international letter post servicefrom end to end, will enable the UPU and its member countries to further improve quality.
