PostEurop, the association of European public postal operators, plans to increase dialogue withcustomers, support members with operational service improvements and drive forward environmental
protection amid deep changes in the sector, according to outgoing secretary general IngemarPersson.These activities, along with others such as regulatory affairs, will continue the recentdevelopment of the organisation into a member-focused trade association, he told CEP-Research in aninterview at last week’s annual conference in Bled, Slovenia. PostEurop, formed in 1993 and anofficial UPU restricted union, now represents 48 European public postal operators, with a total of2.1 million employees and revenues of about €47 billion.
The European postal industry is undergoing substantial changes at present, includingliberalisation in the EU and increasing competition, while it faces the challenge of declining mailvolumes due to the recession and electronic substitution. “Competition has slowed down due to thecrisis. But the industry will change,” Persson confirmed.
PostEurop’s stronger customer and market focus responds to this changing postal sector, heexplained. “Mailers have a choice of marketing channels. It is up to us as an association and asoperators to promote mail as a medium. I think we can help customers to use mail more,” he said.
PostEurop has, for example, teamed up with various stakeholders to form the European MailIndustry Platform to promote the value of mail while the association’s customer relations workinggroup holds two meetings a year with various European and international customer organisations.
Another focus is to support members to improve their operational quality, Persson pointedout. The operational affairs committee organises free of charge, in-depth site visits by experts toanalyse how Posts are organising their operations, propose improvements and do follow-up checks. “This is an important knowledge transfer from West to East. We have been through nearly all theCentral and Eastern European members now,” he said. A total of 14 process reviews have been carriedout over the last three years, and three more are planned.
At this year’s conference, PostEurop and the UPU signed a quality of service agreement. Thetwo organisations will combine resources and work together in areas such as joint workshops to helppostal operators to improve their mail service quality.
Meanwhile, a total of 17 European Posts have now signed up to PostEurop’s Greenhouse GasReduction Programme, with eight Central and Eastern European members as observers with the aim ofbecoming full members next year. The programme’s target is for Posts to reduce CO2 emissions by 10%between 2007 and 2012 on a voluntary basis. An estimated 8-11 million tonnes of CO2 emissions areproduced by European public postal operators. PostEurop, the UPU and the International PostCorporation (IPC) are now working together to coordinate efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.
* Ingemar Persson will leave the post of secretary general of PostEurop this month afterthree years. His successor will be Botond Szebeny, currently executive director, internationalbusiness, for Hungary’s Magyar Posta, and already a PostEurop management board member.
