Participants in the International Post Corporation’s programme ‘Future of Mail by Air’ haveagreed to pilot an initiative in 2010 to go paper-free without delivery bills on selected
routes.With this initiative to reduce administrative paperwork and improve processes, 10% of thedocuments handled will be paper-free by replacing paper with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)messages, IPC announced.
Ross Hinds, IPC Director of Operations and Technology, stressed at a recent IATA conference theimportance of paper-free mail not only for posts, but also for airlines that help transport thesemail products around the world. Hinds, who chairs the IATA Air Mail Track, stated that theIPC-moderated discussions have helped lead postal and airline executives to commit to work towardpaper-free transport and accounting methods in airmail transport.
Postal and airline cargo executives taking part in the IATA Air Mail Track have been addressingthe structural transition from single-piece letter mail business to packets and parcels business.This was identified as a key issue in the current postal environment, where letter mail volumes aredeclining while parcel and mail packet levels have been increasing. The executives even foreseedouble-digit growth in packets and parcels volumes.
Jörgen Van Mook, IPC’s manager of operations planning, reported at the conference that airlinesacknowledge the importance of investing in the growing airmail business to take advantage of thegrowing revenue potential. Van Mook said that going paper-free means posts and airlines can get ridof costly and cumbersome error-prone paper-based handling and manual data processing, and move awayfrom wasteful printing of tons of paper.
In cooperation with the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and IATA, IPC has developed an initiativefor posts and airlines to integrate their processes and systems with Electronic Data Interchange(EDI) messaging. This results in increased transparency and end-to-end airmail visibility,streamlined data exchange, and improved customer service and planning processes. Using ElectronicData Interchange (EDI) messaging, posts and airlines can send and receive advance notification ofexpected mail volumes, which allows posts and airlines to better manage revenues and operations,meet quality targets, improve efficiency and reduce costs.
IPC’s work in EDI messaging is part of its Future of Mail by Air initiative which is workingwith airline and postal executives to find solutions that will benefit both industries. Theinitiative aims to transfer the traditional business processes between posts and passenger carriersinto a professional customer-supplier relationship and over time even into a business partnership,which helps to improve visibility of mail in transport at a lower overall operating cost, IPC saidin a statement.
