European postal operators need to focus more on growth potential from electronic communicationsand e-commerce, should become more innovative and can benefit from their image as a trusted brand.
Those were some of the key positive messages at this week’s World Mail & Express Europeconference in Copenhagen.The two-day event, organised by Triangle Management Services, again drew a broad range ofindustry executives and managers as well as suppliers and other experts to discuss and debate someof the top issues facing the postal sector.
Traditional letter mail volumes remain in structural decline, Herbert-Michael Zapf, presidentand CEO of the International Postal Corporation, told the conference. IPC members, who representthe bulk of the world’s mail volumes, had a 3.6% drop in volumes in the first quarter of 2010. Thiswas less than the dramatic 6.5% fall in 2009 but slightly more than the 3.3% average fall over thelast four years, he pointed out. “Posts are not out of the crisis yet,” he commented. In contrast,parcel volumes rose 3% in the first quarter of this year as online shopping continued to grow.
Looking ahead, Zapf predicted industry consolidation over the next 5-8 years, although synergiescould be limited, while cost-cutting would remain a priority. Corporate responsibility, andenvironmental protection in particular, would get more important, he stressed. The IPC, which hasagreed an overall CO2 reduction target for members, will also develop ‘per item’ emission reductiontargets, he noted.
Andreas Taprantzis, head of the UPU Postal Operations Council, said, however: “I think we areover-reacting to the crisis. Some people are trying to bury the industry. Someone needs to be thefacilitator between the physical and virtual world. Home delivery will be one of the key areas forgrowth, and direct mail will be a key communications tool.”
Addressing postal strategies, PostEurop secretary general Botond Szebeny said postal operatorshad three main assets: their networks, their workers and customer trust. They should seek to takeadvantage of these competitive advantages and also move towards more cooperation and collaborationin the future. “Posts should leverage the trust in their brand to grow their business,” hedeclared. The parcels sector “could be a long-term growth product”, he added.
Sue Barton, Accenture’s postal industry expert for Europe, Africa and Latin America, predictedthat the future for postal operators would be a mix of digital and print products and services,with a multi-channel approach. Posts should create a “digital pipeline” offering end-to-enddelivery of electronic contents with different service levels. This could be not only electronicmail communications but other services such as interactive platforms for B2B and B2C activities, orclosed user group communities, she suggested. “Digital mail is the first step on the way to a wholenew portfolio. The digital world is not to be feared,” she declared.
Reviewing innovation in the sector, Dirk Palder, postal expert at Cap Gemini Germany, saidpostal operators had developed many innovations in the past but these had often been poorlycommunicated and marketed, and had thus not always been successful. There had been littleinnovation of business models while mobile and social media would become areas for innovativeproducts and services in the future, he forecast.
Examining postal liberalisation, regulation and the USO in Europe, Philippe Claeys, sectoradvisor at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that despite full market opening in Europe being only sixmonths away many EU countries still had not passed the relevant postal laws. Postal regulatoryapproaches and definitions of the universal service obligation differed widely across Europe, hepointed out. “There needs to be a debate over the scope and financing of the USO,” he declared.
Neil Anderson, head of UNI Post and Logistics global union, told the conference that employeesand unions were ready to work with management over changes to ensure future business success andthus to protect their jobs. “Workers want the business to be successful. They want to be involvedin the changes,” he stated. In particular, employees should be much more involved in helping tosolve business problems and challenges, he added.
