Polish company InPost has unveiled what it calls an ‘automated post office’ offering financial,mail and parcel services.
A prototype of the new self-service terminal combination, developed in cooperation with NCR, wasdisplayed at last week’s Post-Expo trade fair in Brussels.
InPost’s idea is an automated postal terminal combining the functionalities of registered mailand a parcel pick-up machine with a traditional automated teller machine (ATM) for financialservices. The Polish company has combined an NCR ATM machine with one of its EasyPack 24 parcelterminals and a mail collection box. Customers operate all three machines via the ATM screen, canget cash, collect registered letters and pick up parcels.
InPost said the innovative ‘automated postal terminal’ helps improve efficiency and “in futuremay replace unprofitable post offices” since it operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.International postal operators showed a lot of interest in the solution at PostExpo and will betesting first terminals of this type within this year, according to the company.
Rafal Brzoska, InPost’s CEO, said: “InPost creates a world of simple solutions by going farbeyond the scope of traditional postal services. The automated postal terminals are a greatopportunity for national operators to offer their customers the innovative features which maketheir lives easier. At the same time, the solutions help achieve huge savings thanks to greaterefficiency. In particular it refers to unprofitable post offices that need to be maintained becauseof the legal obligation of national operators to provide access to general interest services.”
Wolfgang Kneilmann, NCR Vice President Central and Eastern Europe, added: “We see a growingdemand from postal organizations for self-service solutions that provide greater customerexperience and considerable operational savings. With this new terminal we offer them innovativeequipment based upon the long-standing experience NCR has as a leading supplier of assisted andself-service solutions in retail, financial services, travel and other industries. This enables NCRto share our best practices with the postal sector. We strongly believe that the postal terminalwill revolutionize the face of posts over the next few years.”
