Swiss Post topped the UPU’s annual ranking of global postal services for the third year running, ahead of PostNL and Deutsche Post, but the ‘development gap’ between industrialised and developing nations is widening and holding back cross-border e-commerce growth.
The UN agency’s Postal Development Report 2019 rates 172 national postal operators for reliability (efficiency, speed and quality of delivery and services); reach (international networks and foreign commitment); relevance (the strength of demand for products and services and their importance for the country); and resilience (capacity to innovate, diversify and develop sustainably).
Swiss Post took first place with 100 points thanks to its leading scores for relevance and resilience, as well as improvements in its reliability and reach, UPU said. The postal operator already topped the first two rankings in 2017 and 2018.
A delighted Roberto Cirillo, Swiss Post CEO, said: “The title ‘world’s best postal service’ reflects the impressions I have gathered at Swiss Post. I’d like to thank all the employees who do an excellent job day after day and night after night.” The award is also an obligation going forward, he continued. “We’ll do our utmost to continue to make a significant contribution for the economy and the public in Switzerland going forward.”
PostNL was again second thanks to improvements in quality of service and reach, while Deutsche Post ranked third for the first time owing to increased volumes and faster service.
Japan Post and France’s La Poste were fourth and fifth respectively, while big improvers among the top 20 in this year’s ranking (in terms of points or ranking) included Austria, the UK, Canada, Belgium, Italy and Russia.
Widening development gaps hold up cross-border e-commerce growth
However, the UPU Index also found that the gaps in postal development have been increasing over the past year, constituting potential hurdles in the development of cross border e-commerce, which is one of the fastest growth areas for postal operators.
Industrial countries received an average grade of 68.9 out of 100 in the index, up one point from 2018, while average scores for Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (49.8), Asia-Pacific (29.5), Arab region (27.29), Latin America (22.7) and Africa (20.6) provided evidence of the growing gap.
Reducing these gaps, particularly between regions, would contribute to promoting international parcel flows and accelerate postal volumes of cross-border e-commerce, according to UPU.
“Postal networks have the potential to lead the way in providing both citizens and businesses with affordable access to the economy through the delivery of e-commerce items, but for the entire sector to benefit from this opportunity it will have to work to reduce inequalities across the network,” said UPU Director General Bishar Hussein.
The full report is available here.
