© IPC, 2007‹#› Mail Service Performance An International Perspective Ross Hinds Director Operations & technology

© IPC, 2007 How it was! Why measure How to measure –Counting –Sampling Technology for postal measurement International sampling systems European Union postal law changes Outline 2 MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 Letter Performance MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 IATA World Cargo Symposium March March pm 17 March pm 4 4 MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 Ordinary rate postcard Arrived in one day Handled by postal service in Ireland, Britain, Belgium Exception reporting the norm – all mail expected to be cleared at the time of arrival and it was Excellent service! 1909 from Ireland to Belgium MTAG 11 July

© IPC, 2007 Can only manage what is measured For customer to know end-to-end time For regulator to know if requirements met For Post to know segment by segment For Posts internationally to assess how much to pay each other Why measure? 6 MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 Count actual items meeting specified objectives Each item must have a unique identifier (text, barcode, RF-ID,…) Passage of item through mail pipeline is recorded event by event Events are collected in central system Reporting systems –On-time delivery –On-time return of delivery information How to measure performance MTAG 11 July

© IPC, 2007 Identifying a mail item 8IATA World Cargo Symposium March 2007 UPU Standard Barcode

© IPC, 2007 Posting Sorting Centre Carrier Office of Exchange Sorting CentreAddressee Delivery Office Office of Exchange Mail pipeline instrumentation Postal ItemTechnology IATA World Cargo Symposium March Registered letterBarcode scan Parcel, Express…

© IPC, 2007 Over 130 postal services performance for EMS (Courier) service worldwide Similar measures for Parcels, registered and insured letters Objective is to ensure target level performance is achieved Payments between Posts based on performance in IPC reports Data flow is continuous 24 hours X 7 days IPC measures for identified items MTAG 11 July

© IPC, 2007 Sample the mail pipeline using the date stamp –Simple, cheap and doubtful Post test mail and record posting & receipt date, giving end-to-end –Effective if posting & receipt by independent people –Not useful for postal operations diagnosis Post test mail with RF-ID tags –Segment by segment analysis for operations Sampling issues What characteristics of mail to measure? Is the sample representative & what precision? Where no identifier exists Statistical sampling techniques MTAG 11 July

© IPC, 2007 Posting Sorting Centre Carrier Office of Exchange Sorting CentreAddressee Delivery Office Office of Exchange Mail pipeline instrumentation Postal ItemTechnology IATA World Cargo Symposium March Registered letterBarcode scan Parcel, Express… Test letterRF-ID reader

© IPC, 2007 Postal RF-ID Network

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID IPC/Lyngsoe postal tag

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID IPC/Lyngsoe postal tag now generation 6 after 10 years Battery Low Frequency Radio Aerial Tag electronics with UHF aerial

© IPC, 2007 The Exciter continuously generates a magnetic field at 125 kHz Activated, when a Postal Tag enters the field. The tag transmits its code and battery status and the embedded reader ID. The Reader receives the signal and adds reader ID and time stamp to the tag data. The Reader transfers the collected data to the Site Server. RF-ID measurement point

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID Reading Points

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID Reading Points

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID Reading Points

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID Reading Points

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID Reading Points

© IPC, 2007 RF-ID Reading Points

© IPC, 2007 Postal RF-ID experiences Over 10 years in use for measurement –Automates data collection with no change to postal operations, & readings invisible to staff A niche use of RF-ID –500,000 tags total to date Components have been continuously enhanced : Generation RF-ID tag6 Reader6 Local server3 Patents owned by Posts through IPC –Lyngsoe of Denmark & Canada develop and manufacture as IPC partner

© IPC, 2007 Letter Service Performance Measurement UNEX Country System –Complex specification varying urban/rural, payment method, induction method, envelope size and weight, machine and handwritten addresses City system –Simple specification of key cities, stamped, street or post office posting box, up to 50 gm letter with machine written address UPU Terminal Dues Target system –Inbound only measure with City specification 24

© IPC, 2007 UNEX System New: Bosnia-HZ (part), Bulgaria, Croatia, FYROM, Turkey 2008 IPC MembersOther Posts participating in a UNEX System

© IPC, 2007 Experiences in sampling Tendency to over-complicate the measures Accuracy needs postal operations scrutiny Panellists not always careful in data entry Future directions –RF-ID reader in recipient letter box (trial 4Q07) –GPS/RF-ID reader at posting box (trial planned) Precision to be approached with care – one driver of cost Measurement perturbation –Test mail the major flow on small volume routes?

© IPC, 2007 Key facts –27 member states –490m people (US 301m) –Land area 4.3m sq km (US 9.8 sq km) Legislation –European Commission makes proposals –Council of Ministers and Parliament discuss and amend proposals but can not initiate them –Directives implemented by national legislation –Proposed 3 rd Postal Directive at Parliament now –Aim is free postal market but with a Universal Service Obligation for some postal operators European Union 27 MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 Universal service obligation –5 days per week minimum –Letters to 2kg, packets to 10kg minimum (20kg max) –Reserved to Universal Service Provided below 50gm or 2.5 times first weight step of fastest service –Uniform tariff optional to each member state Service objectives –Cross-border objectives for fastest standard service Speed J+3 85% 94% actual 2006 ReliabilityJ+5 97% 99% actual 2006 –Publish results every year EU Postal directives 1997 & MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 Variety of domestic service objectives –Most changed from content-based pricing –Priority (J+1) & non-priority service (J+2,3..) –Weight or shape based pricing too Services differ –Italy introduced Prioritaria service forJ+1 & later moved single piece mail to Non-Massivo new service –Ireland to one service for single piece mail –Portugal has Priority (Azul) service J+1 and non-priority J+3 Different rules: non-priority only at post office and not in street letter boxes Domestic service objectives 29 MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 UNEX-18 Official Europe Cumulative Performance J+n Performance Speed EU Objective J+3 85% Reliability EU Objective J+5 97% %

© IPC, 2007 EN13850 Single piece priority mail transit time EN14508 Single piece non-priority transit time EN14534 Bulk mail end-to-end transit time EN14012 Complaints EN14137 Loss of registered mail EN15511 Information on postal services EN13850 is mandatory for domestic & cross-border Measurement Standards of CEN (EU ANSI) MTAG 11 July

© IPC, 2007 EN (Priority) used in all EU & EEA EN14508 (Non-priority) use increasing J+1 the basic objective for priority (First Class) mail, with J+2….J+6 objective too in many cases CEN aims to simplify measures to reduce cost Trend to have Universal Service Provider manage the measures International objectives included in some national regulatory requirements Current status in Europe MTAG 11 July

© IPC, 2007 Multiple postal operators in each country –UK, Germany, Netherlands Unitary price not obligatory –Pricing by delivery address characteristic –Geographical pricing Market to determine the delivery standards –If not satisfied use a different supplier Universal Service still required by law Measurement aimed at postal services for the consumer Some effects of liberalisation MTAG 11 July

© IPC, 2007 Posting Sorting Centre Carrier Office of Exchange Sorting CentreAddressee Delivery Office Office of Exchange Mail pipeline instrumentation Postal ItemTechnology IATA World Cargo Symposium March Registered letterBarcode scan Parcel, Express… Test letterRF-ID reader Normal letterHigh speed barcode scan

© IPC, 2007 Letter 2-D barcodes IATA World Cargo Symposium March

© IPC, 2007 Posting Sorting Centre Carrier Office of Exchange Sorting CentreAddressee Delivery Office Office of Exchange Mail pipeline instrumentation Postal ItemTechnology IATA World Cargo Symposium March Registered letterBarcode scan Parcel, Express… Test letterRF-ID reader Normal letterHigh speed barcode scan Test letterAcceleration History

© IPC, 2007 Acceleration History Acceleration History Flight Sat 20/2 Bulk Aircraft movement Sorting

© IPC, 2007 Posting Sorting Centre Carrier Office of Exchange Sorting CentreAddressee Delivery Office Office of Exchange How we know where the mail is! Postal ObjectTechnology EDI network Postal Databases IATA World Cargo Symposium March Id on itemBarcode scan Test letterRF-ID reader Normal letterHigh speed barcode scan Test letterAcceleration History ULDAny TruckRF-ID reader Receptacle UPU Barcode scan

© IPC, 2007 Large mailers concerned about their own mail not average For tracked products individuals also concerned only about their own mail For small mailers without tracking need average numbers Averages are only that –May not reflect anyone’s experience –Useful for trends Averages – a note 39 MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007

Many different approaches to measurement Counts are better than sampling in principle but –As a by-product of operations IPC has over 10 years experience of many of the issues and is happy to make it available Summary MTAG 11 July