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

© IPC, 2007 1

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

2MTAG 11 July 2007

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Letter Performance 1909

3MTAG 11 July 2007

© IPC, 2007 IATA World Cargo Symposium March 2007

16 March 1909 12.30pm

17 March 1909 6.00pm44MTAG 11 July 2007

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• 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 2007 5

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• 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?

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• 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

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Identifying a mail item

8IATA World Cargo Symposium March 2007

UPU Standard Barcode

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PostingSortingCentre Carrier

Office ofExchange

SortingCentre Addressee

DeliveryOffice

Office ofExchange

Mail pipeline instrumentation

Postal Item Technology

IATA World Cargo Symposium March 2007 9

Registered letter Barcode scanParcel, Express…

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• 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

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• 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 existsStatistical sampling techniques


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Office ofExchange


DeliveryOffice

Office ofExchange





Test letter RF-ID reader

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Postal RF-ID Network

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RF-ID IPC/Lyngsoe postal tag

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RF-ID IPC/Lyngsoe postal tagnow generation 6 after 10 years

BatteryBattery

Tag electronics Tag electronics with UHF aerialwith UHF aerial

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Code, battery status433.92 MHz

EX21 ExciterTM

RD21 ReaderTM

PT21 PostalTagTM

Reader ID125 KHz

1

3

4

2

PostalGate

How the system works

CT21 ContainerTagTM

1

2

3

4

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

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RF-ID Reading Points

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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 tag 6Reader 6Local server 3

• Patents owned by Posts through IPC– Lyngsoe of Denmark & Canada develop and

manufacture as IPC partner

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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

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UNEX System

New: Bosnia-HZ (part), Bulgaria, Croatia, FYROM, Turkey 2008

IPC Members Other Posts participating in a UNEX System

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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?

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• 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 3rd Postal Directive at Parliament now– Aim is free postal market but with a Universal

Service Obligation for some postal operators

European Union

27MTAG 11 July 2007

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• 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

• Reliability J+5 97% 99% actual 2006

– Publish results every year

EU Postal directives 1997 & 2002

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• 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

29MTAG 11 July 2007

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UNEX-18 Official Europe 2006-1994

69.1

92.4

7.7

43.5

84.3

96.2 98.0

81.5

95.0

99.098.0 99.4 99.6

16.6

0

20

40

60

80

100

J+1 J+2 J+3 J+4 J+5 J+6 J+7

1994

2006 UNEX-18

Cumulative Performance

J+n Performance

Speed EU Objective J+3 85%

Reliability EU Objective J+5 97%

%

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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)


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• EN 13850 (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


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• 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


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Office ofExchange


DeliveryOffice

Office ofExchange






Normal letter High speed barcode scan

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Letter 2-D barcodes


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Office ofExchange


DeliveryOffice

Office ofExchange






Normal letter High speed barcode scan Test letter Acceleration History

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Acceleration HistoryAcceleration HistoryFlight 8.30-12.30 Sat 20/2

Acceleration HistoryAcceleration HistoryFlight 8.30-12.30 Sat 20/2

BulkBulk

Aircraft movement

Sorting

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• 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

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• 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


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

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