The Universal Postal Union (UPU) honoured the winners of the 2021 Integrated Index for Postal Development (2IPD) at a special ceremony during World Post Day on October 8.
For the fifth year in a row, Swiss Post came out on top, with Deutsche Post DHL coming second and Austria Post third. The top three were followed by Japan and France in fourth and fifth. Meanwhile, Belarus, Brazil, Ghana, Singapore, and Tunisia obtained encouraging results and currently lead their respective regional groups.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Johannes Cramer, CEO of Swiss Post’s Logistics Services Division, said, “I believe that the key to our success is that our people don’t really see the company as a provider of a salary, but rather they feel like they are part of the engine that keeps Switzerland and the economy running. This contributes greatly to the motivation driving the company forward.”
The 2IPD provides an overview of postal development around the globe. It currently ranks 168 countries across four dimensions: reliability, reach, relevance, and resilience. The data for the report comes from official UPU statistics and key UPU surveys.
Cramer also highlighted the impact COVID-19 has had on the post over the past 18 months. “Our main job is to make the lives of our customers easier, on a daily basis,” he said. “We have all seen the importance of this over the past 18 months. COVID-19 has highlighted how important the postal sector is in impacting the lives of our fellow citizens in a positive way.”
Many posts are still adjusting to the new normal brought about by the pandemic. This is reflected in the 2021 2IPD report. The report analyzed the information embedded in the 2IPD’s reliability pillar, which measures the delivery times of mail items, to quantify the operational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The main finding was that the logistical bottlenecks experienced in 2020 have severely affected the reliability of postal operations, with average domestic delivery times increasing by 13% in 2020 with respect to 2019, before returning to pre-crisis levels in 2021.
While accepting the second-place award, Tobias Meyer, Member of the Corporate Board and CEO of the Post & Parcel Division, Deutsche Post DHL, acknowledged the challenges presented by COVID-19 and stressed the importance of sustainability moving forward. “It has been a tough 18 months for all of us, with the pandemic challenging our networks and our employees in a very particular way.
Going forward, sustainability will have a big importance for us here in Germany. For those challenges ahead we hope to continue with constructive discussions within the industry and continue the work within the UPU framework to make the postal sector a better sector and one that continues to contribute to the overall wellbeing of people.”
Accepting the third-place award for Austria, Österreichische Post CEO Georg Pölzl said, “We are very happy to be within this top three circle and we are looking forward to the future and to further cooperation with all of you.” He noted that the past year and a half had been a challenging one, but that the Post had managed to capture new business opportunities.
No comments:
Post a Comment