Carrier Owned Delivery Routes

Derek Osborn

Whatnext4u

17.10.13

Facilitator: Derek Osborn Director Whatnext4u

International postal business coach

Previously - 22 years in management roles in RM

Derek Osborn International Postal Business Coach Whatnext4u

Vision and strategy

The future of post

Fostering innovation

Thinking differently

Customer centricity

Engaging customers

Delivery operations

Operational improvement

Human resource development

Leading change, modernisation and transformation

Reinventing the post

Last 12 years I have worked with the postal industry around the world as a business coach – often to:

Research postal topics and to lead, design and facilitate workshops, and deliver management training, seminars, forums and master classes on:

Reinventing the Post published and launched 2 weeks ago at Post Expo

Section 2 is entitled Reinventing Delivery and the Last Mile

Webinar Programme

• Background and context

• Advantages and disadvantages of carrier-owned routes

• Operational, quality and customer issues – and opportunities

• Is ‘final mile consolidation’ a sensible way forward in a liberalised market?

• Final thoughts

So what is the context and what are the challenges in postal delivery?

Some GENERAL trends

From

• ‘Information poor’

• Different suppliers of products and services from different places

• You get what they decide to give you and when

• Fixed channels - shops, telephone and catalogues

• Then you had to work hard to get what you want

To

• ‘Information rich’

• Everything (products and services) available in one place - integrated

• You choose – eg options and ‘comparison’ sites

• Streamed on-line via broadband internet

• Now you control and decide what you want and when and how

MORE TRENDS

From

• Fixed

• Hard-wired

• Land-lined

• Physical

• Hardware dependent

• Inflexible

• At given times

• Customer has to use different channels

To

• Location independent

• Hand-held

• Cordless

• Virtual

• Cloud-based

• Very flexible

• 24/7 on demand

• Integrated to customer via one channel

Major postal trends

From

• Volume

• 2 D (letters)

• Sender

• Push

• Physical

• End to end quality

• Monopoly providers

• Single, separate businesses

• Product/service focus

To

• Value

• 3 D (packets and parcels)

• Receiver (and sender)

• Pull

• Integrated physical/digital

• Precision delivery quality

• Open competitive market

• Different business configurations

• Customer needs focus

Postal industry balance sheet

Glass ‘half-empty’

• Declining volumes

• Electronic substitution

• Environmental concerns

• Greater competition

• Greater regulation

• More demanding customers

Glass ‘half-full’

• Trust and Brand

• Ubiquity – everywhere

• Universal service

• Delivery capability

• Address knowledge

• Value of mail

• Integrating physical and digital solutions

• Global connectivity

• Agency for Governments

• Committed employees

Postal industry leveraging assets

Glass ‘half-full’

• Trust and Brand

• Ubiquity – everywhere

• Universal service

• Delivery capability

• Address knowledge

• Value of mail

• Integrating physical and digital solutions

• Global connectivity

• Agency for Governments

• Committed employees

Accentuating the Positive

• Recognisable and secure access Wide/easy access to services

• Biggest customer database

• Everything ‘to the door’

• Granular knowledge of locations

• The personal ‘Mail Moment’

• Uniquely connecting physical and electronic – hybrid options

• Global connections if needed

• E-government applications

• Experience, ideas and resources

Leveraging your assets

Which brings us to delivery….

• Posts used to focus on senders but now there is as much, if not more, focus on recipients

• Delivery customers are becoming critical in determining the carriers and the service

• For postal operators, delivery remains, perhaps more than ever, their “core business”

• It is where you can differentiate yourself from the competitors

• BUT it is also costly, with fluctuating workload and the out door element is hard to supervise or manage

Senders Receivers

Advantages

• Ownership

• Level of effort

• Commitment to customers

• Customer engagement and customer service

• Efficiency

• Fixed costs

• Quality

• Leave cover

• Less overheads

• Contracts

Disadvantages

• Ownership

• Level of effort

• Commitment to customers

• Customer engagement and customer service

• Efficiency

• Fixed costs

• Quality

• Leave cover

• Less overheads

• Contracts

Operational issues and opportunities

• Optimising - discretion over route

• Flexibility with volumes, exceptional situations

• Weather conditions - adaptable timing

• Self-regulated - less need for supervision

• Standards and efficiency – can be exceeded

• Local knowledge and consistency

• Investment and equipment – can leapfrog

• Work-rate and effort – self-motivation

Quality issues

• Not in total control – but can go extra mile

• Can blame others – but totally accountable

• Knows what customers want – meets their individual needs

• Maybe unable to satisfy all customers – but can work out the best compromise

• Will ‘feel’ poor quality of service directly - incentive to improve and deliver quality

Customer issues

• Can fall out with individual customers – but knows customers and can build good relationships

• Maybe split loyalty and does more ‘own’ business – but works interactively with customers to deliver what they need

• Feels remote from company but can drive personal service and attention

Final Mile Consolidation?

Reasons why it could make sense

• ATM’s

• Mobile network wireless masts

• Environmental – emissions

• All the above – better efficiency, quality, customer service and relationships

• Liberalised market to avoid confusion and duplication of effort, cost etc

Challenges to overcome

• Trust

• Compatibility of systems – eg track and trace

• Contract management

• Pricing

• Quality assurance

• Ownership of customers

• Brand loyalty

• Advantages and disadvantages

• Not been extensively tried

• Could be explored a bit more

Questions?

I’m happy to discuss further with anyone

23

derekosborn@whatnext4u.com

Thank you for your participation

Reinventing the Post continues

18–20th Nov 2013

Bangkok

25–27th Feb 2014

Durban

20–21st May 2014 Hong Kong Post Expo Asia-Pacific 2014

3–5th June 2014 Oslo – E-BISS International Delivery Benchmarking Workshop

10-12th June 2014 Gibraltar – Small Posts and Islands Postal Forum

9th Sept 2014 Canada – America-Pacific Benchmarking Workshop

Whatnext4u in the postal industry: workshops, facilitation, research and training

Postal industry and strategy

Understanding the global postal industry

Good practice, benchmarking ideas and knowledge sharing

Research into innovation and ideas for promoting the value of mail

Innovative strategy thinking - developing an effective business vision, mission and strategy. Strategy and business plans – make it happen

People, innovation and change

Developing a motivated workforce

Managing change effectively

Fostering innovation - turn problems into opportunities. Embedding innovation and implementing good ideas

Engaging employees/ improving internal communications

Customers, quality and markets

Growing mail volumes by understanding your markets and engaging your customers

Developing account management for key customers, building customer relationships

Creating a customer-focused culture in the organisation

Building a quality organisation on business excellence and improving service quality

Postal operations

Improving operational efficiency and deploying best practice in postal delivery

Recipient based delivery solutions

Embracing new technologies

Reviewing your operation through facilitated self-assessment

Internal benchmarking for performance improvement