According to Geopost’s 2025 E-Commerce Trends e-shopper barometer, home remains the top delivery location of choice for consumers, despite the rising popularity of out-of-home (OOH) solutions.

However, despite home delivery being the mainstay of the logistics sector, challenges remain. A 2025 Sendcloud report, for example, found that 57% of UK shoppers encountered a delivery issue in 2025, nearly a quarter (23.6%) reported late deliveries, and 17.9% had parcels left in insecure locations.

The challenges affecting last-mile home delivery performance include balancing the need for cost efficiency against rising customer demands in a difficult labor market.

Continue reading FEATURE: How to reduce failed deliveries and operational costs in the last mile at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

Helen Norman explores how complex customs rules and regulations are affecting cross-border e-commerce, and the role technology can play in smoothing the process

Navigating the complicated world of cross-border e-commerce can be extremely challenging, especially given the fact that import fees and customs regulations change from country to country on a regular basis. The challenges, however, are not putting off retailers from expanding beyond their domestic borders.

“The global e-commerce market continues to grow, doubling from €1.7tn in 2018 to €3.6tn [US$3.7tn] in 2023, and is forecast to reach €5.5tn [US$5.7tn] by 2028, according to Euromonitor estimates,” says Luke Lloyd, head of markets at the International Post Corporation (IPC).

Continue reading FEATURE: Overcoming cross-border e-commerce customs challenges at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

The rollout of artificial intelligence (AI) within a company used to incite anxiety among employees, with many workers worrying that it was coming for their jobs. But as more and more firms adopt AI-based solutions, the transformative benefits of the technology and the ways that it can improve operations and assist employees have become clear.

Although some apprehension around being replaced by a robot still exists (and rightly so – a World Economic Forum survey carried out in January 2025 found that 41% of employers intend to downsize their workforce as AI automates certain tasks), many workers are now embracing the technology.

Continue reading FEATURE: Transforming the workforce with artificial intelligence at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

In recent years CTT – Correios de Portugal has been transformed from a mail-led postal operator to an e-commerce logistics group. Its commitment to this transformation to ensure the sustainability of the business, given rapidly decreasing mail volumes, is paying off.

In its latest financial results, in the nine months ending September 30, the post revealed that revenues were up 10.7% year-on-year (YoY) to €792.3m (US$864.2m) thanks in part to a record performance by CTT’s Express & Parcels business.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: João Sousa, executive board member, CTT – Correios de Portugal at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

A recent report by Wincanton, which operates one of the largest shared-user transportation networks in the British Isles, revealed that two-thirds of supply chain decision-makers are deprioritizing hitting their net zero targets. Respondents in the Share the road to sustainability report, published in September 2024, said this was due to the lack of viable and affordable alternative-fuel vehicles and concerns about the cost of decarbonizing their fleets in the short and long terms.

Continue reading FEATURE: The role of fleet management technologies in reducing vehicle emissions at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

According to the most recent data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), record numbers of commercial vehicles are now in use on the UK’s roads, with 625,873 HGVs and 5,012,632 vans in operation in 2023, up by 1.7% and 2.6% year-on-year, respectively. The gradual shift to zero-emission power is reducing the impact of these vehicles on the environment – one in 40 of all vehicles on UK roads are now zero emission, including 2,383 HGVs, for example – but issues concerning congestion on our roads remain.

Continue reading FEATURE: Embracing delivery resource collaboration to tackle the costly and unsustainable last mile at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

According to a report by DHL, the global computer vision market is expected to quadruple in size between 2020 and 2030, rising from US$9.4bn to US$41.4bn over the 10-year period. This growth is being accelerated by the continued improvement of AI, vision systems and computer processing technologies, which are enabling more advanced computer vision applications for many industries, including logistics.

“Today, AI-driven computer vision uses artificial intelligence algorithms, particularly deep learning, to automatically learn from large data sets, allowing computers to recognize patterns and objects with higher accuracy and less human input, replicating the brain’s ability to understand and make sense of visual information,” says Asim Darwaish, head of AI and data science at PackageX, a B2B tech startup founded to modernize logistics operations for businesses through its first-party apps and APIs.

Continue reading FEATURE: AI-driven computer vision in logistics at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

Could Denmark’s decision to abolish the universal service obligation mark the start of a new era in postal sector regulation worldwide?

On January 1, 2024, the universal service obligation (USO) was removed in Denmark due to a change in Danish postal law, reigniting a decades-long debate concerning the suitability of USOs worldwide in an increasingly digital market that has seen letter volumes plummet in recent years. Denmark’s drastic action could mark the start of a new stage of postal sector regulation, with rules relaxed around universal service, which typically requires a national postal operator to deliver letters to all its citizens throughout the country on a set number of days.

Continue reading FEATURE: The universal service debate at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

The International Post Corporation’s new road-based cross-border network is helping posts increase reliability, reduce cost and cut emissions. Helen Norman speaks to the experts involved and unveils plans for CRONOS 2.0

At the height of the global Covid-19 pandemic in April/May 2020, the number of passenger flights operating daily had reduced by 95% while demand for e-commerce had increased by 25-30%, according to data released by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Continue reading FEATURE: Improving cross-border networks with CRONOS at Parcel and Postal Technology International.

In December 2020,  Singapore Post (SingPost) announced the launch of a one-year public trial of PostPal, the world’s first next-generation smart letterboxes, starting with the residents of Block 202 Clementi Avenue 6 in the west of Singapore. Developed as part of SingPost’s Future of Post vision, which looks to transform the post’s operations through the use of technology, PostPal will be an important part of the organization’s ability to handle rising e-commerce volumes. Here, Paul Coutts, group chief executive officer of SingPost, explains how the smart letterbox, as well as the post’s other developments, are set to revolutionize the way the company delivers convenience and service to its customers.

Continue reading SingPost CEO interview: Transforming the postal service in Singapore at Parcel and Postal Technology International.