2014 Winners – Postal Technology International Awards

Parcel Handling Innovation of the Year: CMC’s Cartonwrap
The growth of e-commerce has been a revolution in the postal industry, resulting in greater demands from consumers, and potential headaches for distributors. For delivery companies, there are problems matching the size of the product being shipped, with the size of the box in which it is dispatched, leading to an over-reliance on fillers. As a result, extra manpower is required, and the cost of shipments is often set too high.

Digital Innovation of the Year: Slovenia Post’s Integrated Customs Clearance of Postal Items
“Some of the biggest challenges that e-commerce customers face are Customs formalities, and it is a problem that is getting more complicated as much of the business moves to Asia,” according to Marjan Osvald, director, international mail at Slovenia Post. Having seen more and more shipments entering his country from Hong Kong, China and Singapore, Osvald and his colleagues realised that a new approach was needed.

Environmental Achievement of the Year: Deutsche Post DHL
Deutsche Post DHL has dedicated much of its time and energy to making a difference in the area of environmental performance, and shows no sign of relenting on its goals. “In 2008, we established GoGreen, and it was the first environmental protection programme in the logistics industry,” recalls Jonathan Spearing, head of GoGreen at Deutsche Post DHL. “We set a target to improve our carbon efficiency by 30% between 2007 and 2020, and we are currently 18 index points towards that target.”

Last Mile Delivery Innovation of the Year: UPS’s route optimisation project
The Postal Technology International Awards trophies might have 2014 on them, but Jack Levis, process manager director at UPS, believes the roots of the company’s latest route optimisation project ORION (on-road integrated optimisation and navigation), which has triumphed this year, stretch back to 2003.

Business Development Innovation of the Year: IPC’s Global Customer Service System
The Global Customer Service System (GCSS) from the International Post Corporation (IPC) is a web-based system that supports a variety of postal products. It was deployed within IPC’s E-Parcel Group (EPG) members in July 2013, and to PRIME (EXPRESS Registered and Insured) that November, before being rolled out to 170 EMS operators in early 2014. “We wanted to change a fairly old-fashioned paper-based system into an electronic version,” says Marco Grüttgen, head of e-commerce solutions at IPC. “The goal was to improve efficiency and customer-centric activity, as well as being proactive in an industry that always needs to move forward.”

Supplier of the Year: InPost
One of the biggest success stories in the postal industry in recent times has been InPost, the supplier of automated parcel lockers that can send and receive items 24/7. Since it was founded in 2006, the company has maintained steady growth, and now boasts the largest international network of its kind in the world.

Service Provider of the Year: SingPost
At the heart of the recipient of this award is the development of a strategy based on three key themes designed to boost e-commerce. “We wanted to engage better with the digital consumers, enable regional businesses and SMEs to operate more efficiently, and empower postal peers,” explains Dr Wolfgang Baier, Group CEO of Singapore Post (SingPost).