Case Story: International Post Corporation

Improvements to the Quality of Service in International Mail

Discover how the International Post Corporation (IPC) improved the quality of service for international mail customers. Through our solutions they saw an astonishing 24% improvement in service quality of international mail. 

The International Post Corporation

Members of the International Post Corporation (IPC) represent postal operators from Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. Collectively, their operations deliver 80% of global mail volumes – more than 336bn letters each year.

The members are the national postal services in the following countries: Ireland, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Iceland, Finland, France, Hungary, New Zealand, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the United States of America.

When the IPC wanted to improve service quality for international mail customers, they turned to Lyngsoe Systems and their Automatic Mail Quality Measurement (AMQM™). This means that test letters are sent with transponders secretly located inside, a possible end to end monitoring enables IPC to know when mail leaves and arrives in a country and a 24% improvement in service quality of international mail since the implementation.

The Challenge:

A system for measuring the mail quality of test letters

The International Post Corporation monitors postal service quality on behalf of its 25 member countries. With the aim of improving the quality of service for international mail customers, the IPC implemented UNEX (Unipost External Monitoring System), using test letters, but it still proved difficult to measure automatically and objectively the service quality, so the IPC issued a tender for the implementation of a system for measuring mail quality of these test letters.

Our Solution:

Monitoring wherein the postal supply chain delays occur

In 1996, Lyngsoe Systems responded with a proposal based on a system Nordic countries had been using for measuring Quality of Service of mail. AMQM™ (Automatic Mail Quality Measurement) uses an active transponder inside a test letter. Sent into the normal flow of mail, the tag inside the test letter is invisible to postal personnel, ensuring objectivity and reliable results.

Measurements take place at points along the mail processing chain, such as entrance and exit gates, sorting centers and delivery offices, or in the case of international mail, at the offices of exchange, so mail is checked when it leaves one country and enters another. This monitoring makes it possible to pinpoint where in the postal supply chain delays occur.

The Benefits:

Multiple simultaneous readings

Further Results:

A consistent improvement trend

The speed target in Europe requires that 85% of international mail must be distributed to addressees 3 days after posting at the latest, while the reliability target requires that 97% must be distributed within 5 days after posting.

Since the implementation of our solution AMQM™, IPC’s results show a consistent improvement trend. Now, more than 93% of European letters arrive within three days of posting, as opposed to only 69% before the system was implemented in 1994. As these results are used as the basis for the payment of terminal dues between IPC members under the REIMS agreement, which is worth more than 1 billion USD a year, accuracy and reliability are critical.

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