World Post Day 2008
Over the past five years, mail and parcel volumes defied predictions to remain buoyant, according to the latest figures obtained by the Universal Postal Union.
With 6.5 billion items in 2007, domestic parcel volumes were up 7.9pct on 2002. Over the same period, international volumes rose 1.4pct to reach 44 million items in 2007. The increases are thought to be due in part to the growth of e-commerce, with the majority of online purchases still remaining within borders.
Worldwide domestic letter-post volumes grew by 0.3pct between 2002 and 2007, reaching 433 billion pieces last year. Generally, advertising mail has a positive impact on mail volumes and is estimated to make up more than 30pct of overall volumes. Meanwhile, international letter-post, which faces stiff competition from new technologies, experienced a 2.6pct volume decrease during the same period, with a total of 5.5 billion items in 2007.
The level of development among Posts is not the same worldwide. In his message for World Post Day (9th October), Edouard Dayan, UPU Director General, is calling upon all member countries of the Universal Postal Union, and their operators designated to provide the universal service, to make a firm commitment, with all other postal sector players, to modernizing postal services, so that they continue to contribute fully to economic and social development.
Other key figures for 2007
• Latin America experienced the highest increase in overall domestic and international parcel volumes compared with 2006 (+38.6pct).
• For letters, the largest increases were seen in Arab countries, where domestic volumes rose by 17.4pct and international ones increased by 11.7pct over the previous year.
• Postal services worldwide employ more than 5.5 million people.
• Some 660,000 post offices make up the largest physical distribution network in the world. Almost half of these post offices are managed by entities other than the designated operator.
• 62pct of designated operators (58pct in developing countries and 86pct in industrialized countries) offer online services.
• 11pct of designated operators (6pct in developing countries and 39pct in industrialized countries) offer postage through the Internet.
• 10pct of designated operators (5pct in developing countries and 39pct in industrialized countries) offer electronic signature services.
• 14pct of designated operators (6pct in developing countries and 61pct in industrialized countries) offer online change-of-address services.
• 53pct of designated operators offer an online track and trace service (48pct in developing countries and 82pct in industrialized countries).
