Qatar post pilots Motorola's RFID solution to measure the quality of postal services

RFID technology was evaluated by Qatar Post as part of a wider initiative to measure the quality of postal services throughout the Middle East. Motorola radio frequency identification (RFID) readers and other technology suppliers, were part of the trial in a joint project with Emirates Post and Saudi Post.

Qatar Post, which is member of UPU Quality of Service Project Group Steering Committee, recently concluded a successful trial in the Arab region (22 Countries) during which it deployed and tested both passive and semi-active RFID systems. The project was initiated to evaluate various RFID technologies as a way to measure the postal quality across the three countries. This unique trial could pave the way for the use of cost-effective RFID technologies to track mail around the world.

Motorola XR480 fixed RFID readers were installed along with other antennas in mail processing centers across Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia to track anonymous test envelopes containing RFID tags. This created a simulated environment of how mail moves through the postal system and help authorities better understand the time and route that mail takes on its journey from collection to delivery.

Addressed and tagged by an independent third party, these anonymous test letters become mixed with regular letters at the point of posting and are automatically detected as they enter the sorting centers. Placed at the sorting centers' gates, the RFID readers detect the tags in the letters as soon as they enter the building, without needing "line of sight" or individual scanning. The test letters are then detected again as they exit the sorting centres. The logging of time and date help build a database measuring the quality of service.

This trial will allow and help Qatar Post to make both short-term and long-term decisions about its future business. On a day-to-day basis, Qatar Post will be able to identify delays in the delivery process and make adjustments accordingly. On a long-term basis, it can evaluate the average route of a letter and assess whether it is following the most efficient course, altering routing accordingly. It also allows Qatar Post to see where any potential errors in its delivery processes might occur, so that these can be corrected before they impact customers or incur extra charges.

This unique trial also could ultimately lead to the adoption of RFID by postal companies around the world, providing them with a measurement matrix for international deliveries as post moves from one national carrier to another. This trial will not only be important for the Arab region but will help the remaining countries` members to prove the success of RFID as a method to monitor post, reduce costs and provide better services for customers.

Catina Aghayan, Quality & Development Consultant at Qatar Post said: "We are extremely excited by this project and its outcome, which is the first RFID pilot for the postal industry in the Arab Region and ended successfully thanks to all the efforts and high commitment of all the partners and stakeholders in the triangle team. With this technology we will be able to track our mail at every stage of delivery from origin to final destination and of course could significantly improve our quality of service in order to continuously provide the best service; both for our national and international customers and in deed to the world postal community.

"Now that the pilot is completed successfully, the project results will be introduced to the entire region across the 22 Arab countries, which is expected to revolutionise mail delivery in the area. New guidelines from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) mean that failure to prove the efficiency of postal delivery could result in fines for postal operators, yet previous RFID solutions enabling this were expensive as they relied on active RFID technologies.

The capability to mount four high-performance antennas on a single Motorola XR480 RFID reader provides flexibility to use the same reader across multiple gates, which enables further cost savings. Furthermore, these readers provide seamless integration and interoperability within the existing IT infrastructures of the postal services in Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Hozefa Saylawala, Territory Account Manager at Motorola said: "We are confident that Motorola partner Track IT, will prove their ability to assist with the quality of postal services based on the time and expertise put into this project. This pilot will be able to display both the local and global benefits of RFID-based solutions in improving postal deliveries between countries."