TNT adamant quality targets met
TNT has come out in defence of its quality of postal deliveries. There have been a number of reports in the Dutch media in the past few days suggesting that there are structural problems with the quality of postal deliveries.
In response, Harry Koorstra, a member of TNT’s Board of Management and group managing director mail, said: “TNT Post continues to provide a high quality service. We do everything possible to deliver the mail on time and to the right address, all the more now in these changing times.
“This is a high priority for us. Our services are constantly surveyed by independent research firms and the quality figures they reveal underline the efforts we are making.
“Over 96% of all domestic business and consumer mail is delivered on time the day after it is posted. Over the past five years, that figure has always been between 96% and 97%. Therefore, there is no question of any structural problem with regards to the quality of our service.”
Letterbox mail is in fact subject to a statutory standard. The Dutch Postal Act obliges TNT Post to deliver mail six days a week. The Act also imposes requirements concerning quality: each calendar year, TNT Post must deliver an average of at least 95% of the domestic mail within 24 hours. So far in 2010, TNT Post has exceeded that standard.
The methodology applied by the Intomart research firm allows for very precise measurements of quality and has been approved by the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority (OPTA).
TNT reports the findings to OPTA each year, with both the performance of the surveys and the findings being audited by an independent accountant, namely PricewaterhouseCoopers. As part of the quality survey, panel members are being given a set of test letters that look like ordinary mail. They then have to send the test letters – on predetermined days – to another panel member, who notes down the day of arrival. Around 50,000 test letters are sent each year.
“Each one of our 40,000 employees does everything possible, every day, to ensure that the mail is delivered on time. Of course this is ‘people work’, so now and again something may go wrong. Our people correct one another in such cases, especially in order to guarantee the high quality standard. We don’t do that because we are required to do so by law,” added Harry Koorstra, “but because we want to provide the best possible service quality to the customer. That’s our work; every day, six days a week. Not just today but in the future too.”
