Austrian Post achieves record quality levels for letter delivery

Austrian Post said today it achieved a new record for the quality of its mail delivery services in 2011, with 96% of letters delivered within one business day of posting. The postal service said domestic letters were being delivered faster than ever in Austria, with 960m of the 1bn letters sent to 4.2m addresses during 2011 arriving the next working day.

The achievement meant the Post met its legal requirement to deliver at least 95% of letters within one working day of posting.

Figures on the quality of delivery services came from the Östex study, carried out by the independent Info Research International Institute using 24,098 test letters to monitor delivery times.

As well as 96.06% of letters reaching their recipient during the next working day, 99.64% arrived at their destinations within two days.

The Post said it “clearly surpassed” legal requirements for delivery standards within Austria’s universal postal service that are among some of the strictest quality requirements for any postal service in Europe.

“Perfect interaction”

Dr Georg Pölzl, the Austrian Postmaster General, said that in recent years his company had focused its logistics system on achieving the high level of quality.

“This has naturally only been possible through the perfect interaction between all aspects of the service – from the acceptance of letters in the post office or partner-run postal outlet to the processing in our logistics centres, through to delivery by our mail carriers,” said Pölzl, adding: “Accordingly, I would like to thank all the staff here for this great result.”

Financially, 2011 was “very satisfactory” for Austrian Post as well, with results issued last month showing net profits up 4.6% compared to 2010, on revenues that grew by 4.2% on a comparable basis.

The company’s letter business saw its revenues up 4.5% during the year, bringing in EUR 755.6m in 2011. The ongoing substitution of physical letters was being countered by the new volumes from smaller e-commerce purchases that are not classed as being part of Austrian Post’s parcels unit.

Last year saw Austrian Post simplifying its letter mail portfolio for consumers, and introducing a new two-tier delivery service for business customers offering either a “premium” or an “economy” option regarding delivery speed. Most customers are using the “premium” option so far.