Lynx & USPS partnership

LYNX Express and the United States Postal Service are now offering a ange of new logistics products to the transatlantic market. This article explores the potential of the partnership and how these two organisations are combining to provide the simplest way to the USA.
In recent years the worlds’ postal services have been diversifying in a drive to augment their traditional mail and light package activities with logistics and enhanced physical distribution operations. It is therefore no surprise that the largest of these players, the United States Postal Service, is extending its proposition with a series of alliances across the globe.
USPS boasts a massive domestic infrastructure, revenue totals US $64bn, over 200bn letters and packages are delivered annually and the organisation employs over 800,000 people. Alongside its mail delivery activities USPS operates a wide range of parcels delivery services, the flagship of these being Priority Mail, a time definite product which uses the Federal Express air infrastructure for many internal US line haul routes.
Extending international access to its networks beyond the confines of its historic postal partnerships has been on the agenda for USPS for some time. Initial agreements were reached in Canada, South America and the Far East, but it is the latest agreement covering Europe which has raised eyebrows in the industry. In the summer of last year, it was announced that USPS had chosen LYNX Express as its partner in its drive to secure an increased share of the transatlantic express delivery market.
LYNX credentials in the international express arena are impressive and the business’ European and global client base offered an excellent fit with the target markets of USPS. For LYNX the opportunity to develop new logistics and delivery products in conjunction with an organisation of the size and capability of USPS is an exciting and valuable proposition.
The market opportunity for European to US package delivery services is significant and
market research indicates that existing products do not satisfy all the requirements of today’s increasingly sophisticated shippers. Statistics compiled by the Colography Group show that over 1 5m packages annually leave Europe destined for delivery in the US, the UK accounting for the second largest share of this (behind Germany) with over 3m per year. The initial market sectors being targeted by LYNX and USPS are printing, publishing and books with demand also being encountered for office equipment supplies. These sectors alone account for more than 15 per cent of all movements and are areas where domestically USPS has a proven track record of success. The services themselves leverage the best components of the two organisations and couple these with market leading products from other suppliers, particularly in the areas of line haul, entry services and customs clearance.
LYNX and USPS work jointly on client relationships, solutions development and implementation. LYNX undertakes all physical logistics on the European side and provides customer service via its UK based call centres. USPS undertakes the United States network and delivery operations,
provides information electronically and facilitates support via its own service centres. The two organisations have entered into a joint agreement with a US commercial customs broker, Philadelphia based Barthco, for the purposes of entry gateway management. This deal has ensured that the products and services operated can compete head to head’ with the leading edge services in the market. Barthco has its own operations at 17 gateways and is the leading independen brokerage service in the US. Flexibility is the key for LYNX and USPS to gain an increasing share of the transatlantic market. Initial service offerings have focused on the need to differentiate and hence are positioned away from the core integrator express proposition and also some distance from the slower post office type products. LYN