IPC’s new network to provide more reliable performance quality for posts and their customers
International Post Corporation (IPC) has launched a pan-European road-based distribution network, with intercontinental fly-in options, called CRONOS (Cooperative Road Network Optimisation Solution).
IPC together with its member posts, developed and launched this network to provide a response to post-COVID air capacity and performance challenges and to ensure a consistent, cost effective and reliable service.
Holger Winklbauer, IPC CEO, said: “The CRONOS ground network will assist in providing higher and more reliable performance quality for posts and their customers, stabilise and optimise transport costs and assist posts in further reducing CO2 emissions.”
Letter mail and parcels are transported by vans and trucks from origin posts to destination posts through a dedicated central Hub in Findel, Luxembourg. CRONOS will transport up to 140 tonnes per week on 269 routes.
At launch, the participating origin postal operators are from Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, France, UK, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden, Slovenia and United States.
CRONOS will distribute mail product from those countries’ posts to the posts in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France, UK, Hungary, Croatia, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Existing IPC services and solutions are used to support CRONOS. IPC Pallet Boxes are used to optimise transport capacity. Visibility is ensured through Pallet Box labels equipped with RFID tags. RFID gates and IPC MRDs (Mail Registration Devices) are installed at the Findel Hub to monitor and track each Pallet Box arriving and departing from the hub.
The selection of the partners to provide the transportation services and to operate the central CRONOS Hub was secured through an EU public tender.
