PostNL joins cross-border European priority letter network

PostNL has agreed to join the Sprinter Network, the cross-border overnight road transport network for priority letters, as coordinated by the International Post Corporation. The Brussels-based IPC said PostNL will join its Sprinter Network in January 2013, bringing the total exchanged volumes to 44.5 tonnes of priority mail each week, a 2% increase on 2012.

The IPC said its Sprinter Network was continuing to to improve delivery quality and implement transport synergies for participants, while delivering high quality of service.

Network

The IPC Sprinter Network is an overnight road transport network that carries priority letters between nine European postal operators.

Seven are both sending and receiving operators: Austria Post, bpost, Deutsche Post DHL, Le Groupe La Poste, Poste Italiane, P&T Luxembourg and PostNL, while Swiss Post, Royal Mail Group are only receiving operators.

Created in 2005 as an alternative to the reduced air transport capacity, the Sprinter Network has since contributed in improving delivery quality and implementing transport synergies for participating postal organizations. As a result of the good quality of service, the network has continued to expand, with PostNL becoming the seventh operator to fully join the network in January 2013.

The IPC said its network currently consists of more than 30 offices of exchange to office of exchange links in nine European countries, with hubs in Luxembourg and Zurich, served by a fleet of Light Goods Vehicles (LGV).

Performance

“The network has consistently provided a very high quality of service since starting its operations,” the IPC said. “To ensure the highest quality of service, IPC monitors and assesses the performance of the network with its CAPE reporting and monitoring system. Transponders attached to the vehicles transmit tracking data, which is detected by IPC’s RFID network at each office of exchange. IPC feeds tracking events into CAPE Vision, which allows to assess performance and to report back to participating postal operators.”

IPC said it continuously analyses all the available reports and proposes opportunities for expanding the network for current or potential new users.

“The existing network is therefore open to new links, participants and services,” it said.