Tag: Switzerland

Swiss Post Delivers RFID to Its Parcel Centers, Transportation Hubs

Posted by | Aug 20, 2008 | |

The company is adding EPC Gen 2 tags to containers that shuttle mail and packages in and around nearly 50 facilities in Switzerland.

Swiss Post is rolling out the company’s third RFID application—this time a system to track 45,000 rolling container cages used to transport mail and packages at buildings throughout the Alpine country. Implementation of the application, believed to be the largest in Switzerland, began in October 2007 and will be completed by this October.

A public company that provides postal services to Switzerland, Swiss Post transports more than 1 million parcels per year. Wheeled container cages play an important role in transporting the parcels. Before Swiss Post decided to tag its rolling container cages, it had no reliable way to conduct an inventory of them. The company counted them manually every two years, a labor-intensive process that required an estimated 200 workdays involving two people at each location.

Swiss Post is investing 4 million Swiss francs (USD 3.6 million) in the project, which covers software, hardware and consulting fees. It expects to save 1.5 million Swiss francs (USD 1.4 million) a year because it won’t have to manually count the cages and will be able to manage the cages more effectively. By knowing how many cages are on hand and where they are physically located, it can make sure it has the right number of cages at each site in order to handle the expected volumes. The information will also help the company better manage the cages, transport them less between sites to meet demand and avoid delays due to unavailable cages.

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A postal sector focused on the future

Posted by | Aug 12, 2008 | |

International postal services are moving resolutely towards the future, declared Edouard Dayan, Director General of the Universal Postal Union, at the close of the 24th Universal Postal Congress, which ended its three weeks of discussions today.

“From Bucharest to Geneva, the whole tone has changed. Four years ago, an air of pessimism hung around the future of postal services” said Dayan. “Today, our agenda includes e-commerce, technological development, intelligent mail, facilitation of international trade and exchanges, electronic money transfers, sustainable development, international cooperation, postal infrastructure at the service of development policies, and development – rather than downsizing – of the universal service”. At the closing session of Congress, the Director General also described the many faces of a sector which is active on all fronts of the global economy, in the face of burgeoning new technologies and the growth of globalization and international trade.

Aside from the elections, Congress also examined 300 proposals and resolutions relating to the structure of the UPU, its mission and finances, and to international exchanges of letters, parcels and money transfers between postal operators the world over. In terms of operations, for example, minimum security standards and processes for postal operators will be drawn up, and Posts are invited to work more closely with customs authorities to identify counterfeit or pirated articles sent through the mail.

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France’s Edouard Dayan and China’s Guozhong Huang re-elected to UPU top jobs

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

40 member countries elected to Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council Geneva (Switzerland), 6 August 2008.
The 24th Universal Postal Congress today re-elected, by acclamation, France’s Edouard Dayan and China’s Guozhong Huang to the positions of Director General and Deputy Director General of the Universal Postal Union’s International Bureau for the period 2009-2012.
First elected at the 2004 Bucharest Congress, Dayan and Huang were the sole candidates for the positions. The member countries elect the organization’s two top officials at each UPU Congress. “Between Bucharest and Geneva, the UPU has travelled far. We have embarked upon profound change. All countries, whatever their size, whatever their level of development and postal organization model, are finding in the UPU an organization which, thanks to solid experience within the United Nations family, helps them to play their part in a world postal network and a constantly changing global environment.
Around these values of universality, solidarity and unity of the world postal family, the Universal Postal Union has, in recent years, successfully embraced change,” declared Edouard Dayan immediately after his election. For his part, Guozhong Huang said: “The role played by our institution in economic development and social progress is invaluable. Nowadays, with the challenge of globalization, the role of the postal sector as a basic infrastructure is greater than ever. The UPU’s raison d’être is more and more evident. If we can move with the times, adapt to changing environments and persevere with our reforms, the postal sector will remain able to play its irreplaceable role and the UPU will be an international organization that can forge ahead with cooperation between all postal sector players worldwide.” Congress also elected the member countries of the 2009-2012 UPU Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council. The Council of Administration’s 41 member countries ensure the continuity of the UPU’s work between Congresses, supervise its activities and study regulatory, administrative, legislative and legal issues. The Council approves the biennial budget and the accounts of the Union.

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Quality of Service Fund extended until 2016

Posted by | Aug 1, 2008 | |

UPU Congress Committee 8 (Development Cooperation) decided to extend the lifespan of the Quality of Service Fund (QSF). Initially scheduled to run from 2001 to 2012, the QSF will now continue until 2016. Created by the 1999 Beijing Congress, the QSF finances projects aimed at improving postal service quality in developing countries. All member countries, except least developed countries, contribute to the Fund through an increase in their terminal dues payments.

In its first eight years, the QSF has financed over 400 projects, worth almost 60 million USD. These projects have helped to raise the quality of the postal services of more than 150 beneficiary postal operators, making the QSF an essential plank of the UPU’s development cooperation system.

The Committee also decided that the link between the Fund and terminal dues should be maintained; that QSF projects should continue to focus on the quality of service of beneficiary postal operators, particularly as regards mail flows subject to terminal dues; and that new elections should be held after the 24th Congress for the 9 countries represented on the Board of Trustees, the body that oversees the Fund.

There is general agreement that the QSF has proven its worth. Extending the Fund is fully in step with the World Postal Strategy. One of its objectives is to improve quality and efficiency in the international postal network. As such, the QSF represents a valuable source of funding for activities relating to interoperability, interconnection and integrity of networks, quality of service measurement, mail security and implementation of cost accounting systems.

This new lease of life will allow the QSF to build on the positive results achieved in the first few years of operations.

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