Postal Industry Research Articles

Improving collection flows in a public postal network with contractor's obligation considerations

We examine a problem that arises in the postal industry of developing goods collection routes that are subjected to a bidding process where the price is positively correlated to routes operating complexities. The route complexity would delay the arrival of goods to distribution centers and prevent their deliveries to processing plants within the required time windows. We formulate the problem as a variant of the multiple depot vehicle routing problem with time windows. The ant colony optimization algorithm is discussed as a solution methodology and evaluated in a case study that involves a real-life problem faced by a public postal service organization.

Decoupling relationship between industrial growth and carbon emissions in three northeastern provinces of China : Analysis based on stability and deviation

The low-carbon industrial processes of all provinces were different in China, and the decoupling quality between industrial economic development and carbon emissions also existed differences in different provinces. In order to develop more efficient carbon reduction policy, this paper used decoupling model, decoupling value stability degree, decoupling quality degree and decoupling quality deviation degree formula to analyze horizontally and vertically the decoupling quality of five industries in three northeastern provinces of China, including primary industry; industry; construction; transportation, storage and postal industry; wholesale, retail, accommodation and catering industry. The paper concludes: firstly, the decoupling stabilities between five industries development and carbon emissions are different in three northeastern provinces of China. Liaoning and Jilin province is relatively stable compared with Heilongjiang province. Secondly, the decoupling quality among the five industries development and carbon emissions are different in three northeastern provinces of China. Jilin and Liaoning province has better decoupling quality than Heilongjiang province. Thirdly, the low carbonization process has gap in three northeastern provinces of China. It is better in low carbonization process of Jilin province and Liaoning province, whereas there is relatively big gap for low carbonization process among the different places in Liaoning province. Finally, this dissertation puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to provide references for the development of low-carbon industry in Jilin province.

The impact of missing or incorrect addresses

The impact of missing or incorrect addresses

Study of CO2 emissions in China’s iron and steel industry based on economic input–output life cycle assessment

With the growing demand, China’s iron and steel industry has obtained rapid development since the 1990s. China’s steel output reached 220 million tons for the first time in 2003, becoming the first country whose annual production exceeded 200 million tons. The iron and steel is an industry of high energy consumption, high pollution and high emissions which has attracted deep concern of Chinese government. Previous research has estimated the direct CO2 emissions in individual processes of iron and steel production, while research on the indirect CO2 emissions from the related sectors of the iron and steel industry is scarce. To explore the whole CO2 emissions, this paper evaluates the direct and indirect carbon emissions in the iron and steel industry and carbon emission deduction by building an economic input–output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) model based on the latest available data of the input–output extension table in 2010 and China’s Energy Statistical Yearbook in 2011. The results show that coke and coal produce the most direct CO2 emissions and raw chemical materials, medical and chemical fiber manufacturing, transportation storage and the postal industry, the electricity heat production and supply industry, nonmetal mineral production, petroleum processing of coke and nuclear fuel processing, coal mining and dressing are the six sectors that produce the largest indirect CO2 emissions among the 35 sectors in the iron and steel industry. Based on the results, we suggest that China should (1) improve the quality of coke and coal, increase the efficiency of coke and coal, coal blending technology and the cokes’ strength, and employ the scrap or cities’ minerals as main raw materials in the production, and at the same time, the government and enterprises may increase to invest in technology innovation; (2) and use high-strength iron and steel instead of the ordinary one. Meanwhile, the spatial distributions of the six sectors are mainly concentrated in Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Shanxi Province. Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Shanxi Province may adjust their industrial structure by increasing the proportion of the third industry and accelerating the development of high-tech industries and services.

The Evaluating Indicator Research on Chinese Express Company Customer Perceived Value in the Age of Network Marketing

Along with the development of electric commerce, the Chinese postal industry also get incredible increase, however the cutthroat competition come from the frenzied expansion seriously hurt the brand image of express industry. This research use SERVQUAL Scale as basis, while modified and adjusted according the 〈Postal Industry Standard of Express Service〉 published by the state postal bureau, finally derive 23 question items about customer perceived value to express industry. After the questionnaire survey and the frequency analysis, reliability analysis and factorial analysis on the survey results, determined the reliability, responsiveness, assurance, convenience, economy and tangibility are the six first-class evaluating indicator of customer perceived value.

Optimal three-level presort loading of commercial bulk mail in the postal service industry

This study focuses on the presort loading of commercial bulk mail. Here, presort is the process by which a mailer prepares mail such that it is sorted to at least the finest extent required by the postal service provider for a claimed (discounted) price. We formulated this presort loading problem (PLP) as a special case of transportation problem with minimum quantity commitment (MQC) constraints. In addition, we developed a polynomial time optimal solution algorithm for the PLP and performed computational experiments on randomly generated problem instances under various discount structures. Results of the computational experiments show that mailers can potentially reduce their costs by sending mail less frequently, using small-sized mail trays; however, the discount structure does not affect the main results. There is some evidence that smaller cost reductions on mailing fees occur as the variation in the discount rate increases; however, the effects of discount structure are nominal compared with the gains from changing the mailing frequency. Mailing fee savings are more heavily influenced by the discount structure when MQC constraints become tighter.

The Stabilizing Effect of Industrial Structure Upgrade on Economic Fluctuations in China

Empirical study using a time-varying parameter model indicates that since the reform and opening up of China, its industrial structure upgrade has had an increasingly significant stabilizing effect on the amplitude of economic fluctuations. A further analysis using a TGARCH model reveals that the three major industrial sectors have asymmetrical effects on the size of macroeconomic fluctuation: the primary industry (extraction) has little effect; the secondary industry (manufacturing) has a leverage effect mainly caused by heavy industry; the tertiary industry (services) has a clear stabilizing effect, with the effect of transportation, logistics, the postal industry, housing-catering services, and other service industries being most significant, and the effect of wholesale, retail, the finance industry and real estate being less significant due to their own large fluctuations. The policy implications of the findings are that to maintain stable growth in the economy, China should optimize the relations of the three major industrial sectors, and further push for the upgrading of the industrial structure, especially the development of the tertiary industry.

On the Shift in Dominant Group Logics in Liberalizing Industries

This paper explores the transition from logics of cooperation to logics of competition in strategic groups in liberalizing industries. I suggest that the notions of logics of action and dominant logic, usually associated with studies of institutional fields and organizational top management teams, respectively, can usefully be applied to the study of cognition in the formation of strategic groups in liberalizing industries. Over time, a group dominant logic emerges through cognitive processes of simplification, elaboration, and the avoidance of cognitive dissonance, as a result of observations and interactions between executives across organizations in the group. These processes also serve to maintain the dominant logic of competition in strategic groups over longer periods, until external environmental changes lead to a sufficiently large rise in dissonance, prompting the emergence of a new logic. The Nordic postal industry presents many of the hallmarks of a strategic group, including pursuing similar strategies, regularly benchmarking against each other, and pursuing both competitive and cooperative strategies against and with each other. Until the end of the 1990s cooperation was maintained and competition avoided. However, the transformation from government agency to government-owned corporations, as well as the liberalization of the European postal market, initiated a transition from logics of cooperation to logics of competition within the strategic group. Then, in 2007, the logic of cooperation within the group was permanently disrupted by the un-expected merger of the Swedish and Danish posts, leading to the creation of a new company, Post Nord. A new logic focussing on competition in the group emerged during the 2000s and entirely replaced the logics of cooperation in the aftermath of the merger. The empirical base for this paper is a series of interviews conducted with the top management of the Danish, Norwegian and Finnish Posts, complemented by the analysis of a variety of historical documents.

Organizational Aspects of Business Model Innovation: The Case of the European Postal Industry

Organizations are often challenged to find new ways of creating and capturing value to compete with new entrants and disruptive technologies. Several studies have addressed some of the organizational barriers that incumbents face when developing new business models, but our understanding of the organizational (re)design aspects inherent to business model innovation is still very incomplete. In this study, we investigate the organizational (re)design challenges for incumbent organizations in mature industries when they need to reinvent their business model in reaction to disruptive changes in their environment. Our empirical setting focuses on national postal operators in the European postal industry. Using an inductive case study we distinguish between two stages within business model innovation: namely, business model exploration and business model exploitation. Focusing on the former, our findings shed new light on the existence of four key organizational issues: (1) organizational conflicts for scarce ...

An Analysis of Carbon Footprint of Beijing Based on Input-Output Model

Climate change caused by increasing carbon emission is harmful to global environment and human society. Developing low-carbon economy through reasonable industries planning and effective utilization of resources is a significant path to achieve the aim of energy saving and carbon emission reduction. The word carbon footprint means carbon emission caused by a certain industry, activity, product or individual, and the issue of carbon emission should be linked with economic activity to analyze, while input-output model is a reliable method to contact two factors. Based on input-output model, this paper calculated direct or indirect carbon emission which is demanded for the products of final consumption in Beijing, and analyzed carbon footprint of each industrial sector in 2005, 2007 and 2010 by operating Leontief matrix. The result demonstrates annual carbon emission of Beijing increased from 10482.68×104ton to 17407.28×104ton during 2000-2011. Manufacturing industry, excavating industry, transportation and postal industry exert supreme impact on carbon emission in Beijing. Carbon footprint of transportation and postal industry and other tertiary industries such as information, business, service, education, science researching industries in 2010 had an obvious rise compare with the data of 2005 and 2007.

Economic Effects of Short-Term Close for Small Airports in China — Case Study on Weihai International Airport

Economic effects of short-term close for small airports include direct economic losses and indirect economic losses. The indirect economic losses can be calculated by the input-output method in term of the economic effect of short-term close on revelant regions and industries. The direct economic losses comes mainly from airport agencies and can be obtained in accordance with Civil Airport Charge Reform Scheme (2007). The Weihai International Airport of China is a study case chosen to estimate the economic effects of short-term close. The results demonstrate that the direct economic loss of short-term close is 93,048,915¥ and the indirect economic loss of short-term close is more than 30,000,000¥. Pulling effects of the airport have significant influence on energy source industry, manufacturing industry, air transportation, etc. Promoting effects of the airport have enormous effect on postal industry, air transportation, etc.

The Development of Organizational Capabilities in a Changing Postal Service Industry: The Cases of <I>Royal Mail</I>, <I>Deutsche Post DHL</I>, <I>La Poste</I>, and <I>Gruppo Poste Italiane</I>

Within the field of strategic management, various works highlighted that the development of organizational capabilities is related, among others, to rent appropriation by stakeholders. This line of research is extended here by tackling the issue of how changes of context conditions affect the co-evolution of organizational capabilities and rent appropriation. This issue is investigated through a comparative case study of four companies operating in the postal service industry in the EU, namely Royal Mail, Deutsche Post DHL, La Poste, and Grouppo Poste Italiane. During the last decades, the postal service industry has been affected by remarkable changes of context conditions, especially related to innovation of telecommunications (e.g., email) and liberalization which undermined traditional legal governmental monopolies. Postal service companies generally react to these context changes by developing novel capabilities, redefining their strategic focus, and reconfiguring their organizational structures. Along these processes, stakeholders can manage to reposition themselves in order to better reap the benefits of the reconfigured postal service industry.

Combining Innovation and Diversification Strategy: The Case of <I>PosteMobile</I> in Italy

During the last decades, innovation and diversification increasingly gained the attention of both scholarly and business communities as valuable strategies for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. From a strategic management perspective, firms need to develop the capacity to formulate business ideas, to assess and select them, and to implement them effectively if they are to develop economically viable and high-growth business ventures. Firms, however, may not necessarily possess the requisites for effectively innovating and diversifying their business activities. The entry of the Italian incumbent postal operator – Poste Italiane group – into the mobile telecommunication industry – through the subsidiary PosteMobile – stands as an exemplar case of innovation and diversification strategy implementation. Established in 2007 as a Virtual Mobile Network Operator (VMNO), PosteMobile exploited strategic assets and capabilities of Poste Italiane group to generate a unique offer through the convergence between communication and financial services. Based on this case, the aim of this paper is to develop a theoretical account of the process of diversification into related business industries, and to contribute to practical argumentation about the strategic behaviour of postal industry incumbents.

Green postal service framework to reduce CO<SUB align="right">2 emissions in postal service industry

Reducing the impact of greenhouse gases on climate change is an attempt to tackle global warming issues. It is a challenge many companies and businesses are trying to undertake. The research proposed in this paper discusses online delivery of mails through online postal services to deliver mails electronically later be printed by service providers to deliver at destinations. This technique reduces cost, time and carbon emission caused by conventional postal delivery system. A green postal services framework was proposed to deliver and exchange mails destined to appropriate locations. It increases efficiency and reduces the emission of greenhouse gases hazardous for global warming. An algorithm is designed to help postal service provider to shift to a new paradigm of electronic postal services to improve the quality of service. Results clearly show that by implementing proposed framework there is an enormous amount of decrease in over all carbon footprints and costs.

Usulan Strategi Bersaing Jasa Pengiriman Paket PT. POS Indonesia (Studi Kasus di UPT PT. POS Indonesia II BANDUNG)

As a BUMN in postal industry, PT. Pos Indonesia claimed to be survived in nowadays competition and also be able to give contribution to the government. To make it happen, it needs competitive strategy that match to the existing business, so that business can achieve the corporate goals. Strategies that will be conducted are correlated to the company's internal and external environment, including customer satisfaction. So with the analysis of environment and customer satisfaction, later on the company will be able to adapt for the change that happen in its business environment to its internal condition. Those things that make the writer recommend an appropriate formula of company's strategy that suitable with the internal and external condition of the company.To gather information about internal and external condition of the company, the writer uses a previous guestioner. With this guestioner, the writer knows the internal factors that strengths and weaknesses for the company and the external factors that could be either opportunities or threats to company. To know how big that environment influenced, we conducted a rating for those factors so we can know the company business position. This position can be known from GE (General Electric) Matrix which combined the industry attractiveness with business power. To know the customer satisfaction we use CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index), CSGI (Customer Satisfaction Gap Index), CSI Boxes, and Importance-Performance Matrix. With those things, we can formulate a competitive strategy that match to the company business environment.The result of this research, we know that business position of the company is on the selective growth level. About the customer satisfaction, the customer felt guit satisfy for the service that PT. Pos Indonesia gave with 63,38% of CSI. But if it's compared with Tiki, the guality service of PT. Pos Indonesia still loose.Aspect Industry Attractiveness, Score 3.82. Aspect Business Power, Score 3.61.The conclusion of this whole research is the formulating of business and functional level strategy. The formulated business strategies are growth strategy consist of market penetration, innovations, concentrations and alliance strategy. The functional strategies are the reduction of business strategies. The functional strategy conducted in marketing and distribution, operation, human resource, and financial section.

Providing universal postal service in developing countries

The need for faster and higher-quality communication, services and transport of goods has led to a reform of postal service activity. The goal of such reform is to provide higher-quality services at competitive prices by increasing the competition in the postal industry, and to increase the efficiency of postal operators. Liberalisation did not produce the desired results, as it was not complete and did not have the capacity to ensure basic postal services throughout the entire territory. The key question that is raised here which requires a response is: How to liberalize the market and provide universal postal services in the entire territory at affordable prices, and how to achieve a desirable quality thereof without discriminating the clients and operators. This paper defines the original model of securing universal services, based on the simultaneous use of several different models in financing universal services within the territory of one state. However, the model is designed for developing countries. The object of observation was one of the developing countries, with significant imbalances in the development of the region and the postal infrastructure. Key words: Universal service obligation (USO), economic development, liberalisation, model.

Developing Courier Industry of Northwest China in Context of E-Commerce

Chinese postal sector is reviving thanks to the further development of telecom industry. As the new stimulator of postal sector, the application of B2C E-commerce in business world has brought about a huge amount of demand on courier service, which is one important part of postal service in China. However, in northwest China, the impact of B2C E-commerce on courier industry is very limited. What blocks the development of courier industry in the northwest China in the context of E-commerce and how should Chinese local governments do in order to stimulate its development? This paper tries to answer those questions.Based on a pyramid-like model of e-commerce diffusion developed by Bob Travica, the paper sets up its own model by examining the indispensable elements contributing to e-commerce development in developing regions. Then, the model is used in a market research conducted in several selected remote cities in the northwest china to find out problems and obstacles currently existing in taking advantages of E-commerce to develop courier industry. It is found out that poor performed elements in the model should be blamed for slow development in the postal industry of these regions. Conclusion is drawn that only by breaking down those barriers, can E-commerce be fully used to stimulate the development of postal sector in the northwest China. Then advises on government regulation and support are presented through careful evaluation of its feasibility.

Pricing Practice in the Postal Industry: Current Approaches and Challenges Under Liberalization

Challenges facing the European postal industry are greater then ever before. The approaching full market opening in 2011 and 2013 will be the central factor driving commercial developments, where new market entrants - without the burden of the universal service obligation and additional social responsibilities as one of the largest employers in their domestic markets - will have the possibility to attract large volume B2B/B2C mailers away from incumbent national postal operators, and especially on the high-margin, high-density urban areas. Traditional bulk mailers such as financial service providers, telecom companies and utility service providers, which are themselves under pressure to maintain there revenue streams and/or decrease operational costs, will search for cost efficient mailing alternatives and thereby foster postal competition. Substitution through electronic/hybrid communication is also a continuing major force cutting into transactional mail volumes. Understanding customer demand and the development of customer oriented solutions will become central issues for postal operators. Part of this customer orientation will be a shift in pricing policies, which today are often considered as purely a regulatory determined component in the revenue equation, with the primary focus of commercial activity being on volume development rather than on innovative pricing and billing practices. As postal operators are dominant market players in domestic mail markets, full market opening will not mean the absence of regulation. To the contrary, strong supervision will limit their margins in price definition for universal service products, which have complex interactions with bulk mail products. Thus, a major challenge facing European postal operators besides competition is how to retain market share and price level simultaneously. Price will be an important influencing factor for customers when new entrants with similar service levels appear. Therefore in this study we undertake to analyze current practices of postal operators and, together with the study participants, formulate key lessons on what should be part of preparation for full market opening in terms of market-oriented pricing. The study was realized in three stages. We first overviewed major trends on the European postal market with an eye on the role of pricing in a liberalized environment. As a second step, through structured interviews with selected operators on current and planned pricing practices, we attempted to understand current approaches to pricing strategies. Finally, by a comparison of results on a regional level, we formulated key lessons learned. Marketing, strategy and pricing experts of incumbent postal operators were visited personally or interviewed by phone. In all cases we applied the same interview structure, which was focused on the underlying pricing framework and on pricing processes. Under “pricing framework” we evaluated the pricing strategy, the organizational structure in place for dealing with pricing issues, the methods facilitating pricing decisions and the supporting technology. “Pricing processes” summarized the practices on pricing activities, including market analysis, pricing structures, implementation and monitoring of pricing outcomes. The research scope included European postal operators facing various stages of market opening. Altogether we interviewed 17 incumbents; for confidentiality reasons the study results were synthesized into Eastern and Western European practices in order to disguise the individual responses.

Traditional Regulatory Approaches and the Postal Service Market

For discussions of postal regulation, often telecommunications regulation is used as a reference framework. Both the postal and the telecommunications market frameworks aim at fostering effective competition and innovations for the further development of the so-called Information Society. Recent trends in the EU show that postal service markets are likely to be regulated as if they essentially shared the characteristics with the telecommunications sector. In both industries, regulators follow the strategy to phase-in competition, supported by regulatory interventions. The first objective of the paper is to review the underlying economic rationale and justification for regulation in network infrastructure industries, namely natural monopolies and essential facilities and the result, that entry barriers may exist and unregulated competition would be inefficient. Second, the paper assesses the two instruments downstream access and retail price regulation, typically used in telecommunications regulation from a postal sector perspective. Comparing these two industries and providing transparent illustration of the different characteristics of postal and telecommunications networks allow to highlight the specifics of postal markets. Third, we discuss the transferability of standard practices and conclusions on the scope for postal industry regulation are drawn.

A simulation study of automating parcel sorting in postal industry

This paper discusses results of a simulation study conducted in a Post Office Processing and Distribution Centre in Massachusetts. The Centre is responsible for sorting all outgoing mail and parcels for assigned Post Office collection centres. The United States Postal Service (USPS) faces a decision on the future deployment of its Small Parcel and Bundle Sorter (SPBS) machines. These machines mechanise parcel sorting but are dependent on manual data entry. Though manual data entry is robust, it is suspected to create a processing bottleneck in parcel sorting. An alternative is to automate these machines with bar code scanning technology. However, there is no large-scale experimental study on automating parcel sorting process with bar code technology. This study simulated the consequences of replacing manual-keying processes with bar code technology in the existing parcel sorting process. We based the model on operational data and configurations gathered from the Centre. The results reveal that bar code technology can significantly reduce parcel sorting cost and time, as well as significantly increase sorting capacity.