Postal Sector Research Articles

Application of EPC Standards and Mobile Networks Services to Enhance the Quality of Postal Service

Abstract This article deals with new technologies and methods to optimize the transport and delivery of postal mails. Introduction of this article defines the technologies and procedures that postal operators have started to use. The main part of the article describes specific implemented solutions of several postal operators and their benefits. The last part shows using of EPC standards in a processes chain. The conclusion of the article is devoted to the evaluation of these technologies and their potential in the area of postal sector.

Postal Services: Survey of Competition Law Developments

The European Commission has published a detailed summary of its prohibition of the intended merger of United Parcel Service Inc. and TNT Express, based on the finding that the acquisition would significantly impede effective competition in various national markets in the EEA for international intra-EEA express delivery services for small packages. The Court of Justice of the EU has issued a judgment rejecting France's appeal against the European General Court's judgment upholding the European Commission's decision finding that French law involved an unlimited State guarantee of the operations of LaPoste. Important competition law investigations are being conducted by the national competition authority in France and Germany and by the national regulatory authority in the UK, and further important competition regulatory investigations are under way in Germany, in the postal services sector.

Research of Readability and Identification of the Items in the Postal and Logistics Environment

Abstract This article deals with RFID technology, which is a part of automatic identification and data capture. Nowadays, the identification of parcels in postal sector is carried through barcodes. In this article we would like specify, how can be postal parcels located in postal container identified in the transmission process of postal main processing centre by UHF RFID technology. All results are verified by measurement in our AIDC laboratory, which is located at the University of Žilina. Our research contains 12 different types of orientation tags and antennas and more than 1000 tests. Our identification performance was close to 100%. All tested parcels were located in postal container. The results of our research bring the new point of view and indicate the ways using of UHF RFID technology in postal applications. At the end of this article the utilization of the RFID technology in postal logistics chain is characterized.

The Belgian Governement's Tender for the Press Distribution SGEI Issues for Discussion

Over the last few years, the European Commission adopted a number of important State aid decisions in the postal sector. One of these decisions concerned the compensation granted by the Belgian Government to bpost for the delivery of services of general economic interest (“SGEIs”) over 2013-2015. Among these SGEIs figure the early delivery of newspapers and the distribution of periodicals at reduced prices (the “Press Distribution SGEI”), which the Belgian Government considers as “particularly important to ensure a wide distribution of the written press throughout Belgium in order to enhance the level of information and diversity of opinion, and to foster public participation in the political debate.” As regards the Press Distribution SGEI, the Belgian authorities committed to organize a competitive, transparent and non-discriminatory tendering procedure with a view to award a service concession at national level by end of 2014 to the selected operator that will take over the provision of press distribution SGEI as of 1 January 2016. This paper addresses some of the key questions faced by the Belgian Governement with respect to the organisation of the tender for Press Distribution SGEI. Given the limited experience in tendering SGEIs in Europe, this is a challenging exercise, which the Commission will look at with a keen interest given its insistence that compensation for the provision of SGEIs be attributed through a tendering procedure. While the Altmark judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) suggested that tendering a SGEI may be one of the ways in which the compensation paid for the provision of this service could escape the State aid qualification, the Commission’s so-called “SGEI Package” makes it clear that the tendering of SGEIs is compulsory if the contracting authority wants to ensure that the compensation is not qualified as State aid. Against this background, this paper is divided in five sections. Section II briefly analyses the Altmark decision and the Commission’s SGEI package with a specific focus on the 2012 Communication of the Commission on the application of the European Union (“EU”) State aid rules to compensation granted for the provision of services of general economic interest (the “Communication”), which elaborates on the so-called Altmark conditions. Section III discusses some of the challenges suggested by international experience with respect to the organisation of tenders. As will be seen, tendering may be affected by the irrational behaviour of some tenderers (the so-called “winner’s curse”), as well as strategic behaviour (“moral hazard”) with the risk that the service is not provided at the right level of quality or is even discontinued. Section IV analyses these challenges in the context of the Belgian tender for the Press Distribution SGEI and suggests ways in which they can be addressed. Finally, Section V briefly concludes.

Postal-sector policy: From monopoly to regulated competition and beyond

This paper discusses the main aspects of the competitive and regulatory state of the postal sector. It presents the different models for postal competition and regulation in the EU and the US and their history, together with their implications on regulation, with a focus on universal services and network access. While postal monopolies used to be the main source of funding for universal service obligations, the need for alternative funding sources after full liberalization has increased the interest of regulators and the public in knowing the cost of these obligations. In parallel, new means of electronic communication and consumer needs call the traditional scope of universal services into question. This paper outlines the economic rationale of current policies and directions for future postal regulation to strengthen the postal services' commercial viability in a competitive age, while safeguarding their relevant characteristics for the economy.

Implications for public access defibrillation placement by non‐traumatic out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest occurrence in Singapore

The American Heart Association recommends automated external defibrillator placement in public areas with a high probability (>1) of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurring in 5 years. We aimed to determine the incidence rate of OHCA for different location categories in Singapore. Cardiac arrest incidence was obtained from a national registry. Denominators for the actual number of sites per location category were obtained from public accessible sources, government officers and purchased statistics. Analysis was performed and expressed in terms of the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). From 1 October 2001 to 14 October 2004, 2254 non-trauma OHCA cases were included. Mean age for arrests was 62.2 years, with 67.5% men. The location category with the highest incidence of cardiac arrests per site per 5 years was Port/Airport/Immigration Checkpoints (5.24 CI [3.66-7.20]). Top individual site with high average incidence of cardiac arrests per 5 years was Changi Airport (25.0 CI [16.18-36.90]). Seventy-one per cent of arrests occurred in residential areas. The postal sector with the highest average incidence per 100 000 population was Bedok Reservoir (54.89), whereas that with the highest population density was Bukit Merah/Alexandra with 348.14 population per 100 km(2) . In this study, we found the categories and individual sites that clearly fulfilled the American Heart Association criteria of at least 1 OHCA per site per 5 years. This study provides a model of how cardiac arrest registry data can be used to guide local health policy on automated external defibrillator deployment.

Assessment of EU Postal Sector Policy During the Second Barroso Administration (2010-2014)

This paper assesses the EU postal sector policy of the second Barroso Commission from 2010 to 2014. The main goal of the Commission is to achieve a single European market for postal services. The paper distinguishes between the following three objectives, whose implementation should lead to the achievement of an internal postal market: implementation of the Third Postal Directive; fostering e-commerce and parcel delivery; and enforce its State aid framework in the postal sector. The analysis shows that almost all Member States have transposed the Directive into national law and fully liberalized their markets, but nevertheless competition in all Member States has only developed to a limited extent. While there is strong growth of the e-commerce sector, a consistent alignment of State Aid policy with USO and full market opening is still under development. The current design of the USO and its financing may not be appropriate in times of fast changing technology and consumer needs. Therefore, the paper presents new approaches, suggesting to include new technologies or even proposing to establish an intermodal USO for postal and telecommunication services.

Reforming the Postal Universal Service

AbstractThe postal sector has undergone dramatic changes over the recent years under the double effect of ongoing liberalization and increased competition with alternative communication channels (e-substitution). As a result, the mail volume handled by the historical operator has declined sharply while the latter’s ability to match the same standard of universal service may be under threat. Thus, a reform of the postal universal service is on the agenda. This paper examines possible reforming options ranging from keeping universal service within the postal sector to redefining universal service as spanning postal and electronic technologies.

Improving the Security and Resilience of U.S. Postal Service Mail Products and Services Using the CERT ® Resilience Management Model

Developing and implementing measurable methodologies for improving the security and resilience of a national postal sector directly contribute to protecting public and postal employees, assets, and revenues. Such methodologies also contribute to the security and resilience of the mode of transport used to carry mail and to the protection of the global mail supply chain. Since 2011, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) has collaborated with the CERT® Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute to improve the resilience of selected United States Postal Service (USPS) products and services. This collaboration has included projects dealing with incident response, export screening, authentication services, physical security and aviation screening for international mail, Express Mail revenue assurance, and development of mail-specific resilience management practices for mail induction, transportation, delivery, and revenue assurance. The CERT Resilience Management Model (CERT-RMM) and its companion diagnostic methods have served as the foundational tool for this collaboration. CERT-RMM is a capability-focused maturity model for improving an organization’s management of operational resilience activities across the domains of security management, business continuity management, and aspects of information technology operations management. These improvements enable high-value services to meet their missions consistently and with high quality, particularly during times of stress and disruption. This paper describes the USPIS/CERT collaboration, how CERT-RMM has been applied to meet USPIS project objectives, how project outcomes are contributing to improving the resilience of USPS products and services, and how similar use of CERT-RMM is applicable to other transportation sectors.

Convergence of carbon dioxide emissions in different sectors in China

In this paper, we analyze differences in per capita carbon dioxide emissions from 1996 to 2010 in six sectors across 28 provinces in China and examine the σ-convergence, stochastic convergence and β-convergence of these emissions. We also investigate the factors that impact the convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions in each sector. The results show that per capita carbon dioxide emissions in all sectors converged across provinces from 1996 to 2010. Factors that impact the convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions in each sector vary: GDP (gross domestic product) per capita, industrialization process and population density impact convergence in the Industry sector, while GDP per capita and population density impact convergence in the Transportation, Storage, Postal, and Telecommunications Services sector. Aside from GDP per capita and population density, trade openness also impacts convergence in the Wholesale, Retail, Trade, and Catering Service sector. Population density is the only factor that impacts convergence in the Residential Consumption sector.

Services of General Economic Interest and State Measures Affecting Competition

The last year has been a typical year in this survey of SGEI and state measures affecting competition where the report is a series of ad hoc measures relating to SGEI. Two new soft communications have been published to complement the Almunia Package of measures to regulate compensation for SGEI: a European Commission instrument to determine swap rates and a Commission Staff Working Paper. There are a few European Commission Decisions, particularly in the postal sector, involving financing SGEI that fall outside of the new Almunia Package, but are assessed according to the new methodological approach. The GC has tasked the European Commission to take greater care to analyse the funding of ancillary services to health care schemes; a rebuke that is seen also in applying Article 106 TFEU in the Greek Lignite case. Of a wider significance for EU economic law the CJEU and the European Commission have provided analysis of the definition of ‘economic activity’ which triggers the application of EU law generally. Two cases have considered the application of Article 106 TFEU, with the GC providing greater analysis of when, and how, Article 106 and 102 TFEU may be used together.

Application of EU Competition Law in the Postal Sector Overview of Recent Cases

With the implementation of the Third Postal Directive, the European Union took an essential step towards full market opening. According to the Directive, all Member States must fully liberalize their postal markets by the end of 2011 or 2012, at the latest. Having thus created scope for competition through regulatory reform, the European Union needs to ensure that competition in the open postal markets can actually develop for the benefit of citizens and businesses. This is achieved through the enforcement of EU competition law rules. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the application of EU Competition law rules to the postal sector, with references to judgments and decisions adopted in 2012 and 2013. It is structured as follows. Section 2 discusses judgments of the EU and EFTA Courts which broke new ground with respect to substantial and procedural competition law. Section 3 analyzes the decisional practice of the European Commission (Commission) in cases involving incumbent postal operators. Section 4 concludes.

Postal Service Reforms in Solomon Islands of the South Pacific: Evaluating Consequences for Public Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction

The changing environment of the postal sector over the last decade has increased the urgency for governments worldwide to re-examine regulations governing how their public postal administrations operate. The need to increase service efficiency and quality is a critical strategic focus, given the increasing technological competition, rising operational costs, and changing customers' needs and expectations. There are many success stories, particularly from developed countries, highlighting improved service quality following corporatization of their public postal administration. This particular study revealed that reforms of the Solomon Islands postal service have had some positive influence on the level of customer satisfaction.

One for all and all for one: privatization and Universal Service provision in the postal sector

Universal Service provision has a special role for the public utilities sector in many Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. These public utilities have largely been subject to privatization during the last 3 decades. Efficiency effects of privatization are widely documented while the impacts on the quality and accessibility of the Universal Service are not much examined. By using a unique dataset on privatization for 21 countries over the period 1980–2007 for the postal sector, we are able to show that privatization, in particular formal privatization, has led to a decrease in the quality of the Universal Service.

2012 Framework on Public Compensation for SGEIs: Application in the Postal Sector

The legal rules applicable to State compensation for services of general economic interest (“SGEIs”) were recently revised by the European Commission. This led to the adoption of the “2012 SGEI Package”. The most contentious document of this Package, the “2012 Framework”, sets out the conditions for the compatibility of SGEI compensation with the internal market. Against this background, the Commission has recently shown an increased interest in the application of the State aid rules to the postal sector and seems determined to continue scrutinizing the sector in the future. This article aims to analyse the specific rules of the Framework and look closer at the way they (could) apply to the postal sector, with references to the decisional practice of the Commission.

Identification of Postal Mails and Crates by New Developed UHF RFID Antenna

This article deals with RFID technology, which is a part of automatic identification and data capture. We developed a wave propagation model and base on this, we developed a UHF RFID slim antenna. Article describes theoretical background about RFID antennas and electromagnetic waves. Consequently we are coming with the new access, that is, using the UHF RFID "Slim" antenna that eliminates disadvantage of inlays in the case if they are close or inter lap each other. The article describes scheme of identification of postal mails through UHF RFID slim antennas. Nowadays the identification of postal mails in postal sector is carried through barcodes and optical character recognition. In this article we would like to specify, how can be the postal mail items identified in the transmission process by RFID technology. All theoretical findings are verified by measurement in our AIDC laboratory that is located at the University of Žilina. Finally a method to perform our theoretical model and the identification performance was close 100%. It is an improvement for more than 30% in comparing the results reached with typical inlays. The results of our research bring the new point of view and indicate the ways using of UHF RFID technology in post applications.

The Postal Sector as a Vector of Financial Inclusion

ABSTRACTAccess to finance has become a major policy issue under the term Financial Inclusion. In this paper, we focus on the role of postal operators in financial inclusion policies. In developing countries, postal firms typically manage a dense network of counters with a unique coverage of rural areas where the banking sector is totally absent. We use a formal location model for postal counters and bank agencies to show that in rural areas a post‐bank partnership can be a vector of financial inclusion and that this can be done profitably.

2012 Framework on Public Compensation for SGEIs: Application in the Postal Sector

The legal rules applicable to State compensation for services of general economic interest (“SGEIs”) were recently revised by the European Commission. This led to the adoption of the “2012 SGEI Package”. The most contentious document of this Package, the “2012 Framework”, sets out the conditions for the compatibility of SGEI compensation with the internal market. Against this background, the Commission has recently shown an increased interest in the application of the State aid rules to the postal sector and seems determined to continue scrutinizing the sector in the future. This paper aims to analyse the specific rules of the Framework and look closer at the way they (could) apply to the postal sector, with references to the decisional practice of the Commission.

The Application of Automatic Identification Technologies by the Czech Post

This article deals with the question of practical use of automatic identification technologies in postal sector, with special focus on using barcode technologies and radio frequency identification in Czech Post. After introductory section, which is aimed at description of current situation and analysis of crucial factors of choosing automatic identification technologies, there are subchapters discussing the theoretical base of both technologies, as well as their practical use in postal sector. In the part of practical application of both identification technologies is specified the basic structure of barcodes used by Czech Post and also the description of international project UNEX, which deals with the measurement of the quality aspects of selected postal products and services. Concluding part contains a brief outline of possible radio frequency identification technology application.

The final act in the deregulation of the Austrian postal market: the Postal Market Act (Postmarktgesetz-PMG)

Abstract On 1 January 2011, the PMG entered into force. It implements the EC/ EU Postal Directive and finally eliminates the protected market for letters of the former incumbent “Österreichische Post Aktiengesellschaft ” (Post AG). Th is is the last step in the full liberalization of the postal service sector in Austria. The following article presents the new Act with a focus on the universal service and the closure of post offices by the Post AG.