Postal industry sees innovation as machines that cut out jobs!
This week at the Post Expo held in Stuttgart, Germany, one of the world's biggest postal & logistics expos, there were awards given for new technology and innovation. Unlike the recent UNI NALC CUPW Innovations meeting where we concentrated on how to get new innovative postal products and services into the market, Post Expo has chosen to give out awards for "innovative products" that increase productivity and cut out jobs. The industry is not looking at new products or services they seem to think that innovation is about how to do the same old things cheaper, faster, or with less people. This is a seriously sad indictment on the lack of vision or enterprise from postal industry management.
Below are extracts from a news article from Post Expo highlighting their awards and "championing" how a great innovation is a machine that automatically loads parcel trucks!
Postal operators and industry suppliers were recognised for innovation, technology and environmental achievements, among others, at this year’s Postal Technology International Awards held at the Post-Expo in Stuttgart this week.
The winner of Transport/Logistics Innovation award was Siemens with the new Semi-Automatic Truck Unloading Device that enables fast and gentle parcel unloading. It offers unique and high-performance technology which is the first to be implemented to the market.
Siemens was also honoured with the Automation Technology of the Year award for its CFC 3004. This speeds up work at mail sorting centres by pre-processing regular letters and large format mail with sizes up to C4. It has a modular design, so customers can choose add-ons that best meet their needs.
The Dutch supplier of parcel sorting systems, Vanderlande Industries, won the Supplier of the Year Award 2011. The company is active in the markets for baggage handling at airports, automated logistics processes in distribution centres and sorting solutions in parcel and postal facilities. It implements material handling systems of all sizes, ranging from local sorting depots, airports and distribution centres to the world’s largest facilities.
We should acknowledge that at least one award at Post Expo was for a real innovative product.
The Danish postal operator Post Danmark was honoured with Delivery Innovation of the Year award for its new digital stamp offering. Launched in April 2011, the new technology enables Danish citizens to send a text message via their mobile phones to Post Danmark, and then a few minutes later they receive a text message back that contains a unique nine–digit code. The customer writes the code on the corner of a blank envelope instead of a stamp. Post Danmark is the first postal organisation to introduce this service.
“The digital stamp is an extremely easy-to-use service that is available 24 hours a day,” said Eva Malene Hartmann, head of Post Danmark, private customers. “The postage is billed on the customer’s mobile phone. Post Danmark can verify the postage via the nine-digit code and protect our revenue. The unique part for our customers is that the service is independent of time of the day and location – customers can get a stamp anytime and anywhere, as long as you have a mobile phone connection.”
And we should point out that one of the few post offices to totally reject the liberalisation of mail and to promote a diverse range of postal services including proper postal financial services, La Poste Switzerland, won the Service Provider of the Year Award.
"Service Provider of the Year, Swiss Post. The postal operator has seen a rise in earnings and volumes despite the difficult economic conditions. In 2010, the company generated a group profit of CHF910 million equalling an increase of around 25 per cent over the previous year."
Source: Post Expo
To see more about the Awards go to; http://www.postaltechnologyinternational.com/awards_winners_2011.php
To see report on the UNI CUPW NALC Innovations meeting go to; http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/iportal.nsf/pages/homepageEn?Opendocument&exURL=http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/UNINews.nsf/0/27A6FB110631CA76C1257904000F5192