Mail services

A mature logistics system is necessary to provide the smooth transport of mail today. Mail services also include direct marketing and newspaper delivery.

High-performance companies with added services
Something is happening in the mail market. Carriers clad in uniforms of yellow, green and orange can be seen bicycling down the sidewalks and streets of downtown areas in Germany. In addition to traditional letter communications, postal companies offer other services such as direct marketing and delivery of newspapers and magazines. As competition intensifies, the role of added services is becoming increasingly important.

Duties and extent of mail services
17,000,000,000 letters weighing up to 1,000 grams were sent in Germany during 2005.
€10,000,000,000 was the total revenue for the German mail market during 2006.
263 letters are sent on average by each resident of Germany during the year.
95 percent of letters mailed in Germany arrive the next day - compared with only 76 percent in 1991.

Letters are addressed, written forms of communication. The market can be broken down into three broad segments: mail, direct marketing and distribution of printed media.
In the mail segment, letter products for private and business customers are transported - from standard letters to products. A letter can also be national or international. Other services include cash on delivery and registered letters.
With the traditional instruments of direct marketing, many postal companies enable business customers to speak directly to their customers. In addition, addressed and unaddressed informational letters, catalogues and brochures are sent. As one other service, postal companies carry out advertising campaigns for their business customers.
The delivery of newspapers and magazines is another service offered by postal companies - it is called press distribution. The delivery must be provided over a wide area and on the exact day, even though just a few hours separate the printing and delivery times of the publication. Today, press-distribution services are used primarily by companies conducting advertising campaigns. These companies publish customer magazines and distribute them in this manner - but publishers also use these services to deliver newspapers and magazines to subscribers.
Given the changes sweeping through the mail market, postal companies must remain innovative, and offer their private and business customers special added value and services. For this reason, postal companies do not limit themselves to the transport of letters from Point A to Point B. Rather, they must address customers’ growing needs by offering new services.

The market for mail services
The mail market of many countries remains a monopoly. An exception is Germany with its completely liberalized mail market (since 1st of January, 2008). In many other countries, postal companies have a monopoly - e.g., “PPT La Poste” in France, “An Post” in Ireland, “Poste Italiane” in Italy, “Österreichische Post AG” in Austria, “Schweizerische Post” in Switzerland, “Posta Romana” in Romania and “Potschta Rossii” in Russia. In cross-border mail shipments, DPWN and UPS were the leading providers in 2005, offering direct connections to more than 200 countries.
Over the long term, volume is expected to decrease 3 percent annually as electronic forms of communication such as e-mail and text messages increasingly replace the letter.

References

Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN)
dhl - discover logistics