A record number of posts were honoured for EMS excellence in 2010.
More Posts are rising to the challenge of providing better courier services, as seen in the record number of awards for quality of service in express mail services. A total of 44 awards were given, honouring EMS performance in 2010, up from 38 for the previous period.
Fourteen gold awards were given to: Azerbaijan, Barbados, Chile, Macao, Hong Kong, El Salvador, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Slovenia and Switzerland. These recipients met a set of strict criteria, including 95 per cent on-time delivery.
Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Moldova, Mongolia, Portugal, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, United States of America, Uruguay, Sweden and Viet Nam received silver awards. Belgium, Belize, Mauritius, Netherlands, St. Lucia, China, Greece, Ethiopia and Thailand took bronze.
Three customer care awards were also handed out to Japan, Ukraine and Hungary. Customer Care award winners were required to have a 96 per cent on-time rate and no outstanding inbound inquiries.
The EMS Cooperative chair, Wendy Eitan, said she was ‘ecstatic’ that more countries earned awards for 2010 despite a recent toughening of award criteria.
“It just shows that more Posts are following the requirements, increasing express-mail volumes and pleasing their customers,” Eitan said. “Next year I hope even more [countries] get [an award].”
For Hong Kong Post, EMS is an important business activity. “Our focus is always to improve quality of service,” said Allen Mok, its EMS representative. “Unless we improve quality of service, we can not compete [on the market].”
EMS is offered by 166 Posts around the world and handled over 50 million items in 2009, according to UPU statistics.