Against a backdrop of declining mail volumes, evolving technologies and rapidly changing consumer habits, UPU member countries formally adopted the global postal sector’s next roadmap.
Member countries adopted the 2013-2016 strategy yesterday during the 25th Universal Postal Congress in Doha.
The UPU and its members pledge to improve the efficiency of postal networks by using technology and standards to better interconnect them and encourage innovation to improve existing core letter-post and parcels services while diversifying the business. They will also strive to make the UPU a key forum for exchanging ideas and best practices, and work on the sustainability of postal business models.
“The rapid pace of change and transformation requires a greater capacity to react and adjust, and to do so quickly,” said Canada’s Terry Dunn, who steered the UPU group in charge of drafting the Doha Postal Strategy. “There is a fundamental transformation taking place in the postal business, and this is having an impact on the physical side. People want to receive their messages differently, with the same assurances of trust and security they associate with the post.”
Defining the universal service
While the UPU’s universal postal service mission is still very valid, the Doha Postal Strategy recognizes that the concept of universal postal service should be understood in a broader sense.
“Recent changes in postal business models point to the need for a universal service that is adapted to today’s technological environment as well as to the changing market realities,” Dunn explains, adding that it is up to each member country to define the scope of its universal service.
Alongside the broad goals identified in the document, more specific programmes will allow the UPU to carry out its mission of stimulating the lasting development of efficient and accessible universal postal services to facilitate communication. It does this by guaranteeing the free circulation of items over a single postal territory made up of interconnected networks, encouraging the adoption of fair common standards and the use of technology, ensuring cooperation and interaction among stakeholders, promoting effective technical cooperation, and ensuring the satisfaction of customers’ changing needs.
The document is also intended to provide guidance to postal authorities and governments as they develop their own national postal strategies and policies.
The strategy’s implementation relies heavily on a regional approach, and the UPU’s major regions of the world have identified their respective priorities.
While electronic substitution and diversification by communication media continue to threaten traditional letters, the growth of e-commerce and international trade, as well as the need for more social and economic inclusion of all sections of the population, herald new areas of development for postal services.
The UPU will use its status as an intergovernmental organization to promote the postal sector’s role as a motor for socio-economic development, fostering trade domestically and across borders and contributing to poverty reduction and financial inclusion.
The strategy was drafted after a comprehensive analysis of the world environment and consultation process with member countries.