19.07.2022
This call for tenders concerns the provision of specialized services with a view to assisting the UPU in researching strategies for developing the traditional letter-post (documents) market. The scope of the study is global, broken down into the following regional (geographic) markets:
- Africa
- Arab countries
- Asia-Pacific
- Caribbean
- Europe
- North America
- Latin America
The deadline for the submission of tenders is 15 August 2022 at 16.00 CEST.
Q 1: What is the expected level of details/granularity in geographical analysis?
A1: We expect a coarse-grained rather than a fine-grained analysis of the geographic markets, where some of the fine details have been averaged out or smoothed over to represent the regional aggregate instead of individual country peculiarities.
Q 2: Do you want us to realize specific analysis country by country, or to set an overview of a common market (APAC, Middle East, Europe, South América, ...)?
A 2: Provide an overview of a common market or region, while also mentioning any significant outliers within the region.
Q 3: Do you expect insight from postal operators only or also from other carriers that are not postal operators?
A 3: Provide insights from both designated (postal) and non-designated operators.
Q 4: Could you provide the list of countries and ideally of carriers that you would like to have in the scope of the study?
A 4: The Vendor is expected to establish a sampling criterion, with the support of the UPU, which will then be used to determine the countries in each region to be included in the study.
Q 5: By "e-commerce customer needs", could you precise the segment to consider?
A 5: The scope of the RFP-2022-010-DOP does not concern ecommerce at all. The scope is only for the traditional letter-post items, specifically ‘documents’. The RFP-2022-010-DOP excludes all postal services for items containing goods, which instead are addressed in RFP-2022-009-DOP.
Q 6: Can you confirm that the scope is excluding all documents product?
A 6: To the contrary, the RFP-2022-010-DOP includes all and only ‘document’ products. It excludes all postal services for items containing goods.
Q 7: Can you confirm that the scope is excluding Small Packets products unless they are above 2kg (if any?)?
A 7: Yes, the scope of the RFP-2022-010-DOP excludes all postal services for items containing goods, whether ‘below 2kgs’ or ‘above 2kgs’. It focuses only on documents.
Q 8: Do we need to focus a specific recipients B2B / B2C / C2C / C2B or all?
A 8: The traditional letter-post (documents) market does not necessarily conform to the ecommerce models. This question is not relevant to this study.
Q 9: Can you confirm that the focus is on International only and that Domestic products should be excluded?
A 9: The focus of the RFP-2022-010-DOP is only on the international or cross-border postal services for letter-post items containing documents. It is not on domestic items or goods.
Q 10: Do you need details by destinations? If yes, what kind of details is expected?
A 10: No details by destination, or origin for that matter, is expected, except where the information compliments or supplements the facts provided in the report
Q 11: Should the ‘Sameday’ and the Food delivery products be included/excluded?
A 11: The focus of the study is on the traditional letter-post (documents) market. Note that the commercial offering of the international postal services is different from country to country. The issue of ‘food delivery products’ applies to postal services for items containing goods, and so is not relevant to RFP-2022-010-DOP. The study should stick to a common definition of the letter-post items containing documents as defined in the Acts of the UPU.
Q 12: Do you need other segments, i.e. Express/Deferred, Intra Continent/Extra Continent, etc?
A 12: Refer to the answer to question 2(vi).
Q 13: Could you confirm the scope is only goods shipment (and so documents are excluded from the scope from this RFP)?
A 13: For the RFP-2022-010-DOP, the scope is only postal services for documents, and so postal services for items containing goods are excluded. For RFP-2022-009-DOP, the scope is only for postal services containing goods, and so documents are excluded from RFP-2022-009-DOP. Please ensure that you are responding to the correct call for tender (CFT).
Q 14: Could you confirm that the output must include the content of the various interviews (including sender (retailer / e-merchant) and postal operators) or just a summary?
A 14: The final report should not include the detailed answers of each respondent involved in the study. It is expected that the responses will be integrated in the various chapters of the study, to answer the research questions and meet the study objectives in a logical flow. A stand-alone section of the responses, whether in detail or summary, is not expected in the report. The detailed and/or summarized responses should be given to the UPU separately as part of the primary source materials.
Q 15: Do you expect insight on each postal operator in each country? Thank you for clarifying your expectations?
A 16: No, the UPU does not expect insight on each designated operator in each country. See also response to question 1.
Q 17: Does the scope include sample shipment?
A 17: The focus of RFP-2022-010-DOP is to study into the ways and strategies for developing and growing the traditional letter-post (documents) market, and to meet all the objectives set out in section 2.5 of the CFT. It is the discretion of the Vendor to include sample shipment if that adds value to the study.