Swiss Post again achieved high on-time delivery rates for letters and parcels in 2015 and is investing in new technology and capacity expansion at its parcel centres as it expects continuous growth in online trade.
Overall, Swiss Post handled around 2.2 billion addressed letters last year. According to its latest service quality figures, 97.8% of its first-class letters (‘A Mail’ letters) were delivered on time, up from 97.7% in 2014. The corresponding score for its second-class letters (‘B Mail’) fell slightly from 99% to 98.9%.
“As in previous years, the scores achieved are at a very high level. With investments in modern technology such as the sorting systems and with continuous improvements to internal workflows, Swiss Post is ensuring the reliability of the physical letter in the future, too,” the company said.
In terms of parcels, the postal operator posted a new record handling over 115 million shipments in 2015, which represents a volume increase of 3% over the previous year. Despite the volume increase, the delivery quality remained high, with 97.5% of all PostPac Priority parcels delivered on time, up from 97.4% in 2014. Its delivery performance for Economy parcels remained with 97.5% at the same level as last year.
Swiss Post expects that online trade will continue to grow by around 1-2% annually over the coming years and is therefore upgrading its parcel centres to guarantee high quality and punctual delivery of parcels. Two additional sorting systems at the parcel centres in Frauenfeld in the north-east of Switzerland and in Härkingen (north-west) have already been put into operation. The expansion of the Daillens parcel center in the west of the country is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Thanks to investments of around CHF 60 million (€54.8 million), the centers’ sorting capacities are being increased by around 25%.
The scores achieved in terms of delivery quality last year clearly exceed the requirements set by the postal legislation that came into force in Switzerland in October 2012, Swiss Post stressed. According to the directives, 97% of all letters and 95% of all parcels have to be delivered on time within the country. These are the strictest delivery criteria in Europe, it pointed out. “With these excellent results, Swiss Post takes top position for punctual deliveries when compared with international data.”
Around 90,000 letters are sent every year to measure the delivery times of domestic letters. The measurements are conducted by the independent market research institute GfK Switzerland. For the measurement of parcels, a scientifically recognised sampling method is applied, Swiss Post added.
