The post office has the unique attribute of combining “politics and business”. It is a product of the social historical process and economic development. This is both an advantage and a burden for the post office. Technological progress has made a variety of postal services full of alternatives. When the government, residents or customers do not need such services, if the post office does not want to be abandoned by the times, it must give full play to its resource endowment and policy advantages and accelerate its transformation into a market-oriented commercial complex. The post office cannot avoid the wave of technology, but must catch up, use technology to improve the operational efficiency of the business, consolidate the terminal advantages, and advance into the e-commerce logistics market. The measures are as follows:
The first is marketization. Since the “self-governance” of the postal government and business combination of various countries has become history, the postal union system backed by the United Nations needs to upgrade to UPU2.0 and create a strong cooperative relationship under the loosely coupled network system. Faced with the increasing openness of the global postal industry and the new supply and demand relationship in the e-commerce consumer market, the international mail terminal fee system will become non-differentiated and aligned with the domestic market prices of various countries. With new operating standards, electronic settlement methods and quality control methods, a cross-border logistics public platform shared by international organizations, governments and private organizations will be rebuilt to optimize the efficiency and balance of interests of the entire package process, and promote the transformation and upgrading of the global postal industry.
The second is to continue to enhance the construction of core capabilities. List the postal marketization paths of some countries, such as the Royal Mail in the United Kingdom, which operates mail and parcels through its logistics companies, with an annual income of up to 12 billion euros; the postal services of Denmark and Sweden simply merged to operate PostNord Nordic Post; Australia, Canada and Russia and other countries have vast land and sparse population, and high logistics costs. Postal services have become the main partners of last-mile delivery services, which other domestic express delivery companies cannot reach. In order to achieve low operating costs and efficient networks, many postal services have launched their own airlines. China Post and Russian Post have dozens of cargo fleets. Of course, without exception, they all invest in technology to improve the efficiency of automated parcel processing. , the main business of postal services in various countries is still delivery, among which letters and documents are shifting to the high-efficiency market, and parcels rely on e-commerce, and the market position of postal services faces more challenges.
Third, diversification. There are many distinctive successful transformation practices of foreign postal services that are worth learning from. The numerous business outlets of postal services allow them to provide various convenient services, retail or financial agency options, such as banking and insurance businesses of postal services in Japan, China and Italy. Japan Post JPOST has grown into a large financial consortium. Its Japan Post Bank and Postal Insurance are both industry leaders, and about 70% of China Post’s revenue also comes from the financial sector. The Italian Post Group has four major sectors: mail and logistics, integrated communications and payments, insurance, and credit savings. In 2018, Italian Post launched the “Deliver2022” five-year plan, with the central goal of maximizing the value of the postal network, including doubling the parcel delivery processing volume, striving to seize 40% of the B2C market, increasing the application of logistics technology and automated facilities, and investing 500 million euros in the IT field. As a starting business, logistics is still the main development direction of most postal services.
Fourth, improve management capabilities. Business transformation is already relatively clear, but most postal services are faced with management challenges such as how to improve operating efficiency and establish a governance structure and performance system that is in line with the market. The huge assets of the postal service must be matched with operational capabilities in order to maximize the efficiency of the assets. For example, Bpost, a state-owned enterprise founded in 1830, was acquired and privatized by Danish Post in 2006. Since then, Bpost’s parcel business has become more open and flexible, and it has expanded internationally under the Landmark brand. PostNL, the Netherlands Post, SwissPost, and SingPost, a Singapore Post in which Cainiao has invested, are typical small and beautiful international postal companies. They are relatively active in the international parcel market, and their agency parcels or dedicated lines can often be seen in the domestic cross-border logistics market.