Abstract
In the last 10–15 years the Internet has severely impacted the postal and delivery market: the volume of letters declined, the need for parcel delivery increased, the costumers’ needs changed. Postal Operators (POs) have started diversifying their businesses and delivery services companies have updated and readdressed their quality of service and their offers.
The aim of this paper is to understand whether POs could ri-converge in the direction of reinventing their business models in the digital era, i.e., if it is possible and/or convenient a radical change of POs, evolving from offline intermediaries toward a new form of ground-based/online intermediaries.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Article 39 (a) “The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people. The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities. The costs of establishing and maintaining the Postal Service shall not be apportioned to impair the overall value of such service to the people.”
- 2.
The authors would like to thank the five operators for having shared their feedback as a follow-up of the presentation of the draft version of this paper at the 26th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics. Their input was key for finalizing this chapter.
- 3.
See the European Commission DESI index, https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/human-capital.
- 4.
Emails are the same product, but superior in many dimensions, offered for free through a different channel.
- 5.
On this point compare the interesting survey on the Community Infopoint introduced in Sheedy, C., & Moloney, M. (2015). Digital inclusion: A role for postal operators in a smart world, postal and delivery innovation. Berlin: Springer.
- 6.
Probably, Apple is the most important example of an originally closed platform/company, but the development of the Apple store shows that global success anyway requires an increasing degree of openness and interaction with other players.
References
Asher, D., Callan, J., & Marsh, B. (2011). The postal service role in the digital age-expanding the postal platform. In 19th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics.
Borsenberger, C., Joram, D., Klargaard, O., & Régnard, P. (2016). Personal data and privacy issues and postal operators stand. In The future of the postal sector in a digital world. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Borsenberger, C., Klargaard, O., & Régnard, P. (2017). Digital identities: A good move for postal operators. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Copenhagen Economics. (2018). Main developments in the postal sector 2013–2016: Preliminary finding, study for the European Commission Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
Deutsche Post DHL Group. (2017). 2016 Annual Report.
Deutsche Post DHL Group. (2018). 2017 Annual Report.
European Commission. (2016). Communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market Opportunities and Challenges for Europe, SWD (2016) 172 final.
Finger, M. (2014). Postal operators as information intermediaries. The Postal Industry—Innovation and Markets, 2(2).
Grupo Correos. (2016). Integrated Annual Report.
Jaag, C., Parra Moyano, J., & Trinkner, U. (2016). Postal strategies in a digital age. In The future of the postal sector in a digital world. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Jaag, C., Stahl, F., & Stroelin, B. (2011). Commercial and regulatory aspects of reverse Hybrid Mail (Swiss Economics Working Paper).
Le Groupe La Poste. (2017). Registration Document 2016.
Parcu, P. L., & Silvestri, V. (2017). Lessons from the postal sector to telecommunications and vice versa. In M. Crew, P. L. Parcu, & T. Brennan (Eds.), The changing postal and delivery sector. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Parker, G., & Van Alstyne, M. (2011). A digital postal platform: Definitions and a roadmap. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Center for Digital Business.
Poste Italiane. (2017). Annual Report 2016.
Poste Italiane. (2018a). Capital Markets Day Deliver 2022 (presentation).
Poste Italiane. (2018b). Financial Database 2017.
Royal Mail plc. (2017). Annual report and financial statements 2016–17.
Sheedy, C., & Moloney, M. (2015). Digital inclusion: A role for postal operators in a smart world. In Postal and delivery innovation in the digital economy, Topics in regulatory economics and policy. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Universal Postal Union. (2010). post – The next generation postal network.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gori, P., Parcu, P.L. (2018). Postal Operators as “Ground Based” Online Platforms?. In: Parcu, P., Brennan, T., Glass, V. (eds) New Business and Regulatory Strategies in the Postal Sector. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02937-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02937-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02936-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02937-1
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)