32 AWARDS 2016 Helen Norman

2016 THE 2016 WINNERS ARE ANNOUNCED!

Since its launch in 2009, the Postal The Business Development Innovation Technology International Awards has The categories of the Year category became New Business gained great popularity year-on-year. This Service Provider of the Year Diversification of the Year in 2016. As more year was no exception. Nominations Supplier of the Year posts look to alternative revenue streams opened in May, and by the closing date Environmental Achievement of the Year to strengthen their bottom line, they are in July, an unprecedented number of new venturing into new areas of business. products, technologies, projects and New Business Diversification of the Year This category was amended to reflect solutions had been put forward by posts Digital Innovation of the Year this development. Nominations for this and suppliers in the sector. Delivery Innovation of the Year category were particularly numerous and This year one new category was added Sorting Center Innovation of the Year highlighted some interesting developments, and two were renamed to reflect the such as 3D-printing networks, lawn changing postal landscape. The Sorting mowing services, home and health care, Center Innovation of the Year category was The Last Mile Delivery Innovation of and grocery delivery. introduced to recognize the new solutions the Year category was renamed simply Nominations for the awards were made being developed to meet changing needs. Delivery Innovation of the Year. This by Postal Technology International readers. A These include the shift from mainly change was made in recognition of the fact shortlist was then drawn up according to lettermail handling to increasingly that delivery is an end-to-end service, the number of nominations and sent to the automated parcel handling. This new which should take consumers’ needs into judging panel, which consisted of 18 category saw nominations covering data account throughout the whole chain – decision makers and industry experts from protection and entry, OCR, mixed-mail not just at the final mile. Nominations posts, consultants and associations from sorting and completely re-engineered in this category covered crowdsourcing around the world, including DHL, La Poste, sorting centers. Warehouse robots also applications to find delivery drivers, mail UPU, IPC, SingPost, PostEurop and An featured in this category – recognition of notification services, apps for time-specific Post. The judges then voted for their top the industry’s increasing investment in deliveries, smart parcel lockers and open choices. The winners of this year’s awards robotics to assist its manual workers. network parcel lockers. are revealed over the next eight pages. n

2017 www.PostalTechnologyInternational.com AWARDS 2016 33

The judging panel

Thomas Baldry, Ciprian Bolos, director Abdelilah Bousseta, Tim Brown, CEO, Joseph Gafa, CEO, Alan Gairns, chief senior vice president, of strategy and director of operations Jersey Post Malta Post operating officer, mail import and international relations, and technology, Qatar Postal Services international relations, Romanian Post Universal Postal Union Company Deutsche Post DHL

Herbert Götz, Khaled Ibrahim Jan Kollar, head of Woo Keng Leong, CEO, Peter McIlroy, general Helen Norman, editor, marketing director, Shahdoor, chief international and Postal Services, manager, program Postal Technology International Post information officer, regulatory affairs, SingPost management and International Corporation Emirates Post Group Slovenska Posta engineering systems, Canada Post Corporation

Liam O’Sullivan, Derek Osborn, business Alain Roset, digital Gul Sabir, Botond Szebeny, Elmar Toime, director of mail, coach, Whatnext4u research and superintendent, secretary general, chairman, Postea, An Post development expert, Pakistan Post PostEurop and postal industry La Poste consultant

2017 www.PostalTechnologyInternational.com 42 AWARDS 2016

CATEGORY: DIGITAL INNOVATION OF THE YEAR WINNER: SNAILE’S MAIL NOTIFICATION TECHNOLOGY

Shortlist USPS Informed Delivery Snaile’s mail notification technology TrackerSense Siemens’ Production, Planning and Control (PPC) system

“Our plans for next year would see us initiating more service to launches and trying to get into customers? Armstrong Left: Patrick says the cost model is flexible. as many other markets as Armstrong, CEO of “It depends, as there are the service possible, outside of Canada” Snaile, makers of costs and route-planning to factor in, which mail notification vary according to the volume,” he says. devices (above) The technology has emerged slowly, applied to more areas in Canada as the The problem: From 2014, Canada The Snaile system uses patent-pending postal service withdraws its door-to-door Post decided to stop door-to-door delivery infrared detection technology, with LEDs deliveries. “Our plans for next year would in some areas to save costs, instead placing that glow inside the mailbox, monitoring its see us initiating more launches and trying everything in a single community mailbox use. Using wi-fi or a cellular network, data to get into as many other markets as (CMB). But how will people know when is sent to the Snaile cloud. “For items possible, outside of Canada,” says something has been delivered, or avoid a waiting to be picked up by the postal Armstrong. “The technology works with wasted journey if nothing is there at all? service, Snaile can provide operators with a range of cellular networks, it’s low cost, The solution: mail notification technology a list via a route-planning app, detailing and it’s easy to translate the user interface from Snaile, installed at the CMB and which boxes need to be emptied on any into other languages.” n sending an alert when post arrives. given day, reducing the unnecessary Canada Post’s decision to cease its expenses associated with checking empty At a glance door-to-door service is expected to affect ones,” says Armstrong. “It also provides real five million residents by 2018. Patrick data, so operators can organize fleet sizes • Snaile is a Canadian company that saw an Armstrong, Snaile CEO, says, “We have and routes around the volume of mail. opportunity when Canada Post decided to developed two solutions – one for the “Snaile also detects the presence of mail stop door-to-door mail delivery larger CMBs currently being rolled out as delivered by the operator, then notifies the • Its technology can be installed in personal the initiative gets under way; and another customer via email, SMS or through an mailboxes and locker boxes at post offices, for the smaller, regular-size versions that app. The beauty of the system is there are and uses infrared to monitor the contents have been in use for some time – around no mechanical parts and no need for • Delivery companies are alerted when there 3.8 million of them. The modular design calibration. Each individual device has a is something to collect, while the general means that Snaile can be easily configured two-year warranty, running on rechargeable public is notified when they have a delivery for other postal markets, such as the USA, batteries, with several months or even • Snaile saves wasted trips to the mailbox which is 10 times larger than Canada’s a year available from a full charge.” when there is nothing present, and provides postal market, but where similar cost- But who pays for the Snaile technology data to operators to help them plan cutting reforms might also take place.” – is it the operator, or do they offer the collection routes and fleet sizes

2017 www.PostalTechnologyInternational.com