What future for the post office network?

Abstract

Incumbent postal operators (POs) are particularly challenged with rapid technological developments and especially with digitalization which substitutes their letter mail, yet generally boosts parcel volumes. As a consequence, they have to rethink their strategy, especially for their post office network. The article presents potential strategies and discusses the main trends in postal network evolution among incumbent POs, focusing in particular on the examples of Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States, and assesses these strategies against a set of key performance and development indicators.