Category: Industry News

Delegates of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) approved a compromise September 25 to allow the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to raise international postal rates on July 2020 to 70 percent of what USPS charges to process domestic parcels and mail, a decision that will keep the U.S. in the UPU despite year-long threats to withdraw from the 145-year-old Union by October 17 if global postal pricing wasn’t reformed.

Under the plan, USPS’ terminal dues (UPU lingo for what a destination post charges the origin post for processing, handling and delivery to addresses inside the country), can be raised by 1% a year until it hits a cap of 80% of domestic charges, subject to conditions. Foreign postal systems will set their own rates beginning in 2021 and extending through 2026. However, any 2021 increases cannot be more than 15% above 2020’s rates, and the 2022 rates cannot be 15% higher than the 2021 rates. Non-U.S. posts can move to what is known as a “self-declare” regime at any earlier time if they so choose. The phase-in was designed to minimize any disruption as posts transitioned from the terminal dues formula–which will eventually disappear–to an environment where each post will “declare” its own rate structure.

The scenario that the U.S. would have preferred–where all countries would have abandoned the terminal dues system in favor of “self-declared” pricing by next year (in which they could charge foreign and domestic users the same rates), was rejected by UPU delegates on September 24.

Last-mile delivery—the process of moving items from warehouses or stores to consumers’ homes—is a challenge for retailers. It’s expensive, error-prone and not responsive enough to effectively accommodate on-demand delivery of items purchased online. To address these problems, online retailers and others are turning to robots.

While some retailers are testing full-sized, self-driving cars, a fresh breed of vehicles is emerging: the delivery robot. New, purpose-built delivery robots are small, relatively lightweight and made to operate at low speeds. They’re designed to make deliveries without drivers, often in places off-limits to cars, such as sidewalks.

Delivery robots have the potential to boost the speed and efficiency of retail deliveries and significantly reduce costs, says Robert Doyle, vice president for the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), a trade association serving the robotics industry. One estimate, from investment management firm ARK Investment Management LLC, suggests robots could reduce the cost of last-mile delivery to 6 cents per mile compared with about $1.60 per mile for a delivery made by a human. Because they are agile and adaptable, robots could be the best choice for some deliveries, especially in crowded urban areas or on college campuses.