The new Postal Operations Council (POC) will hit the ground running when it meets for its first post-Congress session at UPU headquarters from 8-19 April 2013.
Delegates will have plenty of food for thought (Photo: M. Bieri/keystone)
The POC will not only have to finalize the work plans of the various working groups, but also approve amendments to the letter-post and parcel international regulations.
More than 150 proposals are up for review to amend the regulations and make them compliant with decisions taken by the 2012 Doha Congress. Posts worldwide rely on these regulations as they move billions of mail items across borders every year. They cover everything from prohibited items and dangerous goods in the mail to postal security, standards, and exemptions and charges.
The revised regulations will come into effect on 1 January 2014.
The groups reporting to five broad committees or directly to the plenary will also be finalizing and adopting their work plans for the next four years. Groups focus on a range of operational issues, from standards and transport to postal security, customs, quality of service and the development of existing and new postal products and services, to name a few.
Integration key
A brand new group of the POC – Products Strategy and Integration – will start its work to apply an integrated approach for developing physical services such as letters, parcels and EMS items.
“Our current range of products needs to be sustainable if we want to grow our business in the emerging cross-border, e-commerce market and meet our customers’ needs,” says Great Britain’s Chris Powell, who chairs the group. “The UPU must have an integrated approach based on customers’ requirements to reach a structured suite of services with clear differentiation between products, covering quality, reliability, sustainability, returns and customs clearance, for example, and how we, as Posts, deal with issues when things go wrong.”
The new .post user group, set up at the Doha Congress to help manage the future development of the UPU’s sponsored top-level domain name, will also hold its first general assembly and elect its chair, vice-chair and steering committee members.
For POC Chairman Masahiko Metoki from Japan, strong communication and quicker decision-making should be among the body’s guiding principles during this cycle.
“We need to create an atmosphere for close and constant communication between stakeholders,” says Metoki.
Close to 800 delegates are expected to attend the POC’s April session.
The Council of Administration will also hold meetings from 22-25 April, but its first official session will take place over three weeks from 28 October to 15 November 2013.
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