OPINION: The importance of collaboration in overcoming postal challenges

Holger Winklbauer, CEO at International Postal Corporation, explains why global cooperation is the key to meeting today’s challenges

The need for transformation in the postal sector is not new but has accelerated dramatically in recent years, and even more so in recent months. The sector now finds itself at the crossroads of three powerful economic trends that are reshaping global commerce:

• The part of digitalization, which continues to drive a sustained decline in traditional mail volumes and is challenging the traditional postal business model;
• Decarbonization, driven by growing consumer demand for greater environmental accountability and low-carbon delivery options;
• The emergence of a new global trade landscape, marked by the development of different supply chain models, adjusted to the latest market conditions, and additional regulatory requirements and barriers that complicate cross-border transactions.

These trends are bringing complexity to postal operations and making data a critical asset for competitiveness and growth, and are a major opportunity for posts to reinvent themselves.

New demands

To remain competitive, postal operators must evolve beyond their traditional roles and embrace a new identity as parcel-centric, data-driven, customer-driven logistics providers. This transformation requires reliable, efficient end-to-end delivery solutions that can compete with newcomers whose business models have been digital and data-native from day one.

In parallel, consumer expectations are shifting. With heightened awareness of the environmental impact of cross-border shopping, e-retailers are under pressure to provide transparency around the carbon footprint of deliveries. Postal operators must therefore be equipped to calculate and communicate CO₂ emissions across the entire delivery chain.

Moreover, the rise of new customs and regulatory hurdles means posts must offer online shoppers full visibility into potential customs fees at the point of purchase, and streamline the clearance process to avoid delays and dissatisfaction. Posts also need solutions to enable them to comply with regulatory and security requirements while avoiding extra costs, including collection of customs taxes and duties, and customs duty drawback for returns.

Centralized solutions

Meeting these challenges demands collective action and centralized solutions. Postal operators must work together to build centralized solutions for cross-border data collection and exchange. Efficiency across the postal supply chain can best be achieved through joint investment and shared platforms, ideally coordinated through trusted organizations.

In recent years, IPC has been developing and deploying solutions that address these evolving needs:

• Interconnect: A robust cross-border e-commerce delivery network offering end-to-end reliability;
• COMETS (Central Operational Message Exchange and Translation Services): A simple, cost-effective tool enabling posts to comply with EU ICS2 requirements by translating standard ITMATT electronic data messages from the postal EDI format to the EU’s Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) format;
• Carbon Footprint Calculator: A powerful tool enabling item-level CO₂ emissions tracking, set to roll out by the end of this year;
• PDDP (Postal Delivered Duty Paid): A platform that provides full transparency on customs fees at checkout and accelerates customs clearance. It became very handy in the context of the recent changes in the US de minimis rule.

In response to the suspension of the de minimis exemption for duty-free treatment of low-value goods in the US, IPC, in cooperation with Royal Mail and a CBP-qualified third party, leveraged its PDDP solution to help posts resume traffic to the US market. More than 10 posts have joined the solution, and many others are awaiting onboarding.

Since the implementation of the executive order suspending duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries, more than 1.8 million PDDP transactions have been processed. To put that into perspective, this represents a fifty-fold increase in weekly transactions compared with the average before August 29, 2025. This provides a real-life illustration of the benefit of global coordination.

The article was originally published in the December 2025 issue of Parcel and Postal Technology International.