By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff reporter
No matter how many branches of international express deliverers maintain, they would not be a match for public postal operators, which are near-ubiquitous across the world.
This is the basic idea behind express mail service (EMS) offered via the alliance of public postal administrations in more than 140 countries. It emerges as a major threat to private powerhouses such as DHL, UPS or FedEx.
In some places, EMS has already nudged past private competitors such as in Korea where Korea Post accounted for 38 percent of the market last year to top the list for the first time ever defeating perennial market leader DHL.
``EMS is currently powered by 176,000 post offices worldwide and this provides fast mail or parcel delivery services to as many as 328 million addresses even in very remote areas,'' a Korea Post official said.
``Accordingly, the market share of EMS is on the rise across the board. The trend is expected to continue down the road as postal operators intend to maximize service quality.''
As far as EMS quality is concerned, Korea Post has been second to none ― the state-run agency was tapped as the global leader in an annual appraisal carried out by the Universal Postal Union.
Earlier in April, the specialized institute of the United Nations awarded the Gold Level, the top prize, to Korea Post for four consecutive years. Korea Post garnered an average of 99.3 points in the evaluation.
The awards are based on a postal operator's yearly achievements including service performance and tracking, which are rated with points. Winners of the gold, silver and bronze certificates are in accordance with the total number of points.
Traditionally, the two main advantages of EMS were low prices and wide coverage. But it was regarded as a second-tier option due to the relatively long delivery time and lack of other features compared to private players.
Yet, things changed abruptly in the beginning of the new millennium when EMS operators joined hands to increase their service quality through an all-out global cooperation.
An exemplary case is the Kahala Posts Group, which first met in the Hawaiian city in 2002 and was participated in by six countries or regions of Korea, Japan, the United States, Hong Kong, China and Australia.
Later, France, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Spain joined the fraternity and Vietnam and Thailand hope to follow suit.
The 10 members of the Kahala Posts Group convene every year in order to discuss ways to improve EMS service quality and working-level meetings are held a few times per annum.
Based on such efforts, the Kahala members came up with the delivery guarantee of a pre-set date and upgraded online tracking systems on par with those widely used by private shipping corporations.
For example, Korea Post promises that mail and parcels registered early in the morning will reach most areas of many neighboring countries such as Japan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore the next day.
If the delivery is delayed, the fee will be refunded.
This week, all the Kahala members gathered in London to further accelerate the development of EMS.
``We agreed to raise the quality of service as well as strengthen networks by expanding membership. Our initiatives are to exporters who want precise and fast global delivery of their merchandise,'' Korea Post President Namgung Min said.
Last year, Korea Post chalked up 230 billion won ($189 million) in the EMS segment alone, which helped the agency record surpluses 12 years in a row in spite of the global financial crisis
.
This year, the entity aims to extend the gaining streak to 13 years by racking up 111 billion won in profits.
``Our top priority in 2010 is to nurture our capacity for sustainable growth. To do this, we plan to advance our mailing services and broaden our international business,'' Namgung said.
``Plus, we will pull out all the stops to improve our productivity with efficient management and the aim to earn more than 110 billion won in profits this year.''