Daily mail already available electronically in Itella's delivery pilot

The pilot for future mail delivery alternatives by Itella has got off to a good start in the Anttila region of the City of Porvoo. According to an interview survey conducted by VTT, most think that the new methods for receiving mail work well. 20 households and companies in the Anttila region answered the survey.

In May, VTT carried out an interview survey for finding out the initial reactions of participants regarding the delivery of daily mail to different channels: to the electronic transaction service NetPosti, to a mailbox at the local convenience store and twice a week to the recipient's own mailbox.  The interviews were also used to gather the participants' experience on the use of the postal parcel collection facility.

Most thought that the pilot has started well. The participants have also found that the NetPosti service is easy and convenient to use. The participants have different needs regarding to information: part of them is not interested in receiving SMS-messages that notify of arriving mail.

The development project actively utilizes the feedback and development ideas received from the participants regarding which mail items could, or should, be available in electronic form in the future. New features have already been introduced to NetPosti on the basis of this feedback.

The mailbox array is considered easy to use. On the other hand, all participants in the pilot never check these mailboxes; they are content with receiving mail twice a week in their own mailbox. People mainly only visit the mailbox array when passing through or when they need to go to the convenience store anyway. NetPosti is considered an important supplementary service in the new mail delivery regime.

The pilot has made little difference to the everyday life of Kristina Orela's family, participants in the trial: "We wanted to join the pilot because our family was already familiar with the NetPosti service. All serious communications of the household could in my opinion be electronic and also receivable in electronic form, but the paper newspaper is still useful, though."

The pilot has also started in line with Itella's expectations, and people have been active in their cooperation.

"The goal is to create a model of a mail delivery service that responds to the needs and expectations of customers regarding the new services and benefits of mail delivery. The pilot has allowed us to receive ideas and feedback from dozens of people. The pilot has already aroused much interest among people who live and stay in different places and for whom receiving daily mail in one physical address is not the ideal solution. Examples of such people include those living part of the year in the archipelago or abroad", says Tommi Tikka, Development Director.

The trial will end at the close of 2010. The experience gathered will decide whether the pilot will continue in the Anttila region and what kind of new services Itella could offer to the customers in future. Nearly half of the households and companies based in Anttila have joined in, 140 in all.

For further information, please contact Tommi Tikka, Development Director, firstname.lastname@itella.com, tel. +358 50 462 7645.

Here are some of the actual facts:

In April, Itella began a pilot based on voluntary participation with the objective of finding alternative solutions for mail delivery in future decades.  The development work is being carried out in active cooperation with the participating inhabitants. The feedback and development ideas provided by them are being utilized during the pilot.

• The trial will end at the close of 2010. All the participants have volunteered to participate in the trial. There are some villagers who are not included in the trial, and they will receive their mail in the traditional manner.
• In the trial, mail will be delivered twice a week to the mailbox as usual. Moreover, all mail recipient households and companies have a P.O. box at their local postal outlet, where mail is delivered on other days, and from where the customer may pick up the mail whenever at any time. New mail in the box will be notified by a text message, so that the customers will not have to visit their box unnecessarily.
• In addition to physical mail delivery, the customer's first-class and second-class letters will be scanned as electronic letters which the customer may view on NetPosti using his or her personal codes. The recipients will receive a notification of incoming mail in NetPosti by e-mail or SMS, and the letters are available in an electronic format earlier than those delivered through regular mail, at nine in the morning.
• When the letters have been scanned, they will be placed in envelopes and delivered to the customer's P.O. box or mailbox. This means that the recipients will also receive their actual physical letters. The letters will be scanned separately from other mail handling activities in a unit specializing in scanning by trained personnel. The unit is located in Helsinki. For some years now the Itella Group has scanned physical letters into electronic format for companies and public corporations, such as insurance companies, accounting firms, and the State Treasury. Hundreds of thousands letters are scanned each day. Reliability of the service is of the utmost importance.
• A new pick-up method will also be tested for parcel deliveries. At the local postal outlet, there will be a parcel machine from where customers may pick up parcels themselves. The customer will receive a text message when there is a shipment to pick up. However, large shipments and shipments requiring a signature will be picked up from the local postal outlet as usual.
• When preparing for the trial, Itella has discussed the issue both with the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority that supervises postal activities and the Data Protection Ombudsman. Neither of these authorities were opposed to the trial.
• Each participant in the trial has signed an agreement stating that they have agreed to their mail being opened and scanned. Mail recipients are entitled to allow a third party to open their mail.
• The trial will not compromise the confidentiality of letters. The letters will be scanned in a facility which outsiders cannot access, and the employees have signed strict confidentiality agreements.