PostEurop has given out its Coups de Coeur awards for Corporate Social Responsibility for the fifth time. Posti's smart transportation pilot won first prize in the Society category. The jury appreciated Posti's method of combining long-term digital research with daily postal operations as well as the pilot's impact on health, safety and the environment.
The award went to a smart transportation pilot implemented in the spring of 2017. The pilot examined the opportunities of improving traffic safety by means of digitization. The Posti truck, equipped by TTS Työtehoseura and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, carried various cameras and sensors to provide the driver with real-time information on the weather conditions and potential obstacles on the road. In the future, this information will be available to all road users.
The pilot also included comparing the automatic observations with the driver's reactions. The reliability of the information produced by the tracking equipment will be vitally important in automated vehicle functions, i.e. robot cars, of the future.
The pilot was carried out in the usual business transportation for three months between Helsinki and Oulu. The vehicle was running the 540-kilometre route 20 hours a day.
"Safety and environmental friendliness are at the core of our operations. Posti has been involved in smart transportation pilots before, and all our vehicles monitor the driving habits of their operators. New technology provides opportunities to collect and utilize information with the help of Posti's national network," says Noomi Jägerhorn, Head of Sustainability at Posti.
PostEurop is a regional trade association of 52 European countries. The purpose of the CSR Coups de Coeur is to highlight the best practices of social responsibility by postal operators in Europe. The winners of the Environment and Employee categories, respectively, were bpost (Belgium) and Le Groupe La Poste (France).
Facts: Smart tools in Posti's equipment management
