[ad_1]
Concepts like “boom driving” and “establishing a loop” have become familiar in recent weeks, after DN searched for answers as to why Postnord home deliveries sometimes end up with the postal agent and the customer is told that has been waiting at home that has not been accessible.
Postnord President and CEO Annemarie Gardshol is now responding to the criticism.
– It is clear that those who are somehow disappointed and get in touch with us, you, me personally. It is clear that we take them very seriously and it is clear that we will be incredibly disappointed when we fail to meet your expectations, he tells DN.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
One explanation for the quality of the deficiencies in home deliveries is previously mentioned by Postnord COO Mattias Krümmel.
Postnord logistics, which handles package deliveries, does not have access to all the port codes that Postnord mail carriers have. When no door code is specified in the order, delivery cannot be made to the door.
Another explanation that Annemarie Gardshol raises is the corona pandemic and what it brought with it: disease rates of up to 20 percent and a massive increase in e-commerce, especially home deliveries.
– You have to remember this. We have had days with three times more home deliveries than normal. Drivers who normally deliver pallets to the store must suddenly change and hand over the homes to individuals. It’s a completely different type of submission form that we’ve had to change in a very short time, he says.
The quality of delivery in terms of letters During the pandemic, it has maintained the measure, he points out, and even the packages that must go to the mail meet the quality requirement. It is precisely the home births that have suffered.
We have had days with three times more home deliveries than normal
How do you get better at this?
– I think a lot of our deliveries work well. But where we have to sharpen is around these home deliveries. It has become clear during this period that it is absolutely necessary to improve it. Especially if it continues to be the case that more and more people shop online and more and more people want their home delivery, says Annemarie Gardshol, adding:
– But I also think that somewhere it is very important to highlight the circumstances in which the organization worked.
She has had several different roles within Postnord for several years. When she took over as CEO of Postnord Sweden just over two years ago, she stated that her goal as CEO of Sweden was that “Swedes can trust Postnord again.”
At the time, trust in Postnord was lower than it is now, quality was worse, and the company was facing image issues. Today, they have come a long way, but it also seems that there are some left before the Swedes can trust Postnord again.
– We definitely have a few more years before we can feel like we’re done, it’s a huge change we’re going through.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
Informed DN in a series of articles earlier this year on the economic situation at Postnord. Among other things, about a then unknown report from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, commissioned by the government, which gave the image of a Postnord sitting in a much more difficult seat than was then known to the public.
A lot is about the volumes of letters that are so important to the economy. Postage is the most important source of money, but fewer and fewer letters are being sent and development does not seem to stop. The Danes have already gone through that development with a 90% decline since the turn of the millennium. And there are few, if any, who oppose the forecast that Sweden will go through the same journey in the next few years.
One of the conclusions of the McKinsey report was that Postnord’s letter allocation should be reviewed if the state doesn’t want to have to go and subsidize the business. In the event that financial support and social mission change are not lost, Postnord runs the risk of ending up in a “negative value” situation, or bankruptcy in pure Swedish.
Photo: Daniel Costantini
How are you doing now?
– If you compare the figures in our quarterly report with the previous year, you will see big increases for the whole group. Sweden has performed very well and it is a combination of the fact that we work a lot with our efficiency and income programs. So right now we are in a good trend, says Annemarie Gardshol.
But the conclusion of the report still remains. Even if things are going better now than last year, the social mission is a long-term problem for Postnord that needs to be fixed.
The government announced in late January that a major investigation would be appointed to review precisely this.
Already in spring the investigation would be formally named and would take a year and a half before it is completed, according to the Minister of Energy and Digitization, Anders Ygeman (S). However, an investigation has yet to be designated, but when DN asks the Ministry of Infrastructure, it appears that it is already underway.
“I do not have an exact date for when the investigation will be appointed, but it will be in the near future,” writes Ygeman’s press secretary Fredrik Persson in a text message.
It’s no more detailed than that and Postnord doesn’t know more than anyone. Therefore, they must try on their own to avoid challenges for so long.
– Postal inquiry is important to us in the long term. Somewhere you must answer the question of what community service should we have in Sweden and how much can it cost, says Annemarie Gardshol and continues:
– But we cannot hold on to him to give his answers. We must continue working to streamline our business and reorganize it in relation to the development we see around, for example, the letters. Today we have letters to distribute to two out of every three households daily. In a couple of years, maybe it will be any other home.
Today we have letters to distribute to two out of every three households daily. In a couple of years, maybe every other household
The Danish part Postnord is ahead of Sweden in developing letter volumes. Last winter, taxpayers were forced to put up around SEK 100 million to ensure the deliveries of the small proportion of letters still sent in the country. It has been enough to manage the first half of 2020, and now there is talk of 100 million more to manage the rest of the year.
Can Sweden end there?
– With letter volume on the decline, well then it’s clear that you’ll end up in a situation like Denmark sooner or later. We are not there today and that is why we are pushing with all these questions about postage, that we should be able to switch to a distribution every other day and that we should designate this query and answer what kind of community service we should have in the future and what it can cost, says Gardshol.
The plan now is to be able to start switching to dividends every other day during 2021 and 2022.
– So there are good conditions for us to maintain this service without any serious financial impact until we have a response from this investigation.
Dan Lucas: a story that keeps getting sadder
Also read: This is what happens when the post office “loops”, deliberately refraining from leaving your post
Also read: Why you do not receive your package, even if you are at home
Also read: How does Postnord descend into the abyss?
