scope:

This Technical Report specifies methods for measuring the transit time results of domestic and cross-border parcels, collected, processed and delivered by postal service providers. Transit time is the time elapsed between initial and final scan of the item. The initial scan may occur at varying points within the pipeline (e.g. point of posting, entry into the first sorting centre). Similarly the final scan may occur at e.g. exit from the last sorting centre, final delivery. Therefore there are two different categories of transit time: 1. End-to-End A true end-to-end transit time measure may only be possible for some items recorded in the track and trace system. End-to-end is defined as from the point parcels are placed into the collection/acceptance system under the responsibility of the postal operators, to the final delivery point under the responsibility of the postal operators. In many instances postal operators do not extend track and trace to the final delivery point. These items may not cover the total parcel flow. Generally the results of this subset cannot be taken as representative of the total flow, but this subset may represent a particular sector, e.g. single parcels sent over a post-office counter to single receivers. The transit time results of purely this subset are of public concern. 2. Non End-to-End If initial and/or final scans occur in the sorting centres for at least some parcels, it is possible to calculate the transit time between sorting centres, e.g. first-sorting-centre-to-last-sorting-centre. This can be done to calculate transit time results for all parcels in the total flow;this may be reasonable for internal purposes. The objective of the measurement to estimate the transit time quality of service given to the customer can only be achieved, if the time elapsed between posting and first scan and between delivery and last scan respectively can be estimated (eventually by the customer). The overall transit time quality of service result is to be expressed as the percentage of parcels delivered within J + n days. This quality of service indicator does not measure the postal operator's overall performance in a way that provides direct comparison of postal service operators, and does not include other service performance indicators than those related to transit time. This Technical Report is applicable to those service providers which have a measurement system in place which - records an initial scan for each item, - records a final scan for each item and - can, by comparing these records, calculate the transit time between initial and final scan. Therefore for some items the transit time will be from e.g. entry into the first sorting centre to final delivery, whereas for other items the transit time will be from e.g. point of posting to exit from the last sorting centre. If a global transit time result is required then all items included in the calculation needs to have been scanned at the two location points (e.g. entry into first sorting centre, exit from last sorting centre) within the pipeline. This Technical Report may be used if appropriate to measure the transit time of other types of postal items for which such a measurement system is in operation. This Technical Report specifies requirements for the design and operation of the measurement system and for other procedures to allow the transit time to be calculated