Postal Company invests NIS 50m to boost same-day delivery

Israel Postal Company announces purchase of automatic mail sorting equipment which will enable 70 percent of mail processed by company to be sorted automatically.

By RON FRIEDMAN
311_Israel postal workers (photo credit: Associated Press)
311_Israel postal workers
(photo credit: Associated Press)
The Israel Postal Company this week announced the NIS 50 million purchase of automatic mail sorting equipment from Italian firm Elsag Datamat. The new equipment will enable 70 percent of the mail processed by the company to be sorted automatically.
The purchase is part of the IPC’s long-term initiative to improve infrastructure, technological development and automation.
The new machines will be installed in the IPC’s three main sorting centers in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, and will enable same-day service for much of the nation’s mail.
According to Hanan Peretz, IPC’s director of logistics and business development, the new equipment enables hands-free sorting of mail from the moment it arrives in the center till it reaches the mailman’s hands.
“The machines can read handwriting and translate it into a code readable by computers, which then sorts it all the way down to the individual mail delivery person’s route or the neighborhood delivery station,” said Peretz. “The purchase allows us to more than double our automatic sorting capabilities, from 30% today to upward of 70% once the machines are installed.
This saves us time and expenses and improves the service to the customer.”
Peretz said that contrary to common belief, the widespread use of electronic mail has not made regular mail obsolete. “The IPC sorts over 2 million articles of mail every day. There are many things that need to get from one place to another and not everything can be done on e-mail.
Today most of the activity is in the business sector and in recent years we have seen an increase in the mailing of promotional information.”
Peretz said that the new equipment would not lead to dismissals in the company, but would allow the reallocation of personnel within the organization.
“Today the IPC employs 7,000 workers. We hope that that number will remain constant in years to come, despite an expansion in activity and a growing population.”
In 2006, the IPC changed from a government-operated service to a government-owned company and in 2007 the industry was opened to competition allowing new players into the mail delivery market. Peretz said that the new purchase enabled the IPC to remain ahead of the competition offering better and quicker service.