UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION

1 UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION INTERNATIONAL BUREAU UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION UPU Global Monitoring System (Technical Design) 2nd Edition ( ) 10 October 2011 2 3 Note to this 2nd Edition ( ) of the UPU GMS Technical Design The 1st Edition of the UPU GMS Technical Design was produced and came to effect in November 2008. Since then, and from various UPU member countries through successive POC and CA resolutions, it has been rendered necessary to revise and/or include various Technical specification described in the 1st Edition. A 2nd Edition was finalised on 10th October 2011 whose detailed list of the changes is provided at the end of this document. The result of this revision is this 2nd Edition ( ) of the UPU GMS Technical Design. Specifically, the design improvements that are elaborated in this Edition include the possibility to use validated real international mail volumes (Section ) for city selection, adjustment provision to the valid mail allocation (Section and Annex B) and improving boosting conditions by allowing the possibility to add one or more cities and consequently increasing the number of test items (Section 6).

2 In terms of the RFID Diagnostic installation coverage (Section ) some practical considerations on RFID gate coverage have been included establishing the minimum mail volume requirement for inbound gate to be installed. The Item transit time calculation rules (Section ) together with the Performance On-time (POT) aggregation formula by the respective weights (Section and Annex C) are well detailed and significantly illustrated. The estimation of the accuracy of the POT has been modified to include a design factor that is calculated annually. Furthermore, Border control correction rules (Section and Annex D) (for the countries requesting for such correction) are clearly categorized and graphically explained. As for the Panel management, the introduction of meter franking for postage (Section and ), allowance to use receiver panellists (Section ) or individual business receiver panellist ( ) as well as the use of Electronic devices for capturing the date of delivery ( ) for panellist validation purposes has been included in this Edition to accommodate all UPU member country needs.

3 A further provision that is included in this edition is in Reporting (Section ) where DO s can receive test item information at a city zone level as long as the integrity of the measurement is not compromised. Finally, the introduction of quarterly data collection (Section ) as well as annual review of design parameters (Section 19), are improvements to make sure that the design and the data used are up to date reflecting the needs of the UPU member countries. Details of these design approvals are contained in the documents POC C1 7a, POC C 1 Doc 1 and POC C 1 Doc 1. 4 Contents 1 Introduction .. 8 Management summary .. 8 Background of the link between quality of service and terminal dues .. 11 The Global Monitoring measurement System (GMS) .. 11 2 Purpose of document .. 13 3 Underlying principles .. 14 Diagnostic monitoring .. 14 DO weighting .. 14 Multiple standards .. 14 Confidentiality .. 14 4 Statistical design.

4 15 Classification of DOs .. 15 General parameters .. 16 Total number of valid annual test items .. 19 Permanent links .. 19 Pool 1 .. 22 Allowed Adjustment to Permanent Links and Pool 1 Valid Mail Targets .. 23 Pool 2 .. 24 Contingency .. 25 5 Calculation of total result .. 27 Summary of expected coverage .. 27 Pool allocation .. 27 Allocation in Pool 1 .. 28 Allocation in Pool 2 .. 29 Temporal coverage capability .. 30 Example of allocation of flows to cities .. 32 6 Boosting options .. 34 Upgrading level of receiving DO .. 34 Promoting a pool flow to become a permanent link .. 35 Boosting a permanent link with more valid test mail items .. 35 Increase the number of items coming from pool(s) .. 35 Adding a city link .. 35 7 Panel management .. 37 Introduction .. 37 Recruitment of panellists .. 37 Training of panellists .. 39 Duties of the dropper panellist .. 41 Duties of the receiver panellist .. 42 Panel maintenance .. 42 8 Test mail characteristics and production of test letters.

5 43 Characteristics of test mail .. 43 Production of test letters .. 44 Provision of stamps .. 46 Management of transponders .. 46 Archiving test letters .. 47 9 Collection of data .. 48 Information required .. 48 10 Calculation of inbound performance results .. 49 Non-working 49 Concept of critical tag time (CTT) .. 49 Date of arrival .. 50 Domestic service standard .. 50 Non-working day adjustment .. 51 Rules for calculating inbound delivery time .. 52 Calculation of on-time inbound delivery .. 63 Calculating the percentage of on-time inbound deliveries .. 63 11 Reporting .. 64 GMS monthly summary report: intended for all participating DOs .. 64 GMS monthly inbound DO report (specific to each DO) .. 64 GMS monthly and year-to-date inbound (YTD) city report (specific to each DO) .. 65 5 GMS monthly outbound DO report (specific to each DO) .. 66 GMS monthly inbound item report (specific to each DO) .. 67 12 Quality control and validation.

6 69 Quality control .. 69 Validation .. 70 13 Diagnostic monitoring .. 73 RFID technology standard and single-unit equipment .. 73 Principles and procedures for installation .. 73 Basic principles .. 74 Practical considerations .. 76 On-site decision-making process .. 77 Site survey report and proposal .. 80 Acceptance process .. 81 Border Control correction .. 82 14 Minimum requirements for diagnostic monitoring systems .. 83 General remarks .. 83 Maintenance .. 83 Reliability .. 84 Security/integrity .. 84 Technical requirements .. 85 15 Alternative monitoring method in exceptional cases (date-stamping) .. 86 16 Confidentiality and integrity .. 87 Confidentiality .. 87 Integrity .. 87 17 Auditing .. 88 Introduction .. 88 Auditing the GMS .. 88 Audit report and quality assurance .. 89 18 Costs .. 90 RFID equipment costs .. 90 Measurement system costs .. 90 System management costs .. 91 GMS cost scenarios .. 91 Cost principles.

7 92 19 Updates and Annual Review of Essential Design Parameters .. 93 20 Glossary .. 94 List of revised sections .. 122 6 Tables Table : Levels of DO classification .. 14 Table : Key features of statistical design .. 15 Table : Allocation of valid test mail items and distribution of GDP by link number .. 21 Table : Required total number of valid items for permanent links per level .. 22 Table : Expected coverage for Pool 1 .. 23 Table : Expected coverage for Pool 2 .. 25 Table : Summary of expected coverage .. 27 Table : Number of DOs, GDP % and sample by level and group profile .. 27 Table : Distribution of GDP % by region for Pool 29 Table : Distribution of number of DOs by region for Pool 2 .. 29 Table : Coverage of the main sample design parameters over time .. 31 Table : Allocation of items by flow to 32 Table : Options for upgrading level of receiving DO .. 34 Table : Formats definitions of test items.. 43 Table : Sample list of CTTs throughout the week.

8 49 Table : Sample list of registrations and corresponding CTTs .. 50 Table : Day delivery time from Monday to Friday .. 53 Table : Inbound delivery times for a single non-working day .. 55 Table : Effect on inbound delivery times of having Friday and Monday as non-working days .. 56 Table : Effect on inbound delivery times of having Monday to Friday as non-working days .. 57 Table : Six-day delivery period (Monday to Saturday).. 58 Table : Inbound delivery times for a single non-working day with six-day delivery from Monday to Saturday .. 60 Table : Effect of Friday and Monday non-working days on inbound delivery time for six-day delivery from Monday to Saturday .. 61 Table : Effect of Monday to Saturday non-working days on inbound delivery time for six-day delivery from Monday to Saturday .. 62 Table : Example of a GMS summary report .. 64 Table : Example of a GMS inbound DO report .. 65 Table : Example of a GMS monthly inbound city report .. 65 Table : Example of a detailed GMS year-to-date (YTD) inbound city report.

9 66 Table : Example of a GMS monthly outbound DO report .. 67 Table : RFID installation procedure .. 78 Table : Stages of the on-site survey process .. 79 Table : Stages of the remote survey process .. 80 Table : GMS cost scenarios .. 91 7 Annexes Annex A: Examples of the allocation over flows and cities of valid test mail items (VTMIs) .. 97 Annex B: Formulae of the Adjustment of Valid Mail Targets for Permanent Links & Pool 1 .. 103 Annex C: Performance On-Time Calculation .. 105 Performance On-Time Calculation .. 105 Estimation of accuracy .. 107 Annex D: Border Control Correction .. 108 General 108 Installation of RFID gates for purposes of Customs correction .. 109 Setting of CTTs in connection with the Customs correction .. 110 Calculation of results .. 112 Standard process without Customs correction .. 112 Customs clearance without significant internal transfer of mail under DO's control .. 113 Customs clearance including internal transfer under DOs control.

10 115 Annex E: Distribution of GDP .. 118 8 1 Introduction Management summary The need to improve the overall end-to-end quality of international mail was recognized by the 1999 Beijing Congress, which decided on the need for a link between the quality of service that designated POSTAL operators (DOs) offered each other and terminal dues payments. A mail measurement system, designed with the needs of industrialised countries (ICs) in mind and based on existing monitoring systems, was introduced in January 1995. The 2004 Bucharest Congress reaffirmed this need for a link between quality of service and terminal dues. A team was set up responsible for developing an affordable global quality of service monitoring system that could accommodate the needs of all the many different UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION (UPU) members. The Global Monitoring System (GMS) Development Group was also set up to formulate a proposal on the technical specifications of such an all-encompassing system.