The International Post Corporation (IPC) has launched a pan-European road-based distribution network, with intercontinental fly-in options, called the Cooperative Road Network Optimisation Solution (CRONOS).
Together with its member posts, IPC developed and launched this network to provide a response to post-Covid air capacity and performance challenges and to ensure a consistent, cost-effective and reliable service. Lettermail and parcels are transported by vans and trucks from origin posts to destination posts through a dedicated central hub in Findel, Luxembourg. CRONOS will transport up to 140 tons per week on 269 routes.
The participating origin postal operators are from Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden, Slovenia and the US. CRONOS will distribute mail product from the posts of the participating origin postal operators to posts in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France, the UK, Hungary, Croatia, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Existing IPC services and solutions are used to support CRONOS. IPC pallet boxes are used to optimize transportation capacity. Visibility is ensured through pallet box labels equipped with RFID tags. RFID gates and IPC mail registration devices (MRDs) are installed at the Findel hub to monitor and track each pallet box arriving and departing. The selection of the partners to provide the transportation services and to operate the central CRONOS hub was secured through an EU public tender.
Holger Winklbauer, CEO of the IPC, said, “The CRONOS ground network will assist in providing higher and more reliable performance quality for posts and their customers, stabilize and optimize transport costs and assist posts in further reducing CO2 emissions.”
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