Trending Printing Factors of Change within the Postal and Courier Industry
Over the past three years the global postal and courier industry has witness accelerated transformation rolling out technology across its entire business model. From transportation to customer interaction, the industry has revolutionised how parcels and letters are being sent, giving customers more choice on how and when sending items both domestically and internationally.
Pickup and Drop-Off Transformation
With factors such as the global economy and the rise in e-commerce, the way a package or letter is sent has changed with businesses looking to local retail networks to support delivery and alleviate constraints. The types of goods sent are also changing as deliveries become quicker, perishable goods such as food are now being sent on a timed delivery.
With greater flexibility of drop-off points in retail stores, service points and at home pickup, the use of technology such as self-service kiosks in service areas and SMO automation have flourished. Allowing customers to print tickets and label items independently before sending them off through a service point or arranging a pickup.
The way items are being delivered are also changing with more customers requiring out of home deliveries, lockers or service points are popping up to allow easy 24/7 pickup access which provide either an email or printed proof of receipt.
Environment and Sustainability
With a global focus on cutting carbon emissions, businesses are constantly looking at ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Looking at every aspect of the model from more environmentally friendly packaging to optimising last mile delivery by consolidating delivery routes and the use of more sustainable modes of transport such as electric and biofuels.
Technology is at the forefront of sustainability, carriers equipped with technologies such as PDAs with handheld printers or stationary mounted printing solutions in vehicles enable businesses to carry out more transactions such as pickups, deliveries, missed deliveries and additional services on the spot without adding additional transportation requirements.
Even packaging label media is moving to the forefront of many agendas. With a growing demand for sustainable printing, Linerless labelling is starting to take flight as a sustainable printing solution which allows variable length labels without the need for backing paper.
Logistics Automation
As the volume of parcels and letters requiring delivery continues to grow, the touchpoints for their journeys multiply. Visibility and speed are the common factor for measuring a successful delivery so hubs are now turning to automation technology to may track deliveries moving from one location to another.
Automation not only helps reduce costs but with technology such as barcoding or RFID labelling which assist the tracking of parcels through the use of touchpoints and beacons enables businesses and customers to know the full delivery journey. This technology increases the throughput, improves accuracy and provides better communication with the customer.
BIXOLON’S Logistics Printing Offerings
From traditional desktop labelling, mobile to kiosk, BIXOLON offers a range of dynamic printing solutions for the postal and courier Industry.
BIXOLON’s XD3-40 series is an entry level, 4-inch (118 mm) direct thermal or thermal transfer label printing solution, ideal for small size businesses for printing shipping labels at your place of business. Or the XD5-40 series 4-inch (118 mm) direct and thermal transfer printing series for small to mid-size businesses offers additional labelling features and the XD5-40tR model is a cost-effective RFID printer with UHF RFID printing and encoding capabilities.
The SLP-DL410 is a 4-inch (116 mm) direct thermal label and barcode printer which supports both label and fanfold printing with a compact external holder design, making it a viable solution for self-service stations which don’t require ongoing maintenance. BIXOLON also offers the SLP-DL410KV which supports a built-in converter and cigar jack power cable for in vehicle mounting and operation to allow easy printing of labels on the go.
BIXOLON also specialises in Linerless labelling. The XL5-40 is BIXOLON’s first dedicated 4-inch (114 mm) desktop Linerless solution with economical Linerless labelling features allowing the printing and cutting of various paper lengths ideal for flexible length labels requiring text, barcodes and QR codes for ongoing delivery visibility. Alternatively, BIXOLON also supports a wide range of mobile Linerless labelling solutions including the SPP-R200plusIII which supports 2-inch (58 mm) wide labelling or the XM7 2,3 and 4-inch premium label printer series. Each easily connecting to handheld PDAs, these printing solutions allow labelling and ticketing on the go.
For more information about BIXOLON’s Postal and Courier printing range, visit www.Bixolon.com.