UNEX™ Quality of Service

If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it

IPC’s UNEX™ system is used to measure international letter service performance for 36 postal operators with test mail sent from more than 50 countries on four continents. UNEX™ test letters and packets posted in one country, pass through the world’s postal networks until delivered to the addressee in the destination country. All of these  items contain a small Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag. At specific reading points in postal facilities, the RFID tag transmits its identity, anonymously, from the processing facility to IPC’s global RFID Network Centre in Brussels.

The UNEX™ System uses the transmitted data, with the date of posting and receipt, to calculate the transit time between specific points in the mail pipeline, allowing postal operators to manage the international mail pipeline in accordance with their delivery commitments to customers, regulators and postal partners. Postal operators can identify where bottlenecks may occur and where corrective actions are necessary.

UNEX™ began in 1994 with just 18 postal operators in 18 countries in Europe. Currently, there are 36 postal operators worldwide who mandated IPC to run the UNEX™ system and measurement of their cross-border letter mail transit times.

How it works

The UNEX™ system is based on a network of volunteer “panellists” – currently over 5,800 individuals worldwide – who send and receive test letters according to a weekly plan, and who enter the posting or delivery time on a central computer system. About 350,000 international first class/priority mail test letters are sent and tracked each year in the system. Test mail mirrors real mail geographical patterns and physical characteristics.

Once the RFID-transmitted data is sent to IPC’s global RFID Network Centre, the system identifies the progress or delays of the test letter from the sender in the origin country to the addressee in the destination country. UNEX™ provides measures on both end-to-end and domestic segments of the international mail pipeline, as shown in the figure below.

Flexible design models

The UNEX™ measurements are designed to operate at three levels.

• It measures performance between countries and cities in the IPC member countries for operational improvement purposes.
• It measures inbound performance for terminal dues (payment for delivery by one postal operator to another) which are linked to quality of service dealing with the Universal Postal Union Target Terminal Dues System, with the IPC European Letter post Interconnect Remuneration Agreement (LIRA-E) as well as the bilateral agreements.
• It provides the performance on cross-border mail flows which is required for annual publication under the European Union Postal Directive and CEN Standard

Reports and data are provided to UNEX™ participating postal operators throughout the year so that they can monitor progress toward the agreed annual targets.

Since UNEX™ is also used to settle terminal dues payments, the accuracy of the UNEX™ results is all the more important. IPC ensures accuracy by using a solid statistical design that is regularly updated to reflect reality, by advanced data validation and by providing on-line ad-hoc analysis tools.

Independence of UNEX™ results

All parties who use UNEX™ respect the integrity of the test measurements IPC provides. The validity and independence of the data is guaranteed by external panel recruitment and management contractors. From 2022 onward, Kantar (United Kingdom) is the sole provider for UNEX™ panel and test mail production.