A new ranking by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has named the Swiss postal service as the best in the world. Experts said that Swiss Post was in a “league of its own” when it came to its proficiency in sending letters and parcels to and from Swiss cities, cantons and abroad.

New postal service ranking by the UPU

To create the ranking, the UPU analysed 172 countries around the world, to see which nation’s postal systems are world beaters, excellent considering the wider economic conditions, or are in need of improvement. To do this, the UPU uses a score out of 100 - called 2IPD - which is based on the following factors:

• Reliability: Quality of services like speed and predictability
• Reach: How possible / easy it is to send post and parcels around the world
• Relevance: Demand from the population, the number of post offices
• Resilience: A postal service's ability to adapt to new innovation

Each country was given a rating out of 100 in each category, with a weighted average of all four scores used to place each nation on the ranking.

Postal services improve worldwide, but struggle in some regions

In the ranking for 2023, the UPU noted that last year saw a “global upswing” in the quality of postal services worldwide. Global 2IPD scores increased by 0,6 on average compared to 2021, with the biggest improvements seen in "Arab countries" and in the Asia-Pacific region.

Despite this, growth has not been equally distributed. The UPU noted that while the global average score did rise, postal services in so-called “high-income economies” have seen their scores slump by -1,5 on average. They explained that services in this group "faced challenges in transitioning out of the COVID-19 pandemic, experiencing a deceleration in e-commerce activity and, consequently, a decrease in parcel volumes."

Swiss Post ranked top for seventh year in a row

This year, Swiss Post has been named as the best postal service in the world for the seventh time running. The UPU said the company, which is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, is “in a league of its own”, achieving a perfect score of 100.

The alpine nation was followed by Austria with 96,7, with the German postal system, Deutsche Post, rounding out the podium with 95,7. Japan (91,5) and France (88,3) were the last two countries deemed to have an “excellent” postal service.

Switzerland sets the standard for postal excellence

The UPU noted that Switzerland “consistently set[s] the standard for postal excellence”, performing near-top in the reliability, reach and relevance categories, while placing first for resilience. Swiss Post’s ability to adapt to the decline in the number of letters sent and the rise in online shopping by offering new products - and of course its banking services - was given particularly high praise.

Swiss Post’s impact on the economy was also championed, with the UPU estimating that the per capita income generated by the company equates to the average per capita cost of supplemental health insurance in Switzerland. They concluded that the alpine nation is at the “pinnacle of postal excellence” and that Swiss Post “vividly illustrates the profound influence that a well-functioning postal service can have on both national prosperity and individual well-being.” 

Swiss Post prepares for elections, and price rises

“The high quality of services will always be the distinctive sign of Swiss Post,” CEO Roberto Cirllio told 20 Minuten. The newspaper noted that the company has been especially busy of late, having just delivered 5 million voting cards in one week to prepare for the Swiss federal elections this October.

However, the company has not gone without criticism, especially since the announced rise in the cost of sending a letter at the end of this year. In the lead-up to the elections, Swiss Post has also been accused of “ignoring” the “No advertising” stickers on letterboxes and posting political flyers to those who don’t want them. This practice has earned the firm 667.000 francs, a report from SonntagsZeitung claimed.

For more information about the ranking, and to see how other nations performed, check out the UPU report.

Thumb image credit: Michael Derrer Fuchs / Shutterstock.com