DS CEN/TR 15472:2006

Postal services - Measurement of transit times for parcels by the use of a track and trace system

Scope

This Technical Report specifies methods for measuring the transit time results of domestic and cross-border parcels, collected, processed and delivered by postal service providers. Transit time is the time elapsed between initial and final scan of the item. The initial scan may occur at varying points within the pipeline (e.g. point of posting, entry into the first sorting centre). Similarly the final scan may occur at e.g. exit from the last sorting centre, final delivery.
Therefore there are two different categories of transit time:
1. End-to-End
A true end-to-end transit time measure may only be possible for some items recorded in the track and trace system. End-to-end is defined as from the point parcels are placed into the collection/acceptance system under the responsibility of the postal operators, to the final delivery point under the responsibility of the postal operators. In many instances postal operators do not extend track and trace to the final delivery point.
These items may not cover the total parcel flow. Generally the results of this subset cannot be taken as representative of the total flow, but this subset may represent a particular sector, e.g. single parcels sent over a post-office counter to single receivers. The transit time results of purely this subset are of public concern.
2. Non End-to-End
If initial and/or final scans occur in the sorting centres for at least some parcels, it is possible to calculate the transit time between sorting centres, e.g. first-sorting-centre-to-last-sorting-centre. This can be done to calculate transit time results for all parcels in the total flow - this may be reasonable for internal purposes. The objective of the measurement to estimate the transit time quality of service given to the customer can only be achieved, if the time elapsed between posting and first scan and between delivery and last scan respectively can be estimated (eventually by the customer).
The overall transit time quality of service