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Ed. Note: This article was previously posted at IoP Journal.
Brazilian postal operator Correios has been working closely with the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations' postal agency, and GS1 Brasil, a non-profit organization dedicated to implementing global standards for supply chain visibility, to improve the tracking of postal cargo through its sorting centers using radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies.
Correios implanted RFID tags in cargo containers holding hundreds of packages, and it installed approximately 2,000 readers at the entrances and exits of operational units in order to track letters and parcels throughout its network. This was accomplished in partnership with the UPU through its Global Monitoring System program and GS1. The RFID tags include GS1's Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) as a postal item identifier. According to Correios, this is the world's first postal cargo tracking project to employ ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID technology.
Correios decided to maintain its established tracking process, which uses bar codes, along with the new RFID system, as there are still some challenges regarding the deployment of electronic tags. The UPU assisted Correios in selecting RFID tracking technology to ensure purchases were made in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Passive rather than active RFID tags were thus chosen, in order to keep costs low. Thanks to the UPU's partnership with GS1, Correios began using labels with GS1 SSCC, the most-used standard for rapid adoption of the technology, even outside the postal sector.
Through RFID technology, Correios can now accurately track and manage freight containers and their contents as they enter and exit distribution centers, without the need for workers to manually scan barcodes. Some mail items passing through Correios's hubs also have their own RFID tags for better tracking. These tags can utilize GS1's Scan4Transport (S4T) global standard for encoding transport data on a postal label (see Scan4Transport Encodes Transport Data on Logistics Labels). According to GS1, the S4T standard can capture the key data required to deliver first-mile, classification and last-mile data, though it is not yet in use by the post office.
Correios's customers can purchase RFID tags for use with their own orders. One customer testing this is Brazilian footwear manufacturer Via Marte (see Via Marte Uses GS1 Standard to Pioneer E-commerce via Correios), which inserted RFID tags using GS1 global standards into its products for faster identification through the Correios mail flow. The company's goal was to minimize delivery errors.
Antonio Caeiro, the UPU's quality measurement program manager, says the GS1 standards are used internally, as required by Correios, with the aim of ensuring interoperability with domestic customers that send RFID-tagged household items via Correios. "The UPU standards are also in use to ensure interoperability between UPU member countries that exchange RFID-tagged items internationally," he explains.
To date, Correios has purchased 27 million RFID tags encoded with GS1 SSCC keys. These labels are also printed with a GS1-128 barcode, which enables a matching process with the UPU S10 code at all 237 post office branches. In its next tender, Correios plans to acquire "integrated labels" that will feature SSCC coding and have an S10 printed on them, thus eliminating the SSCC + S10 correspondence process currently in place.
The Correios RFID project's success is due, in part, to the strong partnership that the UPU and GS1 have developed throughout the last decade. In 2010, the two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to develop an RFID-based automatic product identification system for the postal network. GS1 has worked closely with the UPU GMS team to determine how their standards could help with postal tracking.
In mid-2019, GS1 became an official member of the UPU Advisory Committee, which represents the interests of the wider postal sector and provides a framework for effective dialogue between post offices, the UPU and stakeholders. This includes non-governmental organizations, standardization and financial organizations, providers of goods and services to the postal sector, transport entities, and others that have an interest in supporting the mission and objectives of the UPU.
According to Walter Trezek, chairman of the UPU Advisory Committee, the successful collaboration between GS1 and Correios, resulting in highly competitive and efficient e-commerce solutions, is an example of how broader players in the postal sector (such as GS1) and designated operators (like Correios) can create value and increase the competitiveness of the postal sector. In July 2022, the committee launched a new membership structure as part of the International Secretariat's goal to open the postal union to more private sector participants and, in turn, help designated operators accelerate transformation through scanning.
