Swiss Post's basic service mandate is defined by law and demands the provision of a nationwide acceptance and delivery network. The costs incurred by Swiss Post in fulfilling this basic service mandate are referred to as ‘net costs’. These are calculated as the difference between the result of Swiss Post with a universal service obligation and a scenario without a universal service obligation. The aim of the project is to ensure that the calculated net costs continue to represent the most accurate possible measurement of the financial impact of the universal service mandate in the future.

Swiss Economics is supporting Swiss Post in defining the hypothetical scenarios and calculating the resulting net costs up to 2030.

Methods

• Process cost-based costing with differentiation between variable and fixed cost components
• Econometric estimation of variable cost components
• GIS data processing and route optimisation on the basis of TSP algorithms
• Analysis and calibration of customer behaviour
• Mathematical projections based on assumptions about customer behaviour with a reduced branch and delivery network
• Sensitivity analysis of the projections

Publication

• Postal strategies in a digital age