Brussels, 02/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - In 2014, 90.6% of international priority and first-class letters reached their destinations within three days and 97.8% within five days, according to statistics published on 31 March 2015 by the International Post Corporation (IPC). These figures cover a total of 31 countries: 28 EU states, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
According to the IPC, 2014 was the 17th consecutive year that delivery of priority mail in Europe surpassed the targets set by the EU's postal directives (85% of letters reaching their destinations within three days and 97% within five days). The IPC notes, however, that there was a 1.9 point fall between 2013 and 2014. According to the IPC, this is partly due to amendments to the rules on calculating the time of posting set out by the European EN13850 (CEN) standard, published in December 2012. The new rules include all the days of the week during which operations take place, including Saturday and Sunday for countries where the postal service is operating on these days.
Herbert-Michael Zapf, IPC President, welcomed these results and stated that, "The consistent high level of performance demonstrates that postal operators' continue to work hard to maintain the same reliable high quality services". (Jean Comte)