CEN/TR 15369:2006

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-januar-2007
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Postal services - Quality of service - Guide for the implementation of EN 14534
Measurement of the transit time of end-to-end services for bulk mail
Postalische Dienstleistungen - Dienstqualität - Leitfaden für die Anwendung von EN
14534 Laufzeitmessung end-to-end für Massensendungen
Services postaux - Qualité de service - Guide pour la mise en oeuvre de l'EN 14534
Mesure de la qualité de service de bout en bout pour le courrier en nombre
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TR 15369:2006
ICS:
03.240 Poštne storitve Postal services
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

TECHNICAL REPORT
CEN/TR 15369
RAPPORT TECHNIQUE
TECHNISCHER BERICHT
May 2006
ICS 03.240
English Version
Postal services - Quality of service - Guide for the
implementation of EN 14534 Measurement of the transit time of
end-to-end services for bulk mail
Services postaux - Qualité de service - Guide pour la mise Postalische Dienstleistungen - Dienstqualität - Leitfaden für
en application de l'EN 14534 Mesure de la qualité de die Anwendung von EN 14534 Laufzeitmessung end-to-end
service de bout en bout pour courrier en nombre für Massensendungen
This Technical Report was approved by CEN on 25 February 2006. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 331.
CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
Management Centre: rue de Stassart, 36  B-1050 Brussels
© 2006 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TR 15369:2006: E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
Foreword.3
Introduction .4
1 Scope .5
2 Purpose and use of postal quality of service standards.5
3 Considerations before implementing the EN 14534.7
4 Implementing the standard.8
5 Information regarding the interpretation of specific clauses and formulae in EN 14534 .14
Annex A Implementation timetable.23

Foreword
This Technical Report (CEN/TR 15369:2006) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 331
“Postal services”, the secretariat of which is held by NEN.

Introduction
This Technical Report is supplementary to EN 14534 Postal services - Quality of service - Measurement of
transit time of end-to-end services for bulk mail. It provides information to be considered when implementing
the EN 14534. It has been developed to guide postal operators and regulators as to the use, benefits and
restrictions of EN 14534. The first part of this report contains general information to guide regulators and
operators in their decision on how and when to implement the standard. The second part of the report
contains detailed information on how to interpret specific clauses in EN 14534 and should be read in parallel
with the standard.
In addition to referencing this Technical Report, those seeking to implement the standard are advised to
consult requirements and guidance from the national regulators and legislation that apply in their jurisdictions.
EN 14534 provides a defined set of minimum requirements to satisfy the information interests of the national
regulatory authorities, postal customers and postal service providers for quality of service measurement, and
to allow postal service providers to comply with the requirements of the 1997 Postal Directive of the European
Commission.
1 Scope
This Technical Report is an implementation guide to EN 14534 for use by postal operators, regulators and
those responsible for commissioning, carrying out, or auditing the measurement of postal service quality. It
gives information, which will facilitate the implementation of EN 14534. It gives an overview of the processes
required and factors to consider when measuring quality of service. It provides guidance on alternative
approaches allowed in the standard including how to select and calculate alternative or additional discriminant
factors and methods for weighting of strata. It describes a process for implementation of the measurement
system, and provides examples and clarification on specific requirements of EN 14534. It gives information on
how to interpret the test results obtained by measurement according to the standard.
This Technical Report does not alter in any way the requirements of EN 14534. It is concerned with technical
issues in the implementation of the measurement system. The Technical Report provides guidance but it does
not specify how the regulators shall enforce and monitor the use of the standard since this is the responsibility
of the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities themselves.
2 Purpose and use of postal quality of service standards
2.1 General
EN 14534 Postal services - Quality of service - Measurement of transit time of end-to-end services for bulk
mail has been developed in order to provide a standardised method that can be used throughout Europe for
measuring the transit time of end-to-end mail services and to assist postal service providers in complying with
the requirements of the 1997 Postal Directive of the European Commission.
For the implementation of EN 14534 and to guide the user of this and other quality of service standards the
following facts and precautions may be considered.
EN 14534 contains a number of requirements, which may be agreed with or should be approved by national
postal regulators.
EN 14534 specifies technical requirements for the measurement including the preparation of reports on the
results of measurement. However EN 14534 does not state how and when results should be shared with
postal customers and users, who will order measurement to take place, and who will pay for the
measurement; these subjects are outside the standard and will be determined by legal and regulatory
requirements.
2.2 Benefits of the quality of service standards
The standardised quality of service measuring methods provides a uniform way for measuring the end-to-end
transit time of postal items. Postal regulators can refer to the standard when requiring information about
quality of service for postal operators. For any minimum service levels required by the European Commission
or by national Directives for operators in the universal service, requirements can be made that the service be
measured according to EN 14534.
Standardised measurement methods may help to keep the cost of measuring down. They could also make it
easier to find contractors familiar with the methods and to evaluate the work of contractors for measuring and
auditing. The standardised measuring methods may also eliminate debates and uncertainties about results
from varying measuring methods.
Using standardised measuring methods will assure that the measurement will be done in an objective and
equal way for all operators in accordance with the requirements of the 1997 Postal Directive of the European
Commission.
The use of standards will ensure that reliable and correct information can be collected which can be presented
to regulators and the public in an understandable way. It also allows the regulator to collect this information.
2.3 Limitations of EN 14534
EN 14534 considers only the measurement of transit time (expressed as the percentage of mail delivered
within J + n day’s end-to-end) and does not consider other aspects of service performance. For example, the
date of deposit is defined by the last collection of the day but the standard does not measure whether the
timing of the last collection of the day meets customers’ requirement, nor how the times compare for different
service providers. Similarly EN 14534 considers the date of delivery but does not take into account the time of
day when the item was delivered, whether or not there are more than one delivery each day, the condition of
items when delivered or the queuing time at post offices etc.
The method for end-to-end measuring specified in EN 14534 is not designed to provide for detailed results for
the measuring parts of the distribution chain, when more than one operator is involved in the collection,
processing and delivery of mail.
Although the EN 14534 specifies a method that will be used by many postal operators, it shall be noted that
the overall transit time quality of service result does not measure the postal operator’s overall performance in
a way that provides direct comparison of postal service operators.
2.4 Interpretation of results
Results from the quality of service measuring cannot always be used for direct comparison of the overall
quality of service. Neither can the results be used to compare the service of each operator in multiple operator
environments.
Direct comparison of two operators can be difficult to make. Frequently one is interested in comparing two
operators covering the same geographical area, i.e. the quality that a customer receives when using one or
other of the operators for collecting and distributing mail within an area. To do this, it is necessary to compare
the transit time of the operators over similar studies of domains. The two overall figures of the operators’ on-
time performance may be misleading. Considerations in case of multiple operators are described in 4.2.
When interpreting the results from the measurement it is important also to consider the stratification and
national and other peculiarities that apply in each specific case.
2.5 Use of survey results for quality improvement
EN 14534 sets out minimum requirements in order to produce one overall figure. It is recognised that
operators or other bodies may wish to go beyond these minimum requirements in order to produce information
to identify and correct specific areas of poor performance. The survey design can be expanded to collect this
information.
EN 14534 provides minimum requirements and allows measurement systems to be enhanced. It should be
noted that other methods are available to find problematic areas and that the standard may not be the only
method to use for this purpose.
EN 14534 allows the use of test items containing electronic chips or other advanced technology so that each
test item can be monitored at pre-defined points or throughout its whole journey to allow for more detailed
diagnostic analysis of the transit time. If these are used, the organisation operating the measuring system
shall take steps to ensure that the diagnostic system does not introduce biases in the end-to-end
measurement system.
When using the results of end-to-end measurements according to EN 14534 for quality improvements in a
multiple operator environment additional considerations regarding causes of delays and their allocations to
operators are to be made in order to see how each part of the process affect the total end-to-end quality of
service.
3 Considerations before implementing the EN 14534
3.1 Regulations
The standard itself is not meant to specify how the regulators shall enforce and monitor the use of EN 14534.
This is to be done through the European and national regulatory work. In particular it does not specify how
results shall be published by the regulator.
3.2 Measuring body (Contractors for survey operation)
EN 14534 states that measurement shall be carried out by an independent performance-monitoring
organisation. This is defined as a body charged with the monitoring of the quality of service which is “external
to, and having no links of ownership or control with the postal service provider thus monitored”. The
independent performance-monitoring organisation is responsible for undertaking the survey. Usually this
performance-monitoring organisation will act as a contractor for a sponsoring organisation which may be, for
example, the postal service provider itself or a national regulatory authority.
The independent performance monitoring organisation provides a guarantee that results of the measurement
have not been wrongly influenced by the postal service provider. Factors normally taken into account in
choosing a performance monitoring organisation include the capability - with strong emphasis of panel
management skills -, experience and reputation of the organisation as well as any legal or regulatory
requirements and, of course, cost. To cover all these points it is common to go through a formal tender
process. Organisations which may have undertaken quality of service measurement include e.g. research
institutes, consultancies, market research companies, universities and government organisations.
The performance monitoring organisation is required to ensure that the panel of senders and receivers is
independent of postal operators and to manage the panel according to the International Chamber of
Commerce/ESOMAR International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practice. This is intended to
ensure that the postal operator cannot influence either the behaviour or reporting of the panellists, or the
quality of service provided specifically to them. These codes of practice also require among other things that
the identity of the panellists is not revealed to anyone outside the monitoring organisation, except with the
prior permission of those panellists (see the comments on 5.1 in Clause 5 in this Technical Report).
3.3 Real mail information
The purpose of real mail studies is to collect information on the flows and other characteristics of mail.
Management systems or surveys specifically designed for the purpose may be used. In a multiple operator
environment there may be no real mail information available for all parts of the chain. In this case the standard
cannot be used.
It may not be necessary to wait for all real mail information before starting to use the standard as weighting
can be applied after the event.
5.5 of EN 14534:2003 “Real mail studies” lays down that the frequency of real mail studies shall be
determined in accordance with the national regulatory authority and shall be performed at a minimum once
every third year. For smaller mail flows, measured according to the extended measuring time as described in
the Annex G in the EN 14534 Amd 1 and the collection of real mail information may take up to 3 years.
The reason why real mail studies shall be repeated at intervals is that type of senders, type of mail,
distribution channels, volumes of posted mail and other factors may have changed over time.
The review of the real mail studies aims at reflecting changes in the postal environment. Reasons to review
and perform new real mail studies may be the following events:
a) General
 substantial increase/decrease of the economy in general; and,
 substantial increase/decrease of the number of (a specific type of) postal items.
b) Operational
 introduction of new postal products with considerable market share;
 introduction of new logistics that affect the acceptance/distribution of mail or the weight/number of strata;
and,
 change of tariff structure.
c) Legislative
 decrease of the reserved area; and,
 increase/decrease of the universal service area.
d) Others
 increasing/decreasing market share of other postal operators with branch or regional oriented customers
and/or specialised services;
 substantial changes in distribution between rural and urban populations (e.g. drift to the city); and,
 changes in multiple operator environments.
This list is only exemplary. There might be many more reasons based on national peculiarities and/or general
effects that may prove the need for the performance of additional real mail studies.
Real mail studies can be expensive which is why EN 14534 allows up to 3 years between studies.
Nevertheless there may be situations where real mail studies should be made more often, such as rapidly
changing events in the areas a) to d) above. It is also necessary to consider the effect on the measured
quality of any changes in the real mail parameters. If a factor is not very discriminant in practice then big
changes in the real mail parameter may have little effect and three years would be sufficiently frequent.
However, if a factor is very discriminant then small changes in the real mail parameter could have such a big
effect on quality of service that more frequent real mail studies are needed.
4 Implementing the standard
4.1 Steps to consider before implementation
In principle the following steps are required in order to implement quality of service measurement in
accordance with the EN 14534. Indicative time periods are shown for each stage. GANTT charts showing the
different stages are contained in Annex A.
a) Study the EN 14534 and this implementation guide and produce an outline specification for the survey. This
specification should identify, in particular, the geographical stratification that will be used and the discriminant
parameters that will need to be considered (up to 6 months);
b) Organise real mail studies to collect the information required for the survey. The real mail study shall cover
different days of the week and periods of the year (between 6 and 12 months);
c) It is possible to proceed with call for tender processes, the selection of an independent survey operator, and
begin contract negotiations before the final results of the real mail studies are known (preliminary estimates
can be used instead) (up to12 months, at the same time as b) is performed);
d) Once full results of the real mail studies are available the design of the survey can be finalised and
contractual negotiations with the survey operator completed (up to 4 months); and,
e) A period will be necessary for set up and testing of the survey (up to 9 months).
The timetable for activities a) through e) should be planned so as to have them completed at the end of a
calendar year.
f) Full survey operation will start at the beginning of a calendar year and is required to last for 12, 24 or 36
months in order to meet the requirements of EN 14534 (12 months); and,
g) Reports shall be available within 3 months of the end of a measurement period of 12 months for large sized
cross-border mail flows. For medium sized cross-border mail flows reports shall be available within 3 months
of the end of a measurement period of 24 months. For small sized cross-border mail flows reports shall be
available within 3 months of the end of a measurement period of 36 months (up to 3 months).
Many universal service providers already have some system in place for measuring end-to-end quality of
service.
If there is no existing real mail study in place but a system to measure quality of service already exists, it may
be possible to speed up the collection of information on real mail by using existing management information
available to the postal service provider. In other words the real mail studies would run in parallel with the
quality of service survey, and the results of the quality of service survey would be adjusted retrospectively
using weighting at the end of the first year of operation. It could then take 16 to 24 months to the start of the
measurement period and a further 15 months before results for the calendar year are available (see Table
A.1).
In a number of cases faster implementation may be possible:
— if a system to measure quality of service already exists with a design already based on real mail studies
and concepts, with minor modifications required, it should be possible to make the modifications required for
compliance with EN 14534 with little delay (6 to 12 months to start of measurement period, see Table A.2);
and,
— if a system to measure quality of service already exists with a design already based on real mail studies
and concepts, but major modifications are required before the survey is compliant with EN 14534, there may
be significant contractual issues with the survey operator. Time will have to be allowed for this, more time
being required for a bigger survey (12 to 18 months to start of measurement period, see Table A.3).
Where there is neither systems to measure quality of service nor existing real mail studies in place it could
take up to about 30 months to the start of the measurement period and a further 15 months or more before
results for the calendar year are available (see Table A.4).
In a multiple operator environment, longer implementation times may be necessary.
4.2 Considerations in case of multiple operators
4.2.1 General
EN 14534 can be used both by universal service providers and by other postal service providers operating in
a liberated market for the measurement of the full process of the pipeline end to end.
4.2.2 Field of study
The first step in designing the measurement system is to decide on the field of study. EN 14534 provides for a
number of alternatives.
— For domestic services, the field of study defines the parts of the country in which items will be posted and
the parts of the country where they will be delivered. Thus if a postal service provider only offers a service in
certain parts of the country, the field of study may be restricted to those parts of the country. On the other
hand it is important to make sure that all parts of the country served by the service provider are covered in the
field of study, including those parts served through collection or delivery agents.
— For cross border services, the posting or the delivery field of study may, for example, be defined as the
whole of a single country or as a group of countries. It may be useful to measure the overall service to/from a
group of countries in order to reduce the work in the case of an operator forwarding or receiving small
amounts of mail to/from several countries.
— For both domestic and cross-border services the standard may also be used to measure the service
provided by a group of operators.
4.2.3 How and when to use EN 14534 or other quality of service standards
For technical reasons EN 14534 may not in all parts be suitable for the measurement of very small volumes of
mail and for operators with limited coverage. For these reasons the following technical points should be
considered by service providers operating in a liberated market:
— geographical stratification and discriminant factors should be examined to ensure that they are appropriate.
For example, addressing characteristics may be highly discriminant if the operation is highly automated. EN
14534 allows discriminant characteristics to be changed if necessary;
— types and numbers of customers who can take part in the survey should be examined. If an operator is only
offering service to limited numbers of customers, it may be difficult to recruit sufficient panellists, particularly
since the survey requires co-operation from customers;
— types of induction should be examined. For example, if preferential treatment is offered to certain classes of
customers, then the class of customer becomes an important discriminant characteristic;
— it is important to consider how dates of induction and delivery can be recorded accurately and without bias.
For example, if receivers receive high volumes of real mail each day there may be problems in intercepting
test items. Alternatively if the volume of real mail per poster or receiver is very low, it may become noticeable
to the postal operator that a panellist in the survey is sending or receiving test letters with a consequent risk of
bias to the survey results;
— information on real mail will be required for geographical stratification and the discriminant characteristics.
In a multiple operator environment real mail information for the total pipeline may be difficult to obtain and an
estimation should be made;
— if operators are using an end-to-end track and trace systems it may be more appropriate to obtain quality of
service information from the track and trace systems;
— for cross-border mail, real mail information is required for both the posting and delivery countries. In many
cases the operators in the two countries will collect and share information on real mail flows in their own
countries. If shared information is unavailable the operator commissioning the survey will have to collect
information about the flows in both countries;
 if more than one operator is involved in the total operation, information may be obtained similarly as for
cross-border mail shared information on real mail flows; and,
 other ways of collecting real mail information in a multiple operator environment is used by electronic tags
for the whole chain.
Note that in the above, it is assumed throughout that the measurement is carried out end to end from the
customer perspective. This may be the measurement of the end to end service provided by:
 an individual operator providing a fully end to end service;
 a group of parallel operators, all providing fully end to end services (parallel operations);
 more than one operator, who, in combination, provide an end to end service, each carrying out only part
of the pipeline (partial pipelines); and,
 a group of operators, who, in various combinations, provide end to end services, with different operators
carrying out different parts of the pipeline (may include both parallel and partial pipelines).
For an example of the third alternative above, operator A might collect, process, and partially distribute the
mail, whilst operator B and C might further distribute and deliver the mail in different parts of the country. From
the customer’s perspective, they are only interested in the end to end service provided. EN 14534 would be
suitable to measure this service, but would not in itself be suitable to measure the service provided within this
pipeline by the individual operators.
To measure the transit time for only part of pipeline would require additional information about the handover
point that is not covered in EN 14534. If such measurement is desired, it would be necessary to decide
whether reliable information can be provided (e.g. by the use of electronic tags), or, if not, to consider whether
another standard, such as the bulk mail standard would be more useful.
The results from the quality of service measurement will provide as a minimum a single overall figure for each
operator. When interpreting the quality offered by different operators (see 2.4) it should be borne in mind that
there may be several factors affecting the comparison. For example, one operator may be providing a service
for local mail posted and delivered within a city whilst another operator offers a national service. Similarly two
operators may both offer a national service but in practice have different patterns of real mail.
For closer comparisons between operators, it may be necessary to compare their performance in similar
circumstances. EN 14534 allows this to be done by calculating transit times for particular study domains which
form subsets of the field of study. The geographical stratification, e.g. local mail, long distance mail, or rural
mail, and the methods of induction and delivery may be useful as study domains.
Note that EN 14534 allows for quality of service measurements that are not transit time, e.g. delivered within a
specified period.
4.3 Extension to a wider EU
4.3.1 General
In May 2004 the European Union was enlarged by the accession of a number of additional European
countries, making it necessary to adjust EN 14534 to suit the needs for the additional countries and for any
future expansion and to cover for flows with smaller mail volumes in an enlarged EU. In parallel with the
revision of this report an amendment to EN 14534 has therefore been produced.
According to requirements from the European Commission for the domestic measurement system every
single member state will have to undertake these steps on its own. To ensure that all EU member countries
are able to comply with the EN 14534 all countries should start to undertake the necessary steps
(4.1 a) to e)) as soon as possible. As far as cross-border flows are concerned this will also need to be done by
all EU members.
EN 14534 includes flexibility areas for adapted implementation; however it has been considered that further
flexibility had to be provided for in order not to get too high costs for the monitoring system for small cross-
border flows or for small operators.
In the amendment to EN 14534 this relaxation for small mail volumes is described.
4.3.2 Domestic
In principle all countries have a domestic market with postal volumes large enough to apply EN 14534 without
modification. To reach the full application, principally in the area of the real mail studies, a transitional period
may however be required.
4.3.3 Cross-border
Bulk mail volumes on a large number of cross border flows in the EU are very limited. One practical area for
solutions to limit the size of the cross border study and for cost effectiveness is the concept of grouping
countries by geographical regions. EN 14534 already allows for a field of study to contain a group of countries.
If the field of study covers a group of countries, the country of posting and/or delivery may need to be included
in the geographical stratification. Another method now specified in the amendment to EN 14534 is the
extension of the measuring period. This redesign of the requirements for the cross-border study is not limited
to the new links with the new EU members, but applies on a similar basis to all EU countries.
4.4 General guidelines for regulators
In a number of places in EN 14534 there is room for some modifications expressed by the wording “by
agreement with / in accordance with / if required by the national regulatory authority” (NRA). These points are
summarised below:
 in the case of “force majeure” events such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks the period affected may
be removed from the reporting period (see 4.2.2 of EN 14534:2003);
 for domestic mail, the transit times may be calculated according to the weekend collection and delivery
pattern provided, in accordance with one of the calculation rules of B.2 (see 4.2.3 of
EN 14534:2003);
 published regional holidays may be subtracted in the calculation of transit time (see 4.2.3 of
EN 14534:2003);
 frequency of the real mail studies shall be determined in accordance with the NRA (see 5.5 of
EN 14534:2003);
 minimum geographical stratification specified in the standard may be replaced by other geographical
parameters if it is demonstrated by auditable proof, that these are more discriminant (see 5.6.1 of
EN 14534:2003);
 definitions of outskirts, urban, rural, local and distances may take national peculiarities into account (see
5.6.2 of EN 14534:2003);
 distribution of the panel shall be done according to random sampling. There shall be at minimum
30 postal areas evenly spread over the whole field of study and the postal areas shall be defined by
agreement with the national regulatory authority (see 5.7 of EN 14534:2003);
 for the domestic measurement systems, the list of all discriminant mail characteristics from one operator
may be revised based on the results of empirical studies on the subject (see 6.1 of EN 14534:2003); and,
 PO boxes may be excluded from the measurement system by agreement with the national regulatory
authority (see 6.2 of EN 14534:2003).
Additional reasons, backgrounds and appropriate solutions for each point are described in Clause 5 of this
Technical Report.
4.5 Adjustments to design requirements to take account of national peculiarities
EN 14534:2003 sets out, in 5.6, minimum requirements for the geographical factors to be taken into account
in the survey design. These factors were determined after studying the results of a number of domestic and
cross-border quality of service surveys. The factors are:
 distance travelled by a letter: local, short distance, or long distance;
 whether the letter was posted in an urban or rural area; and,
 whether the letter was delivered in an urban or rural area.
EN 14534 recognises that there may be national peculiarities for which the definitions of the geographical
parameters may not be fully appropriate, in particular the definitions of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’, ‘local’ and ‘distance’
may need to be changed in order to reflect national conditions. If that is the case, they can be changed by
agreement with the national regulatory authority.
The geographical stratification specified in 5.6 is a minimum requirement. This stratification may be expanded
to include other geographical factors provided that the minimum requirements are still met. For example, the
part of the country where an item was posted or delivered could be taken into account, or a larger number of
‘distance’ categories could be used.
EN 14534:2003 sets out, in Clause 6, the discriminant factors which should be taken into account in the
survey design. The factors which are discriminant depend in practice on the detailed operation of the postal
system, and it is possible that factors which are important for some service providers may not be important for
others. For domestic measurement systems, the list of discriminant factors may therefore be revised based on
the results of empirical studies on the subject.
When considering whether additional geographical factors or mail characteristics should be included in the
survey design, the following should be taken into account:
 Are the new factors discriminant? To what extent do the factors affect the quality of the service provided?
 Can the factors be defined and applied consistently? Is there a nationally established definition which can
be used?
 Can relevant information be provided? For example, is information on real mail characteristics available,
can factors such as ‘distance’ and ‘urban’ be determined easily for an individual letter or panellist, and is a
suitable sampling frame available if needed?
 Are the factors easy to understand? For example, technical terms like ‘machine readable’ may not be
understood.
 How will the cost of the survey be affected?
4.6 Reporting of results
Minimum requirements for the reporting of results are set out in Clause 7 of EN 14534:2003. This states that
reports should be provided “at least once a year, based on the calendar year” and issued within 3 months of
the end of the test period. For measurement extended over a longer period of time as explained in Annex G in
the amendment to EN 14534 the reporting of results will be as follows:
End of year 2: No reporting of results.
End of year 3: Reporting of results based on accumulated period from year 1 to year 3.
End of year 4: Reporting of results based on accumulated period from year 2 to year 4.
End of year 5: Reporting of results based on accumulated period from year 3 to year 5.
Clause 7 gives detailed requirements for the information to be included in the report.
 Results are presented in terms of on-time performance and cumulative percentage of mail delivered
within n days for n = 1 to 10. On-time performance is measured against the service standard, i.e. the
number of working days within which items should be delivered. This service standard may be set by
regulatory authorities or by the service providers.
 For domestic mail EN 14534 allows a number of different methods of calculating the transit time,
depending on the service offered at weekends and on whether delivery takes part on 5 or 6 days of the
week. For cross-border mail only one calculation method is allowed for the purpose of the standard.
 The report should describe the mail types and categories measured in the survey.
 The total sample size and the accuracy of the results should be given in the report. EN 14534 states
minimum requirements for the accuracy of domestic and cross-border on-time performance.
 The period of the measurement should be stated.
 The report should also describe any failures to meet the requirements of EN 14534, and give the identity
of the independent performance monitoring organisation and the audit.
To assist in the interpretation of results, the following points should be noted:
 results need to be compared against the same service standard. If the results have been reported using
different service standards, the cumulative distribution of mail delivered within n days can be used to
obtain consistent results;
 calculation method used will affect the on-time performance. It should also be noted that the standard is
only concerned with the measurement of transit time. It does not consider other aspects of service which
are relevant to customers and users, such as the time of collection and delivery or the days on which
deliveries are made;
 minimum requirement of EN 14534 provides for one figure. Additional information may be provided for
different study domains. The most useful factors to be considered as study domains are the geographical
and the discriminant mail characteristics stated in EN 14534;
 some operators may not cover all discriminant factors. This should be clear from the types and categories
of mail covered in the report;
 if results are presented for study domains, information should also be given on the accuracy of those
results;
 period of measurement should include a description of any exclusion due to force majeure; and,
 minimum requirement in EN 14534 is to provide figures for the calendar year. In Annex G in the
amendments to EN 14534, covering an extended measuring period and reporting of a longer period of
time is described. Results may also (but do not have to) be reported for other periods of the year and
information should be given on the accuracy of those results. For multiple operators within the Universal
service obligation, the same frequency of end-to-end reporting as in EN 14534 applies. For services
falling outside the Universal service obligation the reporting should be in agreement with other contracts.
5 Information regarding the interpretation of specific clauses and formulae in
EN 14534
This section provides guidance on the interpretation of specific clauses of EN 14534. It should be studied in
parallel with the standard.
No. Item concerned and Comment
4.1 "If for a field of study an operator is defined as one operator or a group of co-operating
operators, this group shall be used consistently."
Comment It shall be noted that if there are any changes in the mix of multiple operators,
the defined field of study will no longer apply and a new field of study will need to be
defined. Thus the results of these different fields of study may not be comparable.
“In accordance with the European Directive, (J) is the date of deposit provided induction
4.2.1
takes place before the published last collection time at the point of induction of the mail or
is made available to be collected by the postal operator by a contracted time. The date of
deposit shall be determined for each individual item.
For measurement purposes the date of deposit is when the postal operator takes
responsibility for the mail. The handover to the postal operator may be made by the
sending customer or an agent acting on behalf of the sending customer. In cases where
there are a range of collections from large customers, bulk mails containing test items
posted after the last collection or posting time of the day for the type of mail shall be
identified by the sending customer to the survey operator and the date of deposit derived
accordingly."
Comment Date of deposit:
The date of deposit (J) is the date on which a postal item is posted, providing posting takes
place before the last collection time of that day. Therefore, provision has to be made for
items posted after the last collection. Confirmation of posting time relative to the advertised
or contracted latest time of posting is a usual requirement.
‘Last collection’ refers to the advertised last time for collection (not the actual time) or to
the contracted latest time for collection. Additionally, if a postal item is posted after the last
collection then J should be adjusted to the next working day for that type of mail.
Restricted collections, e.g. later collection times for delivery within a local area, may be
taken into account provided they have been advertised to customers.
Comment Date of delivery:
There are three key points here:
1. It is necessary for the organisation conducting the monitoring to ensure that panellists
can identify the delivery of the item to the address, not the receipt of the item to a
named individual. This is particularly important in the case of businesses in order to
avoid the so-called ‘mailroom effect’, but could also apply in the case of residential
premises with a central delivery point from which residents shall collect their mail (it
may require that time-locked premises are avoided, for example).
2. As a special case of this, if PO Boxes are to be included in the sample, panellists will
need to be able to confirm that they collect the mail daily after the published up-time.
(This is the published time by which the postal administration commits to ensuring that
the day’s post is available in the PO Box for collection.) If there is no published up-time,
this may make the accurate measurement of the day of delivery difficult. For example, a
panellist collects the mail at 10 am, which is almost always available by then, but the
postal administration aims to have had post available by 10:30, without publishing an
uptime. On this day the mail is put in the box at 10:10, after the panellist has left. Is this
a failure? The panellist would report it as delivered the following day, when he collects
the next day’s post. Rules will need to be determined, in such cases, as to whether PO
Boxes should be excluded entirely, or as to the time at which the panellist or the postal
administration should be given the benefit of the doubt (see also 6.2 of
EN 14534:2003).
3. If there are items included in the survey which are not letter box friendly, and require to
be
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