Hongkong Post serves a total of 2.93 million residential and business addresses throughout the territory. In 2009/10, we handled 1.30 billion mail items, a decrease of 5.6% compared with 2008/09, but still representing an average of 3.57 million mail items per day.
Local mail accounted for about 84.2% of the total traffic handled by Hongkong Post. This represented a 7.7% decrease in volume in 2009/10. On the other hand, international mail, which accounted for 15.8% of the total traffic, experienced an increase in volume of 7.6% compared with the previous year. The major destinations for outgoing international letter mail and parcel traffic were the USA, the UK, Australia, the Mainland of China and Japan.
Revenue and operating costs
Hongkong Post recorded total revenue of HK$4,752 million in 2009/10. This represented growth of 4.3% compared with the previous year and was mainly attributable to a considerable increase in postings of parcels, transshipments and bulk airmail during the year under review.
Operating costs for the year were HK$4,518 million, representing an increase of 7.4% compared with the previous year. Operating profit totalled HK$234 million for 2009/10, with a rate of return amounting to 6.6% on Average Net Fixed Assets.
At the start of April 2009, we launched a newly revamped ShopThruPost, our e-shopping platform. An enhanced user-friendly interface has streamlined the product browsing and ordering processes, creating a more integrated and user-friendly shopping experience. The new system also allows us to better analyse the segmentation characteristics of online customers, making it easier for us to interact with customers through the ShopThruPost platform.
Hongkong Post hosted the first Universal Postal Union e-Commerce Conference in Hong Kong on May 21 - 22, 2009. Under the theme of "Delivering e-Commerce to the People", more than 75 participants from 19 postal administrations and related industries attended the event to discuss how the business opportunities arising from the boom in e-commerce could be capitalised.
Hongkong Post sponsored the "HONG KONG 2009 - 23rd Asian International Stamp Exhibition", which was organised by the Hong Kong Philatelic Society under the patronage of the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately.
The new Mechanised Letter Sorting System, which combines the functions of Optical Character Reader, Video Coding Machine and Letter Sorting Machine, was put into full operation in June 2009. The new system has brought about enhanced efficiency and a significant reduction in operating costs.
The Kwai Chung Speedpost Operations Centre came into operation on July 20, 2009, strengthening the Speedpost pick-up and delivery service in Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing districts.
In support of World Post Day, on October 9, 2009, Hongkong Post organised its "One Person, One Letter" Free Post Day. This was the sixth consecutive year in which we invited members of the public to send a personal letter for free to a designated recipient in Hong Kong. Special posting boxes were placed at all post offices (except the two mobile post offices) for these personal letters. We collected and delivered 70,000 free post items in 2009, a 46% increase over the previous year.
Last year, the volume of outward airmail to some major destinations like the USA, Europe and Brazil climbed to a peak with an upsurge of 30% in November and December over the previous year. Owing to the short supply in air cargo space following the global financial crisis, Hongkong Post experienced an unprecedented challenge in upholding the quality of outward airmail service. To minimise the impact on customers, Hongkong Post kept a vigilant eye on the situation and made strenuous efforts to secure extra air cargo space. Pressure was relieved by concerted efforts through collaboration with cargo freighters and neighbouring postal administrations.
Hongkong Post was proud to be a sponsor of the Hong Kong 2009 East Asian Games, and Speedpost was designated the official courier of the Games in December 2009. We took the opportunity to launch a series of promotional programmes including print advertising, public relations events, roadshow video broadcasting on buses, and Q&A programmes in newspapers to further raise the profile of Speedpost service. During the Games, Speedpost successfully accomplished the mission of delivering test samples from athletes to the Inspection Centre in the Mainland of China on a same day basis.
In December 2009, we implemented the "Postage Labels for Registered and Ordinary Mails" project to simplify the acceptance of registered and ordinary mail items over the counter. This involved installing postage label printers at the counters of four selected post offices. In addition, the new system helps to shorten overall counter processing time and improve back office efficiency, and also provides useful data for traffic analysis.
An eCentre was set up in December 2009 on a trial basis as a centralised acceptance office for pre-registered e-commerce merchants to meet their demand for sending packets through the post. Located in Cheung Sha Wan, the eCentre is open Monday to Friday from 1:00pm to 8:00pm, making it especially convenient for those customers who are unable to get to a post office during normal office hours.
From December 1, 2009 to January 3, 2010, we ran the first-ever "Love POST" concept store at Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui. The concept store was filled with a festive atmosphere with specially-designed heart-shaped decorations, as well as a wide range of philatelic products and souvenirs. The Postmaster General officiated at the opening ceremony on December 7, 2009, and local celebrities joined the opening ceremony. To celebrate the occasion, we issued a special "Sparkling Celebrity Heartwarming Stamps Collection". Proceeds from sales of this collection were donated to UNICEF.
As part of our ongoing programme of upgrading the environment of our 127 post offices in the retail network, renovations were completed at 10 post offices during the year.
From January 2010, Hongkong Post began providing agency service for the Customs & Excise Department on the Road Cargo System (ROCARS) project. The service is provided at 16 selected post offices to process applications for ROCARS.
In February 2010, Hongkong Post implemented a pilot project at two selected delivery offices with the aim of improving the information relating to delivery results of registered mail items. Each beat postman was provided with a mobile device to capture delivery results, as well as the delivery date and time, at the time of delivery. This information was transmitted to the central system through a mobile wireless network. As a result, the process of data capture is streamlined and the delivery status on the Hongkong Post website can be updated in a more timely manner. Plans are in hand to roll out the project to all delivery beat postmen in the coming years.
Please click here to download Highlights of the Year 2009/10 [PDF, 8 pages of 728KB]