Delivering Results
New Zealand postal operation turns to electronic lock security solution
- By Andy Hilverda
- Jun 30, 2008
The earliest forms of postal communications within
New Zealand were haphazard at best. Being a
maritime country made up of three main islands
and a number of smaller offshore islands, the first residents
were primarily missionaries, whalers and traders.
Residents had to rely on occasional passing ships for mail.
Eventually, the establishment of settlements across the
north and south islands brought the need for structured
postal services—and New Zealand Post was established.
While New Zealand Post’s history spans more than
150 years, it is the past 20 years of change, refocus and
diversification that defines it. Today, New Zealand Post’s
core postal operations are much the same as those of the
U.S. Postal Service. Both face similar challenges when it
comes to securing operations, providing quality service
and protecting customer mail. Unlike the U.S. Postal
Service, however, New Zealand Post is a private organization
and operates in a deregulated environment.
Competition Drives Change
On April 1, 1998, the Postal Services Act of 1998 was
passed, deregulating the New Zealand postal market and
opening it to full competition. The act effectively
removed New Zealand Post’s 150-year monopoly on the
delivery of standard mail. Under current regulations, anyone
can process and deliver mail, at any cost, as long as
the person is registered with the New Zealand Ministry of
Economic Development. There are currently 25 registered
postal operators, including New Zealand Post.
With a number of competitors in its core market,
New Zealand Post is always seeking ways to make its
network for managing mail more efficient and secure. To
accomplish this, the company subcontracts mail collection
and preparation services to private firms that are
responsible for channeling large volumes of mail to New
Zealand Post’s central processing service centers.
Security, Quality Problems
Quality of service was an issue. Subcontractor clearance
agents are required to collect the mail from New Zealand
Post’s network of approximately 5,000 street receiver
boxes during a specific window of time each day. New
Zealand Post had no way to determine if and when mail
was being collected.
Security also was a concern. Each route includes 20
to 30 street receiver boxes, and sometimes clearance
agents service multiple routes. Each series of 50 receiver
boxes was keyed alike. If a key were lost, all the locks
in that series of street boxes had to be rekeyed. The time
required to rekey the boxes put customer mail at risk.
New Zealand Post began looking for a system that
would allow it to monitor the performance of each subcontractor
clearing mail from its street receiver boxes.
“We put a tender out to the industry with a list of our
requirements, inviting companies to present their solutions,”
said Ian Bekhuis, letter acceptance network manager.
“Many different types of technology were presented
to us. We selected CyberLock because it was costeffective
and met our requirements in terms of measurability
and auditing. CyberLock did not require a huge
investment in supporting technology.”
An Electronic Lock System
In the spring of 2006, with the support of its vendor—
Electronic Keying Australia—New Zealand Post implemented
a successful four-month trial of the CyberLock
system in the city of Wellington. Next, the group converted
3,500 receiver boxes to CyberLock by replacing
the mechanical cylinders in the locks with CyberLock
electronic cylinders.
“We’ve had vandals try to break into the street receiver
boxes with hydraulic pry bars and other types of
equipment,” Bekhuis said. “The boxes themselves may
sometimes fail, but not the CyberLocks because they are
so robust. The national networking capability the system
provides is a great benefit to us. Not only does the hardware
provide a high level of security, but the system’s
Enterprise software allows us to perform audits over the
network and manage the performance of our subcontractors
at each collection site.”
Enterprise software provides daily reports of box
clearance times and exception reports when an agent
tries to open a street receiver box outside of the scheduled
collection time.
Since Enterprise software is Web-based, managers
easily can access it from any computer just by opening a
Web browser and logging on. Enterprise supports a variety
of methods for communication between the
CyberLock hardware and the software, including the use
of cellular PDAs to program keys on demand in the
field. Each clearance agent carries only one electronic
key to service all the receiver boxes on his route.
With Enterprise, New Zealand Post sets schedules in
each agent’s electronic key for accessing the receiver
boxes on their route. It also programs collection times in
the key so the agent can’t clear a box before a predetermined
time of day. Along with this tight-control functionality,
staff can disable a key immediately should one
be lost. Prior to installation, a lost mechanical key would
cost nearly $2,200 because the New Zealand Post had to
replace all the mechanical locks that were keyed alike on
that series of receiver boxes.
Reaping the Benefits
The information that the CyberLock system gathers for
New Zealand Post on a daily basis consists of box clearance
times, denied entries and audit trails for all the keys
and locks. It also reports exceptions such as attempted
access to a box outside of the scheduled collection time.
“The most important benefit the CyberLock system
provides is greatly enhanced security,” Bekhuis said.
Addressing security weaknesses and finding viable
solutions to day-to-day problems, New Zealand Post
added value to the services it provides customers and
lessened its exposure to vandalism and theft.
New Zealand Post is proud of its heritage and eager to
be an integral part of the country’s future. By taking advantage
of today’s advances in security technology, the company
has a system in place that provides the controlled
access and accountability needed. The
decision to elevate service performance
and the security of customer mail
will influence that future.
This article originally appeared in the issue of .