Benchmarking the Impact of COVID-19 on Postal Operations to Determine If They Are Temporary or Structural

This chapter investigates the impact of the pandemic on postal operations, with a specific focus on mail volume, revenue, and expenses. Through a series of benchmarking exercises and comparisons with that of the Great Recession in 2008–2009 and with macroeconomic data on gross domestic product (GDP), employment, and retail sales, this chapter explores whether the pandemic led to temporal or structural changes in postal operations. The findings from this analysis shed light on the nature of the impact and provide valuable insights into the transformation experienced by the postal service during the pandemic.