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CEO STORY with La Poste Group
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00:00Right, it turns out I'm the one continuing these CEO stories.
00:03Thank you for staying with us.
00:05And I'm very pleased to be here on stage with Olivier Stoche,
00:12who is the executive vice president in charge of new urban services and innovation at the DPT Group.
00:20It is an international parcel delivery network that is owned by the group La Poste.
00:26That's correct.
00:27So far?
00:28So far, correct.
00:28Right.
00:30Let's begin right now with the first part of this session.
00:34And I would like to ask you about how you see innovation and new technologies transforming your company by the
00:40end of the decade.
00:41It's a ritual question for our CEOs.
00:43Yeah, ritual questions, but we already have lots of answers on that on our booth, the La Poste booth,
00:49because actually what we can say is new technology is shaping our industry,
00:57whether from the e-commerce point of view, the client side, or our operating side.
01:03So what you can see if you go on our booth is that we are using algorithms, we are using
01:09data visualization backed by AI or machine learning at minimum.
01:15We are also trying to work on other types of new equipment powered by electricity, powered by hydrogen, so many,
01:25many new technologies are now shaping our industry.
01:28Right.
01:29Before we continue this interview, I would like to acknowledge your colleague that you wish to be on stage with
01:34us and that we will be talking to you on the second part of this interview.
01:39So welcome, Jean-Louis Carrasco.
01:42Welcome, Jean-Louis.
01:43Thank you.
01:44So thank you for being here.
01:46I'll pass the microphone on to you for the next segment, but you can have a seat and listen to
01:52this interview for the next few minutes.
01:54Right.
01:54So the second question that I have here is about technology.
01:59If you could choose one technology that you think is going to revolutionize your business, what would that technology be?
02:09Well, it's difficult to single out one.
02:11There are so many.
02:12Actually, and we'll come back to that.
02:15We can see tremendous breakthrough in the fields of autonomous vehicles.
02:20And we believe that autonomous vehicles is going to be a key in tomorrow's deliveries, whether in urban areas or
02:28rural areas.
02:29Now, perhaps you can give us one example, one concrete example of that impact of the technology in your business.
02:36Yes, of course.
02:37So we're trying to make our routines as efficient as possible to minimize the hurdles that we bring to urban
02:50cities.
02:50And we are also fighting against labor shortages.
02:54So we try to bring the cost of distribution down while being more and more energy efficient.
03:00And we believe that autonomous vehicle will for sure be one of the technology allowing for those progress.
03:08Another question that we have asked over and over again, but it's an important one, is how the changes in
03:15the workplace that we have all discovered really with the pandemic is translating in your business.
03:22Do you do hybrid work?
03:23Does it help you hire more talent?
03:26The first consequence that took place during the lockdowns and the pandemic is, of course, a spike in demand on
03:34our business.
03:35If you recall 2020, 2021, what you were watching on streets were our delivery vehicles.
03:43So the first impact of the pandemic on our industry has been growing demand.
03:48Then, of course, as you mentioned, we are also working on the future of work, I would say.
03:58It's mostly a topic for the HQs, whether at group level or entity level, because obviously our riders, our drivers,
04:08they cannot deliver from home.
04:09So we are a blue-collar working company, and we need our people to be on the ground.
04:16So that will not change, at minimum, for the next five years.
04:21But, of course, we need to work on balancing when it comes to our clerk and the people in the
04:26HQ.
04:27We need to find the right balance between working from home and working from the office.
04:34What do you do in terms of CSR?
04:37Because this also is something that is more and more important to all of us.
04:41And how does innovation perhaps help you in this?
04:45Yeah, innovation helps us in any way.
04:47So you have several CSR.
04:48You have the CSR whereby we try to minimize our impact.
04:52We know that our activity, you know, transporting goods, transporting parcels is creating CO2 emissions.
05:00And we are really trying to reduce that.
05:02So we have lots of commitments in terms of fleet decarbonization, for instance.
05:09And we bet on technologies to allow for that.
05:13And you were referring to the workplace.
05:15We are also trying to become, as much as possible, an employer of choice and a partner of choice, both
05:22for our partners and employer of choice for our staff.
05:25And that is really something that is dear to us.
05:29How can we make sure that we nurture a great living space for our staff?
05:37Maybe just one concrete example.
05:39Yes.
05:40We are fighting against labor shortage.
05:44One of our subsidiaries, DPD UK, decided to develop fast training for our riders so as to allow them to
05:52get trucks, lorries, driving licenses.
05:57Which is a great professional experience because, of course, you earn more money and you have more skills on the
06:08workplace.
06:09And this is something that we are organizing as we speak with DPD UK for dozens of our workers.
06:17Your activity, by definition, consumes energy.
06:21Do you measure your footprint in any way?
06:24Yes, you're right.
06:25We know that we are part of the problem in terms of CO2 emissions.
06:30Obviously, we want to be part of the solution.
06:32So, we are working in different areas there.
06:38One is that we are measuring our own CO2 emissions.
06:42So, we have been developing our own carbon footprint calculator.
06:47You have a display on the booth.
06:50Please come and see what we do.
06:52And we hope to make it a European standard.
06:55That's one thing that we do.
06:57Another thing that we do is that, if you just reflect, we have thousands of riders of trucks on the
07:06road every day, allowing us for instant measurements of the air quality.
07:13So, for instance, today we know that we have a heating peak in France for this end of the week.
07:19We are in a position whereby we can, today, right now, we have trucks measuring the air quality in many
07:27cities in France and in Western Europe.
07:30So, that's also very valuable data that we bring to the local authorities so as to help designing public policies
07:40on the matter.
07:41You seem to be very much focused on innovation.
07:44Are there other types of innovation that you'd like to share with us today?
07:48Yes. Yes, absolutely.
07:50So many, but we only have a few minutes.
07:52So, I will try to keep it short.
07:54I think innovation is not only about algorithm.
07:57It's not only about fleets.
07:58It's also about our staff, human beings.
08:02We are a service industry.
08:03We are employing thousands of people all over the world.
08:08And we are trying to, well, as much as possible, empowering our staff through innovation.
08:15So, if you go to our booth, you will see, for instance, an exoskeleton that we are developing with German
08:22Bionic, German startups.
08:25The purpose of which is to alleviate the weight for the parcels to be carried.
08:32So, when you carry all day long parcels that weigh about 30 kilograms, the support of that kind of exoskeleton
08:42will help you relieve the pain.
08:46So, that's a perfect example for us of a technology that allows for a better workplace for our staff.
08:54Thank you so much.
08:56Part two of this interview, On My Watch.
09:06And this is where we can properly welcome you, Jean-Louis Carrasco.
09:11Thank you for your patience and for joining us.
09:14You are Director of Urban Logistics for La Poste, mails and parcels.
09:19Can you please tell us more about the importance of the autonomous vehicles as a start?
09:27Thank you, yes. My English is not so good as Olivier's one, but as Olivier said, La Poste Group is
09:33working in reducing drastically its carbon emissions and pollution.
09:38And we will reach its target quickly by switching all our diesel fleet by electric cars and vans in big
09:46cities, mainly.
09:47La Poste is already using a large amount of walkers, postmen, postwomen, bikes, and we are going to develop a
09:57lot of the cargo bikes in the downtown cities.
10:00So, this is a clean delivery or clean collection activity.
10:05Those cargo bikes that we are introducing now because we are starting to have a big fleet, it's almost 1
10:13.5 cubic meters instead of 8 cubic meters for a van.
10:18So, how do we do, how do we do for replacing this capacity, right?
10:24So, that's one of the problems.
10:27So, for that, before the vans were driving maybe one hour for going to the city and one hour for
10:33coming back.
10:34So, we were losing almost two hours a day in just driving in a traffic jam for doing nothing.
10:39I mean, doing nothing.
10:42With the autonomous vehicles, we imagine that some tasks of the supply chain will be realized by the autonomous vehicle.
10:52We have in La Poste already realized five years ago many tests with a follow me robot that was following
10:59the postman.
11:01and we take some experiment on that and we were almost satisfied.
11:06But now with the complete autonomous vehicle, we think that we can do many more tasks, right?
11:15Even more in the urban logistic.
11:19Sorry.
11:20What I wanted to ask you is about this project that I've heard of that is called Careta.
11:24Am I pronouncing it correctly?
11:26So, Careta has nothing to see with Carrasco.
11:28It's a little car in Occitanian language, in Montpellier.
11:35So, Careta is an autonomous vehicle developed by a French company, startup, which is called Twins Wheel.
11:43It's present on the booth.
11:45For La Poste, it's part of a consortium with Montpellier Metropole, which is a big city in France,
11:51and supervised by the French autonomous program.
11:55So, that means that we have been selected in between 16 projects in France,
12:02and we are the only one for the freight autonomous vehicle to be selected.
12:08The other one is for passengers, right?
12:14Sorry, please go ahead.
12:15In this context, the project has been authorized for experimentation in the public roads.
12:20So, we are going to start right now in July with realistic use case with postmen.
12:27So, we don't want to replace postmen.
12:31We want to do services to the postmen.
12:34So, it's a B2B autonomous vehicle that will help postmen and deliver men or women into that job.
12:41This autonomous droid is carrying all intelligence based on sensors, captors, to perceive the environment.
12:50And artificial intelligence is to permit to move safely, right?
12:57So, in general, droids are equipped with 3D, three-dimension cameras, LIDARs, 2D and 3D, active and stereocopic, it's hard
13:07to say,
13:083D cameras, ultrasonic sensors, GPS, and many stuff that I even don't understand myself.
13:16How is this project revolutionizing the uses?
13:22In fact, we imagine that, for example, as you see on the video,
13:26the postman and the postwoman will continue doing their job on the last mile or the first mile.
13:32So, they are going to collect to deliver.
13:35But they are losing a lot of time in doing this job in the supply chain.
13:40So, the autonomous vehicle will keep a rendezvous with the postman on the road.
13:45And it will bring, the droid will bring some goods and merchandise to the postman, postwoman, to deliver.
13:53So, it's realistically a B2B case.
13:57And we are going to start right now in Montpellier.
14:03Okay, thank you so much.
14:04This was a really extremely interesting project.
14:07And it was great to have the pictures to actually see what it's going to look like physically on the
14:13ground.
14:14It's time for the final segment of this interview.
14:18It's question time.
14:27And for this segment, we asked the audience to address some questions.
14:32So, we have a question for you, Olivier.
14:35Here it is.
14:35In the post-pandemic era, how is your company living with the aftermath of a transition to working from home
14:45policies?
14:46And now that things are calming down, are you seeing any new pain points in terms of managing your office
14:55facilities,
14:56your IT solutions, and your work terminals, such as desktop computers and laptops?
15:05Yes, you're right.
15:06This is a real challenge.
15:08I mean, again, the future of work.
15:10So, on the one hand, we will always have people on the ground.
15:15That's our mission.
15:16And we pride ourselves for having thousands of staff visiting our consumer every morning or every evening to deliver parcels,
15:26to deliver mail.
15:27And that will stay as such for the foreseeing time.
15:33In parallel to that, of course, when it comes to the people at the HQ, or, I don't know, for
15:38instance, our IT developing communities,
15:41we need to balance off the need to have people working in the workplace and people working from home.
15:51And it comes with several questions.
15:56One, of course, is a managerial one.
16:00How do you nurture the sense of belonging to a company?
16:05How do you make sure that there is that tiny space around the coffee machine so that people can exchange?
16:12What is very important in a company is the culture.
16:14And it's super difficult, I guess, for us and for many companies today to develop that company culture with people,
16:27I would say,
16:29switching from either working from home or working from the workplace.
16:33So, one is the company culture.
16:36And the second thing, which was implied in your question, is also the infrastructure that we need to bring to
16:42our staff,
16:44the equipment, the cyber security.
16:48Of course, we need to have everybody being locked to the network, being locked to our servers, computers.
16:54And it's a real challenge.
16:56And it's a challenge that is much bigger as opposed to when everybody is working from the office.
17:02So, very humbly, I would say, we are working in those two fields,
17:08trying to make sure that we develop the right culture, we keep attracting talents.
17:13And now, especially the younger generations, are asking for partly remote teleworking, which we do agree to.
17:23But we need to nurture, as I said, that culture that is the essence of our company.
17:34Thank you very much.
17:35Thank you both for being with us today.
17:37Let's give them some applause, please.
17:39This marks the end of today's CEO stories.
17:42But we will be back tomorrow morning, and we're hoping that you will join us either here or remotely online.
17:49Thank you so much.
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