Sunrise and the Post – it’s all about the delivery

I really start sweating when Mischa Schori starts up his electric delivery vehicle and shoots off like a silent arrow towards Bethlehem. Going on assignment with this postal worker means you need to keep up. As I get to the first address on my bike, Mischa has already delivered half a bundle of mail into the letterboxes.

97.4% of all A-class letters were delivered on time in 2024. When it comes to B-class mail, the figure gets up to 99.1%. This almost perfect result is all down to dedicated employees like Mischa, who are connecting people all over Switzerland.

By the end of today’s shift, Mischa will have delivered to 1,164 letterboxes. The items he picked up early in the morning from the Bümpliz distribution centre are partially pre-sorted by machine so he can make rapid progress. The 32-year-old pushes letters and newspapers into multiple letterboxes every minute. Illegible addresses? No problem. Deciphering scribbles is part of his repertoire.

1.56 billion letters every year

His three-wheeled vehicle and trailer can carry some 150 kilos of post. Halfway through his round, he heads to a temporary storage facility to refill the boxes. Everyone is talking about letters becoming extinct. But that seems very far away at the moment, considering how much post Mischa currently delivers. Swiss Post still distributes 1.56 billion letters every year.

«Will we still need people to deliver letters in twenty years’ time? Probably not as many,» says Mischa. But he doesn’t want to think about that today. «Then I’ll just deliver parcels,» he says, as he swings onto the seat, accelerates and skilfully slips off the saddle again ten metres further down the road.

One thing’s clear: the Post isn’t about to run out of work anytime soon. Thanks to the growth in online trading, it expects parcel numbers to increase in the long term.

I ask him if he has any favourite addresses. Mischa smiles. «Of course, there are certain addresses I prefer to go to and others I’m less keen on.» These include addresses where aggressive dogs like to give him an unfriendly reception. Most of all, he likes places where he gets a warm welcome. People say, «Nice that you're here, I'll see you again soon!» Being appreciated like this is what makes Mischa love his job. And that’s why he decided to do it 16 years ago. «I really love the contact with customers.»

«The people of Bern tell me their troubles.» Old and young alike. Also, there are quite a few lonely people who just like to have a chat. «I’m happy to take the time to do so when I know I can catch up later on.»

Sometimes he also gives spontaneous answers to questions that go beyond his remit. For example, he’s occasionally asked about postage costs. Then he pulls out his mobile, takes a quick look and gives the answer. He has to make time to do things like that. Mischa would also fit in well behind a post-office counter.

Speaking of pulling out a mobile: this is what makes a postal worker's job much easier. It serves as a scanner for registered mail and parcels and also shows which recipients want their parcel deposited in front of the door, placed in a stairwell or concealed in the garden shed. «I wouldn’t want to go back to those days when we weren’t connected to the Internet. This device has made our delivery work much simpler,» says Mischa.

Customised mobile solution from Sunrise Business

To make sure that digital support works everywhere – in the city and in rural areas – the Post relies on a customised mobile solution from Sunrise Business. Around 46,000 mobile plans are in use, set up for scanners, tablets, vehicles, MyPost24 stations and even the nationwide free WiFi of the Postal buses. Five special plan models ensure that everything runs without a hitch; even data roaming in the border regions is integrated. And with Business Indoor Coverage, flawless reception even inside buildings is guaranteed too. For example, at the Härkingen sorting centre, where more than 125,000 parcels and several million letters pass along the conveyor belts and through the sorting machines every day.

Nicole Schnittfeld, member of Executive Management Logistic Services and Operations at Swiss Post, confirms that digital transformation also plays an important role in the delivery process: «Today, thanks to the mobile scanner, our postal workers are connected with all the relevant systems in real time. This saves time, making it possible to offer our customers new products and making delivery much more efficient overall.»

«Our employees rely on having a fast, dependable connection – both in urban and more remote areas,» says Schnittfeld.

Sunrise CBO Thorsten Haeser is of course delighted to hear feedback like this. He says the company is proud «to have been shaping the future and driving digital transformation for ten years now as a full-service provider for a company with such a rich tradition as Swiss Post. Alongside our strong personal relationships with our customer, it's our future-proof and stable infrastructure that forms a key foundation.» says Haeser.

It's the multi-award-winning Sunrise mobile network that makes this service possible, because it delivers the best mobile services, the most reliable data connections and the largest 5G network in Switzerland. Sunrise and Swiss Post – a great team with a shared motivation: speed.

And this brings us back to Mischa. He’s already at the next address. And he’s currently placing a parcel in front of a doorway. Without ringing. He knows the recipient regularly works night shifts and doesn’t want to be woken up during the day by a double-ring of the doorbell. You won’t find this in any system. Mischa has it all in his head.

Even today, smooth delivery still sometimes needs an analogue approach.