 I'm joined by Tawny Steinkees. Tawny is the Head of Global Strategic Partnerships at Zonos. Tawny, welcome to the UPU Voice Mail podcast. We're going to cover a little bit about cross-border e-commerce and the future of cross-border e-commerce, cross-border logistics. Can you share a little bit about what you think are the main innovations that are going to shape cross-border logistics over the coming years? Yeah, hey Anne, thanks for having me on today. Five to ten years is a long time, so I think a lot of changes could happen. But I'll stick to three that I think will make a difference. Starting with one is data. This is so important right now and I think it's one of the biggest challenges that posts have today. But it's only going to continue to get harder. Government regulations are going to continue to change, you know, different tax schemes. So having the right data on any package, we want to know what's inside of it with HS codes, descriptions, things like that. I think that's going to continue to get harder. What will change it is going to be the AI tools that are out there. This is something that for a logistics company to stay ahead of the game, they really need to start looking at their technology and ways that they can use AI to help know what the package is from the beginning all the way to the end. So I think that's going to make some big changes. AI is going to change the logistics world as well. One thing I would say is really just building an e-commerce ecosystem. I think today it's been or in the past it's been, you know, you have a package you ship it with an express carrier and it goes. And then when COVID hit, it really gave way for a lot of consolidators to come in and change how shipping happens. And I think that's going to be so important. I know for our merchants, they're really looking at diversifying their supply chain. And so picking tech driven carrier agnostic companies that use partners to help enhance their network is going to help a post be more competitive and it's really going to be the future of logistics. I think is, you know, diversifying and getting creative with that supply chain. My third thing is customer experience is going to continue to drive what we do in the future. You know, I, I'm a tough customer. I know that. So I don't make it easier for anyone going forward and we're going to continue to get more demanding. You know, a year ago or a few years ago, actually I was okay with shipping taking a few days and paying for it. Now I expect I'm not going to pay for it and it comes tomorrow. What will I expect in five years. And so I think customer experience and driving towards this is what brands care about and this is what logistics needs to start focusing on as well. Let's talk about partnerships. Then how does the Zonos work with postal operators in particular and other partners to achieve an efficient and balanced and well sustainable e commerce ecosystem. Yeah, you know, Zonos is the connection between and we do this through technology but connecting the post with these e commerce merchants. So we've been working with the commerce merchants for over 15 years. And I mentioned customer experience that has been our complete focus is from the time I cuss a shopper gets onto a website, all the way till the packages delivered we want to make sure that they have that really easy buying But we've been able to enhance that for the post in getting the data clean and accurate from the beginning to the end helps it clear customs faster helps them. Also with the low tax schemes that continue to be introduced by the different countries, but then also helping with that delivery experience, you know, Zonos is big on duties and taxes being prepaid. We have different solutions where we collect that ahead of time from the customers are checking out, but we also for the post have solutions that we can check as soon as it clears customs and we know the duty and tax amount. We can get that from the consignee as soon as possible. So being able to have the payment happen from beginning to end and sooner in the process will help with delivery times and that's really what we're helping the post to do. I talked about them having to get creative and use partners to be successful in logistics, and that does start with the DDP option. They need to start collecting it and knowing what that amount is. This is what customers have been wanting and it's getting more and more popular. I think we'll continue to see that grow. So the key point that I've taken out of that as well is you're trying to get away from the current system that some posts have where the postee at the doorstep has to collect money from the recipient, which is always, well, it's not great customer experience, is it? No, not at all. Yeah, I can't imagine having to pay that at my doorstep. So we don't want to put customers through that. Well, some great insights there, Torney, into what's happening in cross-border logistics and what's on the horizon, shall we say, for cross-border e-commerce, especially when it comes to the postal world. Torney Steinke, Head of Global Strategic Partnerships at Zonos, thanks for joining us today. Thank you.