The week that was: 15 January 2010
French regulation, Japan Post branches out, and companies contribute to relief effort in Haiti… The big news this week comes from France, where the government has given the go-ahead to transform La Poste into a limited liability company. Opposing political parties in the European country have condemned the move, claiming that it is an attempt to privatise the state-owned company. Workers have previously gone on strike in France over privatisation fears. Despite of this, industry minister Christian Estrosi said the plan ensures La Poste cannot be privatised, while allaying fears that the company will remain property of the state. The move will be implemented on 1 March. It will allow la Poste to request a EUR 2.7bn Euro capital injection from the government and bank Caisse des Depots et Consignations.
Jetting across to Asia and Japan Post are ready to rival SingPost on their own soil. Japanese logistics provider Yamato Transport will challenge for half of the domestic-delivery market, said Asia One Business. Kaoru Seto, president of parent company Yamato Holdings, said: “Yamato aims to achieve an annual delivery volume of 400,000 parcels in the first year of Ta-Q-Bin’s operation in Singapore and hopes to increase the number to 8m parcels in the next 10 years.”
Tens of thousands of people are feared dead in Haiti after a tragic earthquake on Tuesday. It has been good to see major companies from the mail and express sectors pledging their support to the ongoing relief effort in the Caribbean country. Deutsche Post DHL has sent in the first logistics team for on-the-ground logistics support to the international relief effort in Haiti. The DHL Disaster Response Team (DRT) Americas is preparing to operate out of Toussaint L’ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince to manage the logistics. UPS has contributed more than $1m in cash and in-kind support to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti through its charitable arm, The UPS Foundation. The $1m donation will include $500,000 in cash and up to $500,000 of in-kind services for the shipment of needed supplies. Furthermore, FedEx is working with their designated charitable relief organisations to help ensure aid is on the way to Haiti. They plan to provide transportation services for the American Red Cross, Heart to Heart International, Direct Relief International and Water Missions as soon as conditions allow.
And finally…
Triangle Management Services has opened nominations for the prestigious Industry Leadership Award for the 2010 World Mail Awards, last year won by TNT’s Peter Bakker. This year, the awards ceremony will take place in Copenhagen on the eve of the World Mail Express Europe Conference in June. Fancy nominating a colleague? For more details click here.
