The week that was: 1 April 2011

DHL extends environmental ambitions into the US market; Accenture moves into the digital postal mail segment; and the latest on the US Postal Service as it returns to Congress… Good afternoon from everyone at Post&Parcel, as another week in the postal industry draws to a close, here is “The week that was” to provide a useful round-up of our coverage.

This week, we were in New York to hear from Deutsche Post DHL on the company’s plans to bring its GoGreen sustainability efforts into the US market, including a major trial of new vehicle technologies in the entire Manhattan commercial delivery fleet. The 80 electric and hybrid vehicles are being tested in a city tormented by heavy snow in winter and heavy traffic on its roads, with the potential to pave the way for deploying other alternative fleets in DHL’s other 90 locations around the country. Deutsche Post chief executive Frank Appel told Post&Parcel that customers were driving his company’s sustainability efforts, but explained that they were demanding a balance of carbon offsetting and cleaner delivery technologies to improve the green credentials of their shipments, which was why the GoGreen carbon neutral shipping service would be extended into the US in the next few months. With strong links to DHL’s sustainability efforts, the company also revealed that it is working in a number of ways to address concerns about high fuel surcharges with the high price of fuel at the moment. This includes using more efficient aircraft like the B777 Freighter, and also looking to make more use of road and rail transport to cut down on flying time.

Accenture revealed that where the postal market is going, it is going as well: in this case, into digital postal mail services. The consultancy giant will extend its work, which includes working with some of the biggest posts in the world, into the provision of an electronic mail platform that its clients will be able to take up and make their own – perhaps before a host of independent digital postal mail providers get there first. We also pointed to the continuing progress by those self same independents within the US market – the potential jewel of the digital postal market – including Pitney Bowes and its Volly digital mail service, which has poached a senior vice president from publishing house Hearst, a company now developing its own digital mail service called Manilla, while rival Zumbox quietly gets on with signing up mailers via a new alliance with the 3i Infotech outsourced billing company.

And, as the US Postal Service prepares to return to Congress next week armed with a brand new Deputy Postmaster General, in the form of senior congressional staffer Ronald Stroman, it was ordered by US regulators to reign in the pricing imbalance in its market dominant products, which currently sees 10 products failing to cover their costs. The call came within the Postal Regulatory Commission’s latest annual review of USPS performances, which reminded us that despite continuing increases in productivity among staff, the strain from declining mail volumes and ambitious healthcare prefunding requirements means that even if the Postal Service’s products were able to pay for themselves, it would still be in a financial hole. This week, we also reported on the latest Government Accountability Office report, which retrod the Postal Regulatory Commission’s own review of USPS requests to potentially scrap Saturday deliveries. The GAO said it believed the USPS would save significant money by moving to a five-day delivery week, but only if workers can absorb that extra day’s volume into weekday deliveries. The GAO warned Congress that if it ignores the USPS request to scrap Saturday deliveries – as is looking seriously likely according to those meeting with Congress at the moment – some other “difficult decisions” would have to be taken in order to put the Postal Service back onto an even keel.

Elsewhere, we reported on La Poste facing a strike over its efforts to modernise and restructure, a warning from UK consumer watchdogs that the Post Office risks the long term sustainability of its post office network if it restricts the services available in planned Post Office Local branches, and a healthy 25% increase in profits reported by Swiss Post thanks to higher volumes and more Swiss residents choosing to put their money into savings accounts.

And finally…

Next Thursday (April 7) sees the Mail & Express Delivery Show (MEDS) returning to London, with a top line-up of speakers looking at the trends, barriers and opportunities in the market – declining letter volumes, booming parcel volumes, buzzing electronic mail plans and all the regulatory efforts needed to keep them all in check and the industry in balance.

For more details on how to take your MEDS – click here.