The week that was: 15 July 2011
Kahala Posts Group sets reliability goal, USPS issues post office closure rules, DHL Express invests in UK network, and African nations commit to expanded service access… With the weekend approaching, it is once again time to sum up the week’s top stories in the global mail and express business.
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The Kahala Posts Group convened in Barcelona this week for their annual executive committee meeting, with the promise of improving service reliability and launching new ecommerce services.
The group, which includes Australia Post, China Post, Correos, Hong Kong Post, Japan Post, Korea Post, La Poste, Royal Mail, Singapore Post and the US Postal Service, has set a target for 95% of international express mail deliveries to be on time. The meeting heard that service reliability, rather than speed, was key for the Kahala network to compete with the large integrators during the economic downturn.
Spain’s Correos, current holder of the group’s presidency, said: “By working together and combining expertise and resources of the ten leading postal operators, KPG offers reliable solutions with a good value, easy to use and technologically sophisticated international shipping companies and individuals.”
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The US Postal Service published a revised set of rules for the closure and consolidation of post offices, stations and branches this week.
It said the new procedures would improve the public participation in its closure review process and would extend closure criteria currently in place for assessing independent post offices to also cover stations or branches. The Postal Service said it would not change regulations that prevent a post office from being closed soley because it is operating at a deficit. However, it said where retail traffic drops below minimal levels, it was likely that postal customers would be accessing postal services through alternative channels.
With USPS battling to remain solvent, the Office of the Inspector General made the suggestion that the Postal Service could leverage the value of its property and land, which are currently thought to be worth in the many tens of billions, to help pay off massive government benefit liabilities. The OIG has also made the suggestion that changing door-to-door deliveries to kerbside deliveries would save USPS more than $4.5bn a year, though the USPS favours reduction of a day’s delivery to cut its delivery costs.
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DHL Express is launching 10 new service centres in the UK this year, as part of its £10m investment programme that aims to promote its position as international specialist in express shipping for UK customers.
Backed by a major advertising campaign, the programme has seen new centres already opened in Stockton, Edinburgh, Lincoln and Glasgow this year. Plans are to open further sites in Mainstone, Leeds and Newport later in 2011. The company’s investment also sees expansion of existing sites in Stockton, Leeds and Maidstone.
Phil Couchman, CEO of DHL Express UK and Ireland said: “We plan on continuing our investment to accommodate future growth requirements, and maintain and grow our high standards of operational efficiency.”
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We also reported this week on 11 countries in southern Africa who have taken steps towards harmonised postal policy.
A ministerial conference in Botswana saw agreement by Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe to commit to expanded access to postal services and a certain level of quality.
During the conference, the Southern Africa Postal Regulators Association merged with the Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa. The expanded association will work to implement Southern African Development Community regulations within the communication sector and harmonise postal and technological regulatory frameworks.
And finally…
Triangle has confirmed that next year’s World Mail & Express Americas conference will return to Miami, Florida.
The event examining key industry trends and good practice in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean will take place from February 5-7, 2012, at the Trump International Beach Resort. A call for papers has now been issued. Click here for more details »
