The week that was: 19 August, 2011
The US Postal Service plans massive cutbacks, Canada Post rethinks role of letter carriers, and questions on express security in China… In the latest round-up of the biggest stories on Post&Parcel this week, the US Postal Service announces huge changes to its network, Canada Post gets on with huge changes to its network, and China asks questions about the security of its express industry.
The US Postal Service met with the mailing industry this week to begin discussions on a major redesign in its mail processing infrastructure, with 508 mail plants to be cut down to less than 200 with the potential loss of 35,000 jobs. Service standards are to be revised alongside the network reduction, with overnight First Class Mail services potentially set to take a day longer.
North of the border, Canada Post continued with its network modernisation, expanding its new delivery system to the city of Halifax. Under the system, already in place in Winnipeg and parts of Toronto and Montreal, letter carriers across the country are steadily taking on a broader role to collect and deliver parcels as well as letters – so that they are now being termed “delivery agents” by Canada Post.
An explosion at a Yuangtong Express office in downtown Hangzhou raised questions about the security standards in the Chinese express delivery industry. A suspect was quickly arrested after the incident in which two Yuangtong employees were slightly injured, but the express company held emergency meetings to investigate the “lax security” that resulted in the parcel containing fireworks slipping under the radar.
Deutsche Post has been told it cannot advertise its digital postal mail service – E-Postbrief – as being as secure as the sending of traditional paper letters. Its advertising had suggested that the service offered “all the benefits of the traditional letter via the internet”, but a court in Bonn decided that this was not always the case, and that consumers could be given the impression that legally-binding agreements could be sent through the electronic mail service.
And, consumer watchdogs said national and local authorities in Scotland should make more use of post offices to extend access to services for citizens who need them most. In a new report, the group said there has been a sharp decline in availability of government services at the post office in Scotland over the past five years, but the situation could be reversed in a move that would be particularly of benefit to vulnerable sections of society.
