The week that was: 2 December 2011
Rounding up the biggest stories of the week on Post&Parcel, with view of the European parcels market, Canada Post making a huge loss, Royal mail looking to alternative delivery and USPS promising improvements…
European parcel volumes back to pre-recession levels
The European courier, express and parcel market has seen volumes rebounding to pre-recession levels, but revenues have not yet fully recovered, according to a new industry study out this week.
Analysis from management consultancy A.T.Kearney showed Germany, the UK, Poland and Russia leading growth in the European market, but only in Turkey, Poland, Russia, Germany and Switzerland are both volumes and revenues above those seen in 2008.
The study suggested revenues will return to “pre-crisis” levels by early 2012 and that bar another global economic downturn, shipment volumes will reach 5.7bn within the next two years, growing by 4% domestically and 6% internationally through 2013.
Canada Post records $163m loss in third quarter
Canada Post Group reported a $163m pre-tax loss for the third quarter of the year, a jump from last year’s $19m third quarter pre-tax loss.
Within the three months’ results, Canada Post included damages that could amount to around $150m stemming from this month’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the 28-year-long gender discrimination case. In the year to date, the Group has recorded a $159m pre-tax loss, down from a $62m profit in the same period last year. June’s labour disruption has been blamed for $173m of costs in the nine months of 2011.
Canada Post said a contraction in the Canadian economy in the second quarter of the year turned into slow growth in the third quarter, but expectations were for continuing economic uncertainty, affecting the Corporation’s ability to generate new revenues as customers seek to cut costs.
Royal Mail begins Delivery to Neighbour trial
Royal Mail began trials in which parcels will be left with neighbours if a recipient is not home to accept delivery.
The “Delivery to Neighbour” trial covers nearly 750,000 addresses, 1,406 delivery rounds, and runs until February 25 in Bolton, Wigan, Edinburgh, Hull, Gatwick, Norwich and Swansea.
On the trial, when a mail carrier cannot fit an item into a residential letterbox and the addressee is not home, they will choose a neighbour in close proximity to ask if they will look after the package. The intended recipient will then receive a notification card with details of where the parcel can be collected.
USPS promises to fix “unacceptable” flats processing delays
US Postal Service executives resolved to fix problems in their periodicals processing, as mailers pressed their concerns about significant delays.
On-time performance levels for one-to-two day periodicals delivery have slumped to as low as 44% this year as USPS expanded its use of automated flats sequencing systems (FSS) as a way of improving efficiency in processing flats immediately prior to delivery.
Over the past year the Postal Service has accelerated its plans to expand its FSS fleet from 10 machines in five sites to 100 machines in 42 sites, as an extra effort to cut costs from the network. But, after the roll-out was completed this summer, the new machines have been plagued with problems that has seen significant periods of down-time.
