The week that was: 20 January 2012
Rounding up the biggest stories of the week as featured in the pages of Post&Parcel…
Royal Mail demands freedom to set prices
Royal Mail’s response to Ofcom’s consultation on the universal service obligation was published this week, with the UK postal service calling on the regulators to abandon price caps for most of its services, and set the remaining second class letters price cap at 55p.
The move would allow free reign for Royal Mail to set prices as it wishes, for example in first class, while for second class could mean a price increase above 50% from the current 36p.
Royal Mail said that given its rocky financial position and the fact that some of its prices are currently below cost, postal rate increases are “likely” in the short term and needed to support the sustainability of the universal service in the UK.
USPS urges speed in assessing cutback plans
The US Postal Service called on US regulators to speed up their assessment of its plans to slow down its First Class Mail service by a day in order to reduce the size of its processing network by more than 50%.
USPS was concerned the current schedule for the regulators to produce an advisory opinion on the plans would take until at least July 10. It wants the Commission to issue its opinion by mid-April instead.
The Postal Service is losing as much as a billion dollars per month this year, thanks to its pension and benefit funding difficulties and the fact its processing network is designed to handle a much larger volume of mail than the current dwindling total.
DHL Global Mail to sell part of UK business
After last week’s revelation that DHL Global Mail is to close its publishing sector operations in the UK, this week saw the company deciding to sell its UK downstream access business.
The sale for an undisclosed amount will see Warrington-based Secured Mail taking over DHL’s site in Crick, Northamptonshire, along with 55 staff who will all transfer.
The company said the deal, which is subject to the contract being finalised, will see it confirmed as a “major player” in the UK postal sector, although the firm could not disclose the share of the market it will have.
PostNL begins restructuring of delivery network
PostNL has begun the planned closure of a number of delivery offices, announcing the shuttering of offices in the Gelderland and Utrecht provinces of the Netherlands.
The Dutch postal service is looking to close as many as 300 delivery offices in phases from now until the autumn of 2013, in response to declining mail volumes.
Mail preparation activities are being transferred to a central mail preparation site in Utrecht, the company said in a statement. The site will “mainly” make use of part-time sorting staff to prepare mail for delivery by part-time mail carriers.
And finally…
After an absence of several years, World Mail & Express Asia Pacific will be returning to Singapore on 26th – 28th June 2012 for a two day conference and exhibition, with SingPost as host sponsor. Click here to find out more »
