USPS to use single carrier in Europe
The U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday it will use a subsidiary of the British post office to deliver Express Mail and air parcels throughout Europe.
The deal involves packages designated for delivery in either four or six days to 23 European countries, post office vice president James P. Wade said.
He said using a single carrier will provide more consistent service than sending the parcels through 23 different postal systems. Also, Wade said, the new service will offer the ability to track the movement of the parcels and get signed confirmation of delivery.
The deal does not affect letter mail, which will continue to go to the individual national post offices. And premium two-day package delivery in Europe will continue to be handled by the carrier DHL.
The new deal is between the post office and General Logistic Systems, a subsidiary of Consignia, which is the new name adopted by the British post office.
Operating from a hub in Neuenstein, Germany, GLS is already delivering parcels for the U.S. Postal Service to Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, France, Denmark and Austria.
Over the next three months the service will be expanded to Andorra, Belgium, Finland, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland and Vatican City.
AP Online
From Business Mailers Review – 21.1.02
Packages will be flown to a single location in Europe (Frankfurt) and then be routed through Consignias central gateway for tracking and tracing capabilities in Neuenstein, Germany. Wade (USPS) said the single entry point did not necessarily show any quanified savings during the trial period, but it improved the delivery service. Now the USPS can offer a 4 day service and a 6 day service for package delivery to Europe.
