GATS to grow, postal project sees good returns

Postal operators looking to make savings on the price of international mail delivery have long faced the same three fixed costs: local handling charges, terminal dues and the cost of line-haul.
In April, the Global Alliance of Transportation Systems (GATS), funded by the Swiss Post Office set out to challenge the cost of line-haul by consolidating the mail of a number of postal operators into ULD’s at one hub and then flying them on in unitised containers. Pioneered at Heathrow, the idea was to force down the cost paid to the airlines for small numbers of items by booking larger aggregated volumes.
Six months after the launch, the project is being labelled
a success. The operation has grown from moving 30 tonnes
a week to between 100-120 tonnes a week, and the company forecasts 160 tonnes by the end of the year. David
Jones, general manager of GATS said: “We are making savings of 30-40% on some routes, and are currently looking at locations for the next phase of expansion in either Chicago or Miami.
At present GATS’ customers are: Swiss Post, Switzerland; Swiss Post Inc in the US; Swiss Post UK; the Belgian Post Office, The Dutch Post Office and the Singapore Post Office through TNT. The operators currently signed up will be joined by a further seven operators in October when air schedules are reassigned.
GATS expects to form a global hub system starting with the US in the next six months and adding hubs in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, Madrid and possibly Frankfurt or Amsterdam. The hub system will attract more traffic, allowing further consolidation for traffic between larger numbers of destinations with reduced handling costs, says Jones.
GATS currently operates with 23 airlines out of Heathrow but will be looking to team up with a specific carrier to launch its US service. In Hong Kong it may partner with the Hong Kong P0 to launch.
So far Elm has been spent on the venture, which operates out of a fully automated warehouse near Heathrow. GATS plans to float in the next few years with a possible stakehold taken by other postal operators.