The week that was: 7 January 2011
UK e-commerce figures boost, USPS and union struggle on agreement, and FedEx launches India-China service… Welcome to a brand new year on Post&Parcel. We are hoping that 2011 is our best year yet – so keep sending in your stories, and most importantly, keep reading…
And on to this week’s news:
Figures released by MetaPack this week have shown that UK e-commerce sales for November and December were 31% up on 2009 – and they are set to continue into 2011. The year-on-year increase was greater in November (38%) than December (26%), in part reflecting disruption caused by bad weather. The first Monday of December (6th) was rightly called Cyber Monday with the highest despatch figures, followed closely by Monday 13th December. This pattern was also visible in 2009, but then the third Monday in December remained strong while in 2010 it fell by 31%, this week being effected most by the adverse weather conditions. Patrick Wall, MetaPack CEO, said: “Although traffic to retail websites saw the highest reported figures on Boxing Day, our despatch data indicates that much of this traffic was browsing and researching prices before hitting the sales on high street and that the actual buying happened before Christmas. However it is interesting to note that once back at work, people flooded back to the online stores.”
In the US negotiations between the US Postal Service and the American Postal Workers’ Union over the holiday period have failed to secure agreement. Representatives of the APWU met with USPS officials in the week between Christmas and the New Year in an attempt to find a way to a new collective bargaining agreement. The previous agreement, setting employment terms for the APWU members in the USPS from 2006 to 2010, ran out at the end of November. However, on Monday the union revealed that more than a month’s bargaining has still not achieved any deal between the two sides, “and none appears imminent”. “I am increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress in contract talks,” said APWU president Cliff Guffey in a statement to members. “Six weeks later, management negotiators seem unwilling to make the commitment necessary to reach a negotiated settlement.” USPS spokesman Mark Saunders confirmed to Post&Parcel that as of Tuesday, discussions with the union were still ongoing, but he could not comment further on the situation.
In Asia, FedEx has introduced direct cargo flights between India and China. The move is designed to meet increasing demand for express services between the two Asian countries. A FedEx Airbus SAS A310 will now fly between Guangzhou and Mumbai/New Delhi five times a week. Speaking in a Bloomberg television interview, David Cunningham Jr., Asia-Pacific president of the FedEx Express, said that the operator is expecting “dramatic growth in trade” between the two countries. China had previously mapped out a target to increase trade with India to $100bn over the next four years. “We’re connecting all of Asia to Mumbai and Delhi and back. China is, from a domestic standpoint for the past 20 years and likely for the future, going to continue to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world,” added Cunningham in the interview. The service commenced on Tuesday.
And finally…
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