Author: Archive

Dutch TNT and UK Royal Mail in race for ABX Belgium Distribution

Posted by | Nov 20, 2006 | |

Dutch mail and express deliveries group TNT NV and UK rival Royal Mail are the two remaining bidders for ABX Belgium Distribution, Belgian De Tijd newspaper said on November 18, 2006.

The owner, Belgian railways SNCB/NMBS, aims to complete the deal within three weeks.

The EU competition authorities obliged NMBS to sell the unit by the end of 2006.

ABX Belgium Distribution is a market leader in the domestic parcel deliveries market. The unit has an annual revenue of 90 mln euro (USD 115.5 mln) and a 700-strong workforce. Furthermore, 650 trucks of third parties are running for the company.

ABX Belgium Distribution was earlier part of ABX Logistics Worldwide SA/NV (ABX), which was sold by NMBS to UK private equity firm 3i Group Plc and the management in August 2006. The deal included air cargo, sea cargo, customs, logistics and international transport activities of ABX Belgium.

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TNT strengthens foothold in RI's express delivery market

Posted by | Nov 20, 2006 | |

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

TNT is one of the world’s largest express delivery and logistics services, competing against DHL, UPS and Federal Express.

Established in Australia, the now Netherlands-based company has been operating in Indonesia since 1979. It has been expanding its network in Indonesia since last year and provides special delivery services for its customers. The Jakarta Post spoke to TNT country general manager Peter Langley.

Question: What is Indonesia’s express delivery and logistics services market like?”

Answer: We’re in markets all around the world, some of the markets are growing, and some of the other markets are growing even much more.

And we look at places like China, Vietnam and Indonesia. They’re places we need to be, because we know those markets are growing very quickly, for import, export and domestically.

We want to be here, and we want to grow our infrastructure. Indonesia is a very important platform as part of our the global network.

Indonesia also has a very big market for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). I come from 10 years in the express delivery business in Australia, and the SME business is very big there, and I come here, and it’s even bigger.

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Post offices to turn into 'Post Banks of India'

Posted by | Nov 20, 2006 | |

The Centre has planned to convert post offices across the country into banks, and a bill in this regard will be introduced in Parliament in the winter session, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Shakeel Ahmad today said.

Apart from functioning as a post office, it will also have full-fledged banking facilities, Ahmed explained to reporters, saying it will be known as the ‘Post Bank of India’.

The minister said a bill seeking amendment to the Postal Act of 1898 for the purpose will be introduced in Parliament in the coming session.

Ahmad, the Congress MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said that the number of post offices in the country was almost double that of all branches of banks taken together and more post offices would be opened in the 11th Five Year Plan.

Ahmad said the postal department will organise big programme at Motihari in December on the centenary of Mahatama Gandhi’s journey to South Africa

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French La Poste and SNCF to set up 50/50 Joint Venture

Posted by | Nov 20, 2006 | |

French national post office La Poste and French national railway company SNCF will set up a 50/50 joint venture company to transport postal freight in Europe on high-speed trains, it was reported on November 20, 2006.
No financial details were disclosed.
The joint venture is expected to be operational at the end of 2008, the two companies said. The deal will enable La Poste to boost the development of its mail quality project, launched in 2004. It represents a total investment of 3.4 bln euro (USD 4.4 bln) until 2010 and aims at improving the speed of mail delivery.
Currently the postal freight uses three high-speed trains, covering eight delivery points between the logisitcs platforms in Paris, Macon and Cavaillon.
The two companies also said that they were studying a project for a high-speed train hub from the Paris airport Roissy Charles De Gaulle 2 (Roissy CDG2) which would make it possible to connect Strasbourg, Dijon, Rennes, Lyon, Bordeaux via Poitiers and Lille.

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Cargo jets carry some risks along with shipments – Group boosts effort to educate senders about unsafe packages

Posted by | Nov 20, 2006 | |

A woman walked into Bruce Bernstein’s Pompano Beach, Fla., parcel shipping store with a box that she said had to arrive before July 4th. Inside were 28 pounds of fireworks, bottle rockets and illegal, high-powered firecrackers known as M-80s.

“It would have taken down a plane no problem,” says Bernstein, recalling an incident from two summers ago that underscores the difficulties private shippers have with keeping hazardous materials off planes.

The Associated Mail and Parcel Centers, which represents over 3,000 small shipping centers, estimates that each year thousands of packages like this one slip unnoticed onto planes all over the USA. The leading industry trade group and the government have stepped up efforts to educate the public about shipping flammable goods.

The rapid growth in shipments has made it increasingly difficult to police what goes into packages that crisscross the nation, the association says. Its members are small stores that pack items and funnel packages to the large shipping companies. They handle 29 million packages a year.

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India Post plans diversification

Posted by | Nov 18, 2006 | |

The neighbourhood post office will soon turn into a one-stop-shop for making all your routine bill payments – including service tax and road tax. That’s not all. India Post will soon also be the access point for availing Right to Information services and getting registered on the electoral rolls.

Fresh from the success – both in terms of turnout and financial gains – of being a collection point for filing income tax returns, India Post intends to look beyond just postal services to shore up revenues. India Post, officials say, is in talks to conclude agreements with the Centre, state governments, NGOs and even a corporate entity, to facilitate access to information and offer all kinds of services to citizens all over the country.

“Under the proposed business model, while India Post will provide space for such service centres through its network of 1,55,566 post offices spread across the country, NGOs or private players will provide hardware and uninterrupted connectivity and the state governments will ensure that citizens can avail majority of services at these outlets,” says department of posts GM (marketing) RRP Singh.

India Post expects these services to account for nearly 20-30% of its profits. “This could even go up to over 40% depending on size of the corporate entity availing postal department’s network to serve its customers,” he adds.

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China leaps ahead of India on postal laws

Posted by | Nov 18, 2006 | |

While India has gone slow on the proposed amendment to monopolise handling of documents weighing less than 300 gm, China is all set to revise its postal law to bequeath China Post’s express arm EMS (Express Mail Service), the sole authority to handle documents weighing under 150gm.

Exactly like in India, all four international giants – DHL, TNT, FedEx and UPS – and over a dozen domestic operators are a disgruntled lot, since the amendment has the potential to paralyse the industry. Steven Lim, spokesperson of DHL, told ET that it is difficult at present to ascertain the direct impact on their business, based on the unpublished 8th revision of the draft Bill.

“The good news is that the (Chinese) government has considered lowering the weight monopoly to 150 gm, which is lower than the previous draft of 300 gm or more. We believe that it is best to include other standards than just weight, like a price multiple,” says Mr Lim.

Most industry officials agree. “Price multiple could be a better standard. The express companies can be restricted to price their services on par with that of the postal department by stipulating a price differential. The price-conscious customer can go to the postal department, while others can patronise private courier/express companies,” says an industry official.

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China unveils plan to sell off postal service

Posted by | Nov 17, 2006 | |

China’s State Council is planning to turn postal service China Post into a USD10bn (GBP5.2bn) standalone company, in a move that will see one of the last bastions of the Communist regime sold off.
Under the plan, approved last week by the Chinese cabinet, the firm is to be transferred into a new state-owned business that will incorporate the post office’s savings operation.
This business is to be will be restructured separately into a fully fledged bank – which is to become China’s fifth largest, with deposits of 1.3 trillion yen (GBP85bn).
Observers believe it is unlikely that foreign investors will be permitted to buy a stake in the business. China Post delivered 7.35 billion letters in 2005.

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