Author: Archive

Emirates Post gears to host UPU Strategy Conference 'Dubai 2006'

Posted by | Oct 19, 2006 | |

This is the first Strategy Conference to be held outside Switzerland, and will be attended by expert speakers and VIP participants, including Ministers, from 130 UPU member countries at Grand Hyatt Dubai.

After several months of preparations, Emirates Post is set to host the biggest gathering of heads of global postal corporations and experts from the mail industry at the UPU Strategy Conference to be held in Dubai from November 14 to 16, 2006, under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Mr. Al Daboos said the conference will discuss several new areas that are becoming part of the new postal set-up, including logistics, remittances, supply chain management, financial services, express, direct marketing and e-Services.

‘This will be a paperless conference to reflect the increasing adoption of Information Technology by postal corporations,’ said Mr. Daboos. ‘Posts are increasingly using technology for track and trace, mail receipt intimation, inquiries, etc. The conference will focus on postal sector’s strategy to go beyond posts. One of the key topics of discussion will be e-commerce which is gaining acceptance across the world.’

Read More

Direct Marketing – Unwanted nuisance or useful service?

Posted by | Oct 19, 2006 | |

As Royal Mail lifts the cap, Philip Chadwick finds out if we will be flooded with wasteful junk.

Judging by the current barrage of negative press, the direct mail industry should be feeling more beleaguered than England football coach Steve McLaren.

And just when it thought things couldn’t get any worse, last Monday the Local Government Association (LGA) waded into the furore, which began when Royal Mail announced plans to scrap the cap on unaddressed mail (PrintWeek, 3 August). Reports suggest that the LGA’s chair, Lord Bruce-Lockhart, had written to the Royal Mail arguing that such a move could leave council tax payers facing larger bills.

The LGA indicated it had ‘grave concerns’ about the plans, which would cause ‘unnecessary rubbish’. It claims 78,000 tonnes of ‘junk mail’ reach landfill sites each year and the cost of disposing waste has risen in the past year by pounds 205m.

Read More

TNT Logistics signs a new contract with Infoglobo

Posted by | Oct 18, 2006 | |

TNT Logistics Brazil has signed a 5-year contract with Infoglobo, a Globo corporation company, and the first one in Brazil in the publishing & media industry. The agreement is worth euro9.4 million and 40 employees have been hired. “With InfoGlobo, TNT Logistics continues with its diversification strategy, entering into a new segment in Brazil, the publishing & media industry”, says João Guilherme Araújo, TNT Logistics Operations Director. “It is a great challenge for TNT Logistics in Brazil”, he adds.

The service will be implemented in stages. During the first stage of the contract, TNT Logistics will be responsible for all material handling activities and newspaper dispatch for distribution. “Infoglobo chose TNT Logistics to operate this segment due to the capability of its employees and its expertise in operating complex supply chains”, explains Marcello Moraes, the General Distribution Manager of Infoglobo. The printing centre is installed in the city of Duque de Caxias (RJ).

Read More

DHL Japan extends cut-off times in Osaka Prefecture and Tokyo’s Nerima and Nakano Wards

Posted by | Oct 18, 2006 | |

DHL, a leading express and logistics company, has optimized delivery routes to extend cut-off times in two Tokyo wards and four Osaka Prefecture districts by 60 to 90 minutes.

Since 2005, DHL Japan has opened fifteen service centers, which are centers for collection, delivery and sales operations, as an investment aimed at reinforcing ground infrastructure in Japan. As part of such initiatives, DHL Japan has also increased the number of service centers in Osaka and Tokyo by a total of three in order to respond to the growth in cargo volume. Consequently, the speed in cargo processing increased for the areas where cut-off times were extended this time. The faster cargo processing, along with an improved cooperative structure among staff responsible for each area served by the service centers, enabled the development of collection and delivery routes that are more efficient than ever before and thereby enabled the cut-off times to be extended.

Read More

Coast Capital Partners With London Drugs Subsidiary, Total Delivery Systems and Others to Deliver

Posted by | Oct 18, 2006 | |

Coast Capital Savings has inked a partnership with Total Delivery Systems and London Drugs subsidiary TLD Information Technology Specialists to provide value-added services to its business customers.

The program, dubbed “Big Perks for Small Business(TM)”, is the first cross-industry partnership between a Canadian financial institution and major service providers and will provide the credit union’s business customers with benefits, including a discount of 20 per cent on same-day courier services.

“In addition to simplifying the financial lives of small business owners through our banking products and services, we want to help them save time and money in three key areas: courier service, printing and copying and computer technical support,” said Lloyd Craig, President and CEO, Coast Capital Savings.

The program’s perks include discounts on small business IT service packages from TLD and a free initial service call. It also gives Coast Capital Savings’ business customers discounts of 20 per cent off same-day delivery services from local courier Total Delivery Systems. Big Perks for Small Business also offers customers discounts on national and international courier services. “Our goal is not necessarily to make small businesses bigger, but to help make them better.

Read More

Bill of worries

Posted by | Oct 18, 2006 | |

Small and medium-sized courier companies have been gearing up to meet the challenges thrown up by the amendments to the Postal Bill that are likely to be presented in the forthcoming winter session of parliament.

The India Post Amendment Bill, ’06 seeks to give India Posts (the new name of your neighbourhood post office) exclusive rights to carry and deliver letters weighing up to 300 gms, putting such letters out of the reach of the private courier companies.

Given that the letters are a mainstay of the courier business, the private courier operators, most of them small and medium enterprises (SMEs), are forced to look at other alternative avenues in order to stay afloat.

Experts believe that a direct offshoot of the amendments in the regulation would be a radical shift of express players into the cargo transportation segment. “Express players already have the network in place, so it will be most natural for them to leverage on that and set up a cargo operations business,” said an industry expert.

However, this is easier said than done. “The shift is not going to be an easy one, as these SMEs would not have the requisite resources to invest in technology, warehousing and infrastructure, which are the core essentials of any efficient cargo operation business,” added the industry expert.

Read More

PalletFORCE reputation brings E.M. Rogers to network

Posted by | Oct 18, 2006 | |

Northampton-based transport company E.M. Rogers has joined the PalletFORCE palletised distribution network in order to enhance the range of services it can offer to its customers.

E.M. Rogers has not been involved with a network before, as its primary focus is in international haulage. The decision to join PalletFORCE was made after the company decided to diversify and extend its UK operation.

PalletFORCE came highly recommended, as Ed Rogers explains. “As part of the Transport Association, we asked fellow members who are part of PalletFORCE what they thought of the Network. The overriding feeling was that PalletFORCE has revolutionised the way they do business, and has really helped them to develop.”

Read More

Sernam takes the train to bypass French motorway speed limits

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

Sernam has switched the bulk of its long-distance traffic from road to rail in order to avoid being hit by tighter motorway speed limits for light trucks from next January. It has also bought a small regional trucking company.

With effect from January 1, 2007, the maximum speed limit in France for goods vehicles weighing 3.5 tonnes or more will be reduced from 110 km/h to 90 km/h. This speed limit currently applies to vehicles of 12 tonnes or more. The 18% reduction in speed, along with obligatory rest times for drivers, means, for example, that the Paris-Niort truck journey will in future take 5 hours, 45 minutes on average, compared to 4 hours, 20 minutes at present, Sernam pointed out.

In response to this operational restriction, Sernam said that it has re-designed its nationwide transportation network in order to ensure it can maintain the present transit times for its customers. The company provides next-day afternoon deliveries across virtually of all France.

With effect from mid-October, Sernam is now carrying the bulk of its long-distance volumes on the night-time Train Blocs Express (TBE), freight TGV operating at speeds of up to 200 km/h on key North-South routes. The operator’s network is based on nine hubs, including new multimodal platforms at Toulouse and Bordeaux. A new Paris hub will open at Valenton at end-2007.

Meanwhile, Sernam also announced that it has acquired a small trucking company, Coulonge, based at Limoges in south-west France, which had revenues of €4.5 million in 2005.

Read More

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

P&P Poll

Loading

Have you noticed a decrease of non-EU inbound parcel volumes since the implementation of the new €3 charge?

Thank you for voting
You have already voted on this poll!
Please select an option!


View ResultsHide Results

Post & Parcel Magazine


Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.

Subscribe to the Magazine

 

Pin It on Pinterest