Author: Archive

Post offices are heading for extinction

Posted by | Oct 13, 2006 | |

Post offices are in desperate need of Government support and direction if they are to survive, the network’s watchdog warned last night.

Postcomm believes the post office is becoming increasingly irrelevant as the number of services it provides are reduced – destroying its role as the social hub of a community.

The claims back up our Don’t Sound the Last Post campaign – which has now collected more than 12,000 signatures – and calls on the Government to do more to help keep post offices open.

Postcomm’s report, Post Offices at the Crossroads, paints a grim picture of the current state of the network.

The postal services regulator looked at 14,000 post offices around the country and found that the network lost GBP111 million last year despite a GBP150m subsidy to rural offices – which is being withdrawn in 2008.

It said the Department for Work and Pensions and the DVLA were withdrawing services from all post offices, which has already led to a GBP168m revenue loss over the last year.

The report also found that the rural post office network was in particular financial trouble, with only 1,500 of the 8,000 rural offices making money.

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FedEx expands in Commerce City

Posted by | Oct 13, 2006 | |

FedEx Freight Corp. will break ground in Commerce City Tuesday on a new service center.

The Memphis company is building a 170,000-square-foot facility that will have 241 doors. FedEx Freight is relocating from its current service center at 5601 Holly St., also in Commerce Center. The current service center has 152 doors and measures 46,000 square feet.

The new facility will be the second-largest service center in the country. The largest, with 277 doors, is in Denver.

FedEx Freight is the less-than-truckload subsidiary of FedEx Corp.

The service center will be in Marty Farms Industrial Park at 96th Avenue. The current service center is at 5601 Holly St.

FedEx Freight accounted for USD 1 billion of FedEx Corp.’s USD 8.5 billion in revenue during the quarter ended Aug. 31, and USD 150 million of its USD 784 million in income.

Groundbreaking takes place at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17. Participants will include Commerce City Mayor Sean Ford; Dennis Beal, vice president, physical assets, FedEx Freight; Adams County commissioners Alice Nichol, W.R. Fischer and Larry Pace; and guests, customers and employees.

The new service center is expected to open in November 2007.

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DHL expanding operations in Shanghai duty free zone

Posted by | Oct 13, 2006 | |

Express and logistics provider DHL has launched operations at a 3.6 mln usd logistics facility at the Waigaoqiao Bonded Logistics Zone (WBLZ) in Shanghai, as part of the further expansion of its forwarding operations on the mainland, the company said.

The new warehouse and logistics facility boosts DHL Global Forwarding’s current investment in China to 30 mln usd. The DHL group’s total investment in the past few years is around 315 mln, it said.

DHL Global Forwarding will also invest an additional 20 mln usd in the next few years to further enhance the company’s network infrastructure, staffing, products and services to meet anticipated growth in China, it said.

Peter Landsiedel, Asia Pacific chief executive of DHL Global Forwarding, told XFN Asia the company had been experiencing 50 pct annual growth in China in recent years and it expected continued levels of growth this year.

He would not make a longer-term forecast but said: ‘Barring any catastrophic development,’ specifically copncerninfg oil prices, ‘we are pretty optimistic of continuing with double digit growth.’ Greater China accounts for more than half of DHL’s Asia-Pacific revenue from forwarding operations, with the mainland accounting for 24 pct or regional revenue, Hong Kong 23 pct and Taiwan 5 pct. The next two largest zones are Singapore with 10 pct and Japan with 9 pct.

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TNT plans decision on freight unit shortly

Posted by | Oct 13, 2006 | |

TNT plans to announce a decision shortly on its future strategy for its Freight Management unit, with disinvestment as one of several options under consideration.

The Dutch group announced earlier this year that it was reviewing synergies between its Freight and Express businesses following the decision to sell TNT Logistics and focus on mail and express activities.

Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad cited TNT CEO Peter Bakker as saying that the company was still reviewing “all options” for TNT Freight Management. A decision was due to be announced by October 30 when TNT will announce its third-quarter financial results.

TNT Freight Management was formerly known as Wilson, the Swedish freight forwarding company acquired by TNT in 2004 for euro 257 million. It was transferred from the Logistics to the Express division as part of TNT’s plan to dispose of its underperforming logistics business.

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Retailers in dogfight for air cargo space

Posted by | Oct 13, 2006 | |

The retail war has now moved to the skies. Retail companies are fiercely competing against each other to acquire cargo aircraft in a bid to put their backward logistics in place.

The proposed retail models being pursued by the retailers would demand speedy transportation of perishable goods, for which all agri hubs across the country need to be well connected.

This move by the retailers is also expected to throw up new opportunities for the airline companies in the cargo business. Several airline companies including low cost carriers like Air Deccan and Go Cargo among others are drawing up plans of expanding the cargo infrastructure.

While upcoming retail ventures like Reliance and Bharti are already in talks for striking long term strategic alliances with some international as well as domestic cargo fleets, others like Tatas, Birlas and RPG are learnt to be mulling similar options.

On the other hand, to leverage opportunities that this may throw up, some prominent low cost airlines are also venturing into dedicated cargo fleet. Experts say low cost airlines, already marred by increasing losses would want to leverage their existing infrastructure to grab a pie of the burgeoning retail sector.

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Transport Intelligence Ltd: TI Logistics Briefing & News: Wincanton buys home delivery specialist

Posted by | Oct 13, 2006 | |

Consolidation in the UK logistics market is continuing. European supply chain provider Wincanton has acquired Lane Group plc, a UK market leader in home delivery. The acquisition will allow Wincanton to strengthen its position within the fast growing home delivery market.

Wincanton’s existing home delivery customers such as B&Q and Comet will be added to by Lane’s customer base which includes brands and retailers Homebase, Magnet, Electrolux and Bosch.

Martin Taylor, Managing Director of Retail, Wincanton, says: “The opportunities available to Wincanton as a result of the acquisition of Lane are significant and the company’s operation provides a good strategic fit.

“The home delivery market is a growing one, estimated to be worth GBP37.1bn during 2005, driven by the growth in internet shopping and multi-channel retailing. However, this is a sector that is ripe for improvement as the demands on home delivery operations become increasingly complex and smaller companies find it difficult to respond.

Managing Director of Lane Group plc Rebecca Jenkins said, “This is an exciting opportunity for Lane Group. Both Lane and Wincanton have a strong reputation for providing high quality customer service and with Wincanton’s plans to expand further into the home delivery market the acquisition has provided a natural business development and one that I am very positive about.”

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Underused mailboxes disappearing, thanks to rising Internet use

Posted by | Oct 12, 2006 | |

Like the phone booth before it, the blue street-corner mailbox is rapidly becoming a casualty of the digital age.

As more people send e-mails and pay bills online, the decline in first-class mail is forcing the U.S. Postal Service to remove tens of thousands of underused mailboxes from city streets. Since 1999, the Postal Service has removed more than 42,000 collection boxes. As of last year, about 295,000 mailboxes remained in use.

Along with mailboxes, the Postal Service is facing a drop in jobs. In the past five years it has reduced staff through attrition by more than 80,000 employees. The current postal workforce stands at about 700,000.

The Postal Service’s 2007 budget accounts for an expected reduction of about 3 billion pieces of first-class mail from 2006 levels. Last year, about 98 billion pieces of first-class mail were delivered.

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