In letters to every member of the House and Senate, the Mailers Council today asked Congress to oppose any legislation that would prevent the Postal Service from closing outdated and inefficient mail processing facilities in its campaign to keep postage affordable despite continuing declines in mail volume.
Read MoreThe Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, and the Minister for Finance and Administration, Senator Nick Minchin, today welcomed the appointment of Mr David Mortimer, AO, as Chair of the Board of the Australian Postal Corporation and the reappointment of Mark Birrell as a Board member.
In November 1996, Mr Mortimer was appointed by the Federal Government to conduct a review of business programs which resulted in the ‘Mortimer Report’. He is a former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TNT Asia Pacific Region and Chairman of the Defence Procurement Advisory Board.
In 2005, Mr Mortimer was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to business and commerce through innovative and visionary leadership, as an adviser to government, and to the community.
The appointment will be for a period of three years from 12 September 2006.
The former Chair of the Board, Ms Linda Nicholls, announced her retirement earlier this year. Ms Nicholls has made an outstanding contribution to the Board of Australia Post throughout the 18 years she has served as Commissioner, Director and Chairman, a position she has held since 1997.
Read MorePostcomm, the independent postal services regulator, has today published a document seeking views on the issues that it should take into account when it assesses proposals by Royal Mail to charge large mailers different rates depending on where in the UK their mail is delivered. (Royal Mail calls this zonal pricing.)
Royal Mail made an application to Postcomm in July which proposes to introduce zonal pricing to certain bulk mail products used by the largest mailers, such as banks, utilities, advertisers, charities and government. At present Royal Mail charges these large mailers the same “one price goes anywhere” rate. Royal Mail says that introducing zonal pricing for some bulk mail products would help bring its prices more closely into line with its costs. Royal Mail wants to be able to charge less than at present for areas where it is cheaper to deliver and charge more for areas where it is more costly to deliver. Such changes cannot be implemented without Postcomm’s prior approval.
Royal Mail’s application does not affect any other postal products, including the “one-price-goes-anywhere” stamp available to the public – a core part of the universal postal service commitment – or those business mail services that are also included in the universal service (Cleanmail – first and second class – and Mailsort 1400 – first and second class).
Postcomm will evaluate carefully the views of interested parties in response to the document published today. In addition, when it has obtained from Royal Mail all the information necessary to make a full assessment of the application, Postcomm will conduct a further consultation about its assessment of whether or not it is minded to accept it.
Notes for editors
Royal Mail has applied to introduce zonal prices for these bulk mail products:
Mailsort 120 – first and second class, OCR and CBC
Mailsort 700 – first, second and third class
Mailsort 1400 – third class
Presstream – first and second class
Walksort – first and second class
Most of Royal Mail’s business tariffs are currently the same, regardless of delivery location. Royal Mail already applies zonal pricing to some of its “access” agreements, under which it delivers mail “the final mile” for large customers and other postal operators.
Printed copies of Zonal pricing by Royal Mail (pdf, 142KB) are available from Postcomm at 6 Hercules Road, London, SE1 7DB. Responses, which should go to Tony Spencer, are requested by 10 December 2006.
Read MoreIndian parcels company DTDC is at the centre of speculation over the next phase of consolidation in the country’s express and parcels industry. DTDC is the third-largest domestic express and parcels operator in India according to the forthcoming “CEP Market Fact Sheet India” from CEP-Research.
The Economic Times newspaper has reported that GeoPost may acquire a 10% stake in the company in a transaction under which founder and majority owner Subhasish Chakraborty would reduce his holding from 60% to 50%. The newspaper quoted Chakraborty as saying that he is in talks with several international players but he declined to give any more details.
Financial investor Reliance Capital, part of the Anil Ambani Group, bought a 40% stake in the Bangalore-based company earlier this year, and Chakraborty has said in the past that he aims to grow through acquisitions. The company recently signed a cooperation deal with Hong Kong-based Kerry Logistics for India-China services.
The Economic Times also reported that Reliance Capital might attempt “a game-changing deal” by trying to buy cargo company Gati though DTDC. But Gati senior executives denied the company was up for sale, saying they were only considering selling a minority stake.
The fast-growing Indian express and parcels market is increasingly attracting foreign investment. DHL is set to take full control of its Indian subsidiary, Blue Dart Express, and TNT announced at the start of the month that it is buying road express company Speedage.
Read MorePostcomm, the independent postal services regulator, has today published a document seeking views on the issues that it should take into account when it assesses proposals by Royal Mail to charge large mailers different rates depending on where in the UK their mail is delivered. (Royal Mail calls this zonal pricing.)
Royal Mail made an application to Postcomm in July which proposes to introduce zonal pricing to certain bulk mail products used by the largest mailers, such as banks, utilities, advertisers, charities and government. At present Royal Mail charges these large mailers the same “one price goes anywhere” rate. Royal Mail says that introducing zonal pricing for some bulk mail products would help bring its prices more closely into line with its costs. Royal Mail wants to be able to charge less than at present for areas where it is cheaper to deliver and charge more for areas where it is more costly to deliver. Such changes cannot be implemented without Postcomm’s prior approval.
Read MoreProgress on legislation to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service, a project that is now 12 years in the making, continues to shuffle along slowly as House and Senate negotiators mull a recently proposed compromise measure.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, sent the proposal to House negotiators just before the August recess. It essentially mirrors the Senate-approved bill and is the result of talks between the Senate committee and House Government Reform committee staffs.
Members from both chambers have worked to smooth out differences between their bills while also attempting to write an agreement that would meet White House approval. The Collins proposal upholds the Senate’s stricter rate cap provision, requiring that postal rate increases not exceed the rate of inflation.
An exit clause that would allow the agency to break that rate cap only in times of major emergencies is included in the conference agreement proposal. Both the strict rate cap and exit clause provisions are favored by mass mailers, who want a bill that ensures the lowest possible prices, but are opposed by unions seeking more flexibility in rate setting.
Read MoreTeliaSonera Finland and DHL have signed an agreement on voice and data services. The agreement covers for example about 1,300 mobile phone subscriptions, their switchboard services and several hundred vehicle terminal data subscriptions. The data transmission takes place based on GPRS or 3G, depending on the situation. DHL’s internal voice traffic will be transferred as IP-based into the DataNet-based data communications network that has already been in the company’s use and was delivered by TeliaSonera Finland.
Read MoreDeutsche Post AG (DPW.XE) has warned potential postal service competitors not to place too much hope in making profit in the shrinking German postal market, which reflects a global trend, weekly WirtschaftsWoche reports Sunday ahead of publication Monday.
Deutsche Post board member Hans Dieter Petram tells the magazine that classic letter-posting, excluding advertising, is expected to shrink by about 20% in 10 years, replaced by email.
The liberalization of the postal service in Germany at the end of 2007 won’t change that fact, he adds.
Read More
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