Author: Archive

Mail sorting systems in Israel

Posted by | Aug 11, 2006 | |

The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) has received an order from the Israel Postal Company for delivery of two mail sorting systems. The solution, specially tailored to the requirements of the Israel Postal Company, combines pre-processing of the incoming mail with reading and encoding of the consignments. The order is worth around 6 million euros to the I&S Postal Automation Division, and it represents the start of the Israel Postal Company’s modernization drive.

The Israel Postal Company intends to increasingly replace its existing technology with modern systems in order to provide its customers with a faster service. Two steps are being combined into a single process: The efficient pre-processing of letter mail, and the reading and encoding of this mail. This will be achieved by equipping a CFC (Culler/Facer/Canceller) machine with the latest reading and encoding technology. The basic configuration of the CFC covers the working steps of pre-processing. Letter mail will be separated according to machineable and non-machineable mail, and the machineable mail will be scanned and aligned. An image of the mail will be generated for the optical character recognition (OCR) process of the address reading system. The OCR system also recognizes type and hand writing addresses written in Hebrew. In addition, 22 video encoding stations will be set up for processing non-machine-readable addresses.

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UK Royal Mail under fire for 'greedy' D2D plan

Posted by | Aug 11, 2006 | |

Royal Mail’s recent agreement with postal workers to increase the number of unaddressed items they deliver has sparked accusations of “greed” and fears that response rates will plummet.

The deal, which has seen posties secure a 3.9 per cent wage increase, has been hailed by chief executive Adam Crozier: “Our customers will see greater capacity where they need it. We’re getting on with tackling the competition – not each other.”

But Mark Young, managing director at The Leaflet Company, questions whether Royal Mail’s “greed for short-term profitability will eventually lead to the demise of one of its most successful products”.

He adds: “Is this just one more step to line Royal Mail’s pockets? There will be concerns about return on investment now that the householder could receive twice as many items. Surely overloading the postmen will lead to lower levels of delivery.

“Independent audit companies have shown delivery efficiency for Royal Mail to have decreased continuously year on year.”

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Austrian Post improves H1 profits

Posted by | Aug 11, 2006 | |

Austrian Post has announced strong results for the first half of 2006 following its successful flotation in May with good growth figures for its parcel and logistics business.

The company increased group revenues by 3% to €861.4 million, and improved EBIT by 17.9% to €66.3 million. The EBIT margin advanced to 7.7%. EBITDA for the first half year of €117.9m was up 14.5% compared with last year, pushing up the EBITDA margin to 13.7%. Earnings before tax rose to €67.3 million, 23.2% higher than in the same period last year. Profit for the first half year remained unchanged over the same period last year, as a result of higher taxes and the absence of the earnings achieved in 2005 from discontinued operations (Postversicherung AG).

Revenue growth was driven by both the mail and parcel & logistics divisions, resulting in higher profits since there was only a moderate rise in costs. The Austrian Post share also ended the half-year well, with a June 30 share price of €23.72, which was 25% higher than the issue price of €19.00.

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DHL changes negatively impact quarter's revenues for ABX Air

Posted by | Aug 11, 2006 | |

ABX Air Inc. on Wednesday reported revenues of USD 303.6 million and net earnings of USD 6.5 million, or 11 cents per share, for the second quarter.

The Wilmington-based company’s revenues declined USD 47.7 million and net earnings declined USD 300,000, or 1 cent per share, compared with the second quarter of 2005.

Earnings during the second quarter were negatively impacted by the reduction in truck line-haul management services provided to DHL, ABX’s largest customer

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UPS Board Sets Dividend

Posted by | Aug 11, 2006 | |

The Board of Directors of UPS (NYSE:UPS) today declared a regular quarterly dividend of 38-cents per share on all outstanding Class A and Class B shares.

The dividend is payable Sept. 6, 2006, to shareholders of record on Aug. 21, 2006.

UPS has raised its quarterly payout 81% since February 2003.

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UPS Board Sets Dividend

Posted by | Aug 10, 2006 | |

The Board of Directors of United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS), at its regularly scheduled meeting, today declared a quarterly cash dividend of 19-cents per share on all outstanding Class A and Class B shares. The dividend is payable on June 7, 2002, to shareowners of record on May 28, 2002. UPS is the world’s largest transportation company, offering the most extensive range of e-commerce and supply chain solutions for the movement of goods, information and funds.

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Finland Posts net sales continue to grow

Posted by | Aug 10, 2006 | |

Interim Report for April–June 2006

Consolidated net sales for Q2/2006 improved to EUR 376.0 million over the same period a year ago (EUR 313.4 million in Q2/2005), up by 20%, company acquisitions and organic growth accounting for 17% and 3%, respectively.
Consolidated operating profit declined to EUR 15.1 million (EUR 22.5 million), representing 4% (7%) of consolidated net sales. Profit before tax came to EUR 15.8 million (EUR 24.0 million).
Net sales reported by Messaging remained steady. The business group’s profitability was eroded by a fall (6%) in 1st class letter-mail volumes and an increase in delivery labour costs.
Information Logistics’ net sales showed favourable developments in all of its product groups, with the exception of Germany. However, price competition remained fierce.
As a result of acquisitions in 2005, Logistics reported strong growth in its net sales.

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Net deficiency of USD 594.5 million posted after escrow allocation

Posted by | Aug 10, 2006 | |

USPS revenues for June were USD 27 million, or 0.4% under plan and 5.6% more than June 2005. Expenses for the month were USD 39 million, or 0.7% under plan and 4.4% more than June 2005. The result is a net loss of USD 11.9 million before the escrow allocation. The net deficiency after escrow allocation is USD 261.9 million.
Year-to-date (YTD) revenue through June is 3.9% higher than the same period last year (SPLY) and is USD 386 million above plan. YTD expenses are 4.2% higher than SPLY and USD 222 million over plan. YTD total mail volume is 0.9% above SPLY.
YTD, net income before escrow allocation is USD 1.66 billion. However, our net deficiency after the escrow allocation is USD 594.5 million.
Contributing to the YTD performance was the new postage rate structure implemented Jan. 8, which provided a 5.4% revenue increase needed to fulfill the requirement of Public Law 108-18, The Postal Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) Funding Act, enacted in 2003. This law requires the Postal Service to hold USD 3 billion in an escrow account by Sept. 30, 2006, to cover the difference between the CSRS retirement costs before and after the implementation of this law. We are allocating USD 250 million per month for purposes of assessing our financial position.

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