Author: Archive

Having a gr8 time…text generation still prefers a postcard though!

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

Royal Mail predicts a record 135 million postcards will be sent and received this summer.

The UK may be a nation of ‘texters’ but when it comes to showing someone you care while away on holiday, a postcard still trumps the text message for that personal touch. In a recent poll conducted by You Gov in conjunction with Royal Mail, over 68 per cent of people still rate the postcard over a text message.

But the texting culture has influenced what is written on the back of a postcard with over 50 per cent of people now using common “textisms” to say they care. “C U Soon” is now the most popular sign off with other well-known abbreviations such as “R” for “are” and “Gr8” featuring heavily.

Royal Mail expects to deliver 28 million postcards sent from within the UK this year and novelty cards now rank above the great British landmarks/ tourist spots as the cards of choice. The top five cards to send from the UK are:

1) Novelty shaped cards e.g. ice-cream, deckchair, sun, boat
2) Buckingham Palace
3) Double Decker buses
4) Tower of London
5) Blackpool Tower

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La Poste puts up French stamp prices from October

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

La Poste, the French national postal operator, has announced a stamp price rise of one euro cent for standard domestic letters with effect from October 1, 2006. It is also increasing corporate rates but offering more discounts for large volumes.
The price rise means that French consumers will be paying euro0.54 for a standard letter weighing up to 20 grams. La Poste said that the new domestic price was “the exact average” of European postal rates for domestic letters yet it had to provide a wider universal service than its European competitors with higher collection and distribution costs due to the size and low population density of France. The increase would have a minimal impact on French household costs with less than euro2 per year.

Postal rates for French businesses will rise in two stages. From October 1, smaller customers will pay higher prices but also be able to take advantage of a new volume-based offer with preferential tariffs. At the start of 2007, business with large mail volumes will face a 2.6% rise in prices. La Poste said that this was the first price hike since January 2003 and was well below the 6.5% increase in general prices since then.

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TNT Express launches consumer parcel service in France

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

TNT Express has launched a consumer parcel delivery service in France designed to profit from increasing e-commerce sales in the country. The new service responds to an increasing demand for reliable, rapid and efficient deliveries of goods purchased on the internet, the company said in a statment.

TNT Express France now offers a choice of home delivery or drop-off at the closest ”Relais Colis” parcel collection point to the consumer’s home. There are 3,800 such collection points across France that are being used by TNT under a cooperation agreement.

The Dutch-owned express operator offers three delivery solutions: direct delivery, with a second attempt the following day, direct delivery, with delivery to a Relais Colis if the recipient is absent, or delivery directly to a Relais Colis.

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U.S. Postal Service, FedEx Express Sign Agreement for Domestic Air Transportation Through 2013

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) today announced a new agreement for domestic air transportation of mail through 2013.
The Postal Service and FedEx Express signed a seven-year contract in 2001 for airport-to-airport delivery of mail within the United States. The contract announced today will replace the final two years of that contract and a new seven-year agreement will commence in October of 2006.
The agreement is expected to generate about USD8 billion in revenue over the life of the seven-year contract.
FedEx Express will continue to fly over 4 million pounds of U.S. mail every business day – the equivalent of 40 wide-body DC10 aircraft using existing aircraft and facilities.

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Explosive rise of TNT gives Royal Mail a run for its business market

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

TNT, the Dutch-based parcels and mail group, is poised to increase its challenge to Royal Mail with extended mail and parcels services in its GBP100m-a-year UK business, moving closer to the day when it has its own postmen on the streets.
End-to-end business delivery services are being extended to more major cities after successful trials in Glasgow and Manchester. The acquisition of the parcels deliverer JD Williams – with 2,000 couriers – also provides a platform for growth.
Peter Bakker, chief executive at TNT, revealed the plans after announcing an acceleration in second quarter operating profits, raising full-year expectations.
TNT expects to collect and sort 1.2bn items of mail in Britain this year, mainly for banks and utilities. At present, Royal Mail handles final delivery but the two city trials have encouraged TNT to offer more end-to-end services to business clients.

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Holding the folding : UK prefers cash over plastic on holiday

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

Holidaymakers are set to splash the cash overseas with bumper currency sales of GBP2.3 billion forecast for this year according to a new Post Office® report. In fact, one in every fifteen pounds of the total GBP34 billion spent overseas this year will be bought from the Post Office®.

Launched today, the report shows cash is still the UK’s number one way to pay abroad. Almost half (47 per cent) prefer to use local currency compared to 33.6 per cent who prefer to “put it on the plastic” using their debit or credit card.

Although Traveller’s Cheques are still popular with 19 per cent of holidaymakers, as plastic becomes more popular they are slowly declining, with sales dropping by almost 12 per cent last year. Despite this, euro Travellers’ Cheque sales grew by 7.7 per cent last year .

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Japan draws up plans for world's largest bank

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

Yucho Bank doesn’t exist yet, but by next year it could be the world’s biggest, with nearly USD2 trillion in assets.

According to a 10-year road-map for the privatization of Japan Post Corp., formerly known as the Postal Services Agency, the bank will have 233 branches in Japan and also operate through the nation’s 24,000 post offices. Currently, Japan Post hold a third of the country’s personal savings.

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