Author: Archive

Rivals snap at the heels of UK Royal Mail

Posted by | Dec 29, 2005 | |

Royal Mail expects to lose “billions” of mail items to its rivals over the next 12 months, following the opening up of the market to full competition on January 1. And in the change that will follow the New Year’s day revolution in the postal services market, it is business customers that are expected to be in the lead. Royal Mail lost its monopoly on mailings of 4,000 and more items in April 2003. Next week, the rest of the Pounds 6.5bn market, including lower volumes of mail sent by small businesses, is being opened up. Companies account for more than 80 per cent of the licensed market: mail costing less than Pounds 1 and weighing less than 350g. Royal Mail’s main competitors include TNT Mail, the UK arm of TPG, the Dutch postal group; DHL Global Mail, the UK arm of Deutsche Post, the German postal operator; and UK Mail, owned by Business Post, a quoted express delivery company. Those competitors say they intend to use the January 1 liberalisation as a catalyst to step up the pressure on the state-owned operator, using a combination of pricing and product innovation to try to woo more of its business customers.

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Minister to talk with UK Royal Mail‘s Leighton after tough efficiency targets agreed

Posted by | Dec 29, 2005 | |

Ministers are to open talks with Royal Mail over its demands for up to Pounds 2bn of investment after the postal operator agreed to tough new targets for improving efficiency. The negotiations, which will run well into the new year, are expected to focus on several options, all of which would involve the government, which is the state-owned postal operator’s sole shareholder, putting public money into the company. With Royal Mail’s financial position precarious, and trade unions fearful of another round of job cuts, its management is lobbying the Department of Trade and Industry for help. One option under discussion would be to provide the company with a loan repayable over a number of years. Another option, favoured by Royal Mail, could be some form of equity investment, not unlike a rights issue, under which the government would inject cash as equity in return for a bigger dividend in future. Alan Johnson, trade and industry secretary, will lead the talks with Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman.

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Romanian Delivery Services Market At 42.75 Mln Euro in 2005

Posted by | Dec 28, 2005 | |

The Romanian market for courier and international delivery services is expected to grow to USD50 mln (42.75 mln euro) in 2005, up from USD38.5 mln (32.9 mln euro) in 2004, it was reported on December 28, 2005. TNT Romania, the local subsidiary of Dutch TNT Express, and DHL Romania, the local unit of US delivery company DHL, held 80 pct of the market in 2004, followed by Trans Couriers Service, an authorised representative of U.S. delivery company UPS.

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US Postal Service ends 2005 with remarkable results

Posted by | Dec 28, 2005 | |

The results are in – the US Postal Service ended 2005 with a record sixth consecutive year of growth in productivity, wiped out its debt and delivered fifty percent more mail to 32 million more homes and businesses than it did 20 years ago while doing it at 1985 staffing levels. These results are highlighted in the just released 2005 Annual Report of the U.S. Postal Service. “These remarkable results reflect the strong efforts throughout the entire organization to remain focused on the transformational strategies we identified in 2002,” said Postmaster General John E. Potter and Board of Governors Chairman James C. Miller III.

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UK watchdog in pledge over postal services

Posted by | Dec 28, 2005 | |

The landmark opening of the UK’s GBP6.5bn postal services market to full competition on January 1 will take five years to have its full impact, the postal regulator has said. But Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm, stressed the “pace of change” should be faster than the liberalisation of the UK telecoms and energy markets. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Stapleton vowed that Postcomm would use its full range of powers including prosecutions to ensure that liberalisation is not accompanied by a collapse in basic service standards. He cited the deregulation of directory enquiries in 2003, which triggered concerns about new entrants to the market giving out the wrong phone numbers, as a cautionary example of the need to protect market integrity. “As far as we’re concerned, a major issue in how successful competition will be is if we can maintain customer confidence,” Mr Stapleton said.

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Royal Mail to stamp its mark with German postal system

Posted by | Dec 24, 2005 | |

Christmas cards have never been a big thing in Germany. An enthusiastic card-sending nation, such as the UK, sees its mail bags swell by half to 120m over the festive period. The German postal system carries a surprisingly low 72m letters a day year-round. It is also estimated to have far less of a Christmas card boom. The main reason is probably cultural – friends seem more inclined to meet up over mulled wine at a Christmas market or perhaps send greetings by e-mail. But might the cost and complexity of using Deutsche Post’s services also play a part? For a start, a standard card needs a 55 cent stamp in Germany. Across Europe, only Denmark’s 58 cent postage is more expensive, according to a study this month by the Free and Fair Post Initiative, an association of postal users and private-sector postal operators. Then there is the challenge of sticking the right stamp on your missive. Deutsche Post has 64 different postal tariffs.

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DPD plans European growth and B2C services

Posted by | Dec 23, 2005 | |

DPD is planning to grow its European business and is considering expanding its B2C activities, joint CEO Hans Fluri told CEP-Research in an exclusive interview. The La Poste parcels subsidiary is winning European business from express carriers with its new Guarantee product but has no major plans in the German mail market, he said.

Fluri has been joint CEO of DPD GmbH & Co. KG, the German-based franchisor company for the entire DPD network, alongside Arnold Schroven since November following a streamlining of the DPD management board. Fluri remains CEO of DPD GeoPost Deutschland, the Germany franchisee.

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Irish An Post’s next-day mail delivery rate worsens

Posted by | Dec 23, 2005 | |

The performance of An Post in delivering mail has deteriorated, with only 74 per cent of postal items delivered by the next working day, a new survey has found. The survey by the regulator ComReg relates to the third quarter of 2005. The figures for this period were 4 per cent down on the previous quarter. ComReg last night expressed dissatisfaction with the results and pointed out that its target for next-day delivery was 94 per cent. It also pointed to an especially poor performance in the southern region of An Post’s network, which it said appeared to be the result of operational changes. An Post strongly contested the results. Under chief executive Donal Curtin, the company has for a long time rejected the methods used by ComReg for measuring its performance.

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