Author: Archive

Geopost goes after UK mail

Posted by | Nov 7, 2005 | |

A new player has entered the UK domestic mail market. Mailplus will compete with companies such as TNT Mail and UK Mail for bulk mail services. Part of the Geopost group, Mailplus will use its sister company Parceline’s vehicles and West Midlands hub. Royal Mail will carry out final delivery. Mailplus claims the service will be 10% cheaper than Royal Mail rates, achievable, according to general manager John Wilkins, by using automated sorting and a hub-and-spoke network. The new company also claims to offer flexible collection times.

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Deutsche Bahn to buy BAX Global

Posted by | Nov 7, 2005 | |

Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned railway company, is preparing to acquire BAX Global, the U.S. freight forwarder, in a bid to catch up with the consolidation sweeping the global logistics industry. Europe’s biggest railway operator is likely to pay between $960 million and $1.2 billion for Irvine, Calif.-based BAX, a unit of the Brink’s Co., a security and logistics company. Deutsche Bahn will decide whether to proceed with the acquisition at an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board on Saturday, according to German press reports. Deutsche Bahn is expected to fold BAX into Schenker, its freight forwarding unit that has been under pressure to match recent takeovers by rivals, most recently Deutsche Post’s $6.7 billion acquisition of Exel, the UK’s largest ocean and air freight forwarder and contract logistics company, and Swiss-based Kuehne & Nagel’s $588 million acquisition of Paris-based ACR Logistics from Platinum Equity Group, a private U.S. investors group.

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Dempsey urged to issue short-term postal licences in Republic of Ireland

Posted by | Nov 6, 2005 | |

Irish Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey is being urged to prepare short-term licences for private companies to collect and deliver mail so businesses can continue to operate during a postal strike. Dempsey has already said he has the option to fast-track a full market opening of postal services ahead of an EU directive, which comes into force in 2009, liberalising the sector. However, the Small Firms’ Association is urging the minister to issue temporary licences to private operators who currently run a drop-off service for some companies.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) said last Friday that it would launch a nationwide ban on overtime and an all-out strike at the GPO in Dublin and other selected locations from tomorrow.

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UK Royal Mail hit as bank junk mail falls

Posted by | Nov 5, 2005 | |

A drop in credit card junk mail has hit Royal Mail’s core business, with volumes for flagship products falling up to 7 per cent in the six months to September, the postal operator has revealed.

Royal Mail’s regulator said the new figures were forcing it to rework the calculations underlying price controls to be finalised this month. Royal Mail attributes the fall in its volumes – the first for 25 years, bar a dip three years ago – to a general economic slowdown and the impact of competition.

High street banks are sending less direct mail than last year, due in part to a switch from blanket to targeted mailshots, according to the Direct Mail Information Service. Such fluctuations in volumes, with banks easing off hard-sell mailshots when personal debt levels are rising, are inevitable, said Royal Mail.

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New move brings Irish postal competition one step nearer

Posted by | Nov 5, 2005 | |

The Chief executive of An Post, Donal Curtin, has written to the communications regulator formally requesting that the company be excused from its legal obligation to provide a postal service.

It is the first time a derogation has been sought under a regulatory regime established in 2002 and, according to sources, formally clears the way for regulator Comreg to ask Communications Minister Noel Dempsey to introduce early competition into the market.

The Communications Workers’ Union, which represents postal workers, announced last night that it would begin industrial action at midnight tomorrow. Ahead of that announcement, Mr Dempsey said that he would consider opening the postal market to competition earlier than expected in the event that industrial action went ahead.

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UK Post office buyout plans grow

Posted by | Nov 5, 2005 | |

An attempt to launch a buyout of the loss-making post office network will move a step forward today when a postmasters’ group meets potential US investors in London to try to secure up to Pounds 150m of funding.

The buyout, which would have to be approved by the government and parliament, would break up the state-owned Royal Mail, which is understood to be strongly opposed to the proposal. Royal Mail declined to comment yesterday.

The initiative by Postmasternetwork, which says it represents 7,500 postmasters, has thrown a spotlight on the troubles of the post office network. Royal Mail and its sole shareholder, the government, face a conundrum over what to do with the network, which lost Pounds 110m in 2004-05.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the government subsidy of Pounds 150m a year for rural post offices is due to end in 2008. Even if the government wanted to renew this subsidy, European competition rules might prevent it.

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SPECIAL REPORT – PAPER AND ENVELOPES: This much we know

Posted by | Nov 4, 2005 | |

While the direct marketing industry has finally accepted that pricing in proportion is on its way, the paper and envelopes sector seems less clued up on the upcoming changes. Yet it is just as involved.

At best, the current industry attitude toward Royal Mail’s Pricing in Proportion (PIP) plans could be described as resigned. After five long years of consultations, briefings, and speculation about the potentially – if you believe the nay sayers – devastating effects of the new pricing scheme, a date has been set. August 21 2006 – already dubbed `Black Monday’ – will see the direct marketing industry finally go head-to-head with PIP. The task for Royal Mail is now to communicate the possible outcomes of its controversial system.

Because of the vocal nature of some key players, everybody in the direct marketing industry pretty much knows what to expect – or do they? Agencies know they will have to redefine their pricings and liaise with their clients over the changes, and creatives know they will have to align their ideas with the demands of the new pricing structure. But does the supplier side of the industry know what is about to hit it?

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UK Royal Mail ‘will still dominate market in 2010’

Posted by | Nov 4, 2005 | |

Postcomm has admitted there are still huge barriers to competition in the postal market – including poor consumer awareness, the risk of anti- competitive behaviour, and Royal Mail’s VAT exemptions – claiming it will be years before Royal Mail’s dominance is threatened. Speaking at London’s UK Mail Show this week, Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton said: “The development of a fully competitive market is at a very early stage – Royal Mail will still have nearly 90 per cent of the market in 2010.” His comments were reinforced by Postcomm’s recently published annual Competitive Market Review, which shows Royal Mail still holds 97.2 per cent of the letters market, some 30 months after the market was first opened up. Private operators have only taken a 1.6 per cent share – of which 0.5 per cent operate an end-to-end service – while direct customer access is shaving off 1.2 per cent.

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