Author: Archive

Inquiry will back investment claim, says UK Royal Mail chief

Posted by | Jun 5, 2005 | |

Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson is expected to start the Government review into the future of Royal Mail within the next three weeks. Royal Mail has been urging an early start to the review because it believes it will strengthen its case for more cash support from the Government. Chairman Allan Leighton, who is masterminding the privatisation, has said the review will recognise the need for Pounds 2.5 billion of investment.

Read More

UK Royal Mail ‘faces a GBP2bn black hole’ if regulator caps prices

Posted by | Jun 5, 2005 | |

Royal Mail faces a funding shortfall of GBP2bn over the next five years if Postcomm, the postal regulator, succeeds in implementing its plans to curb price increases.

Senior Royal Mail executives have told The Sunday Telegraph that Postcomm’s review will leave it unable to invest in new technology and compete effectively with new entrants to the letters market.

The huge funding shortfall will arise because Postcomm wants to impose strict limits on future increases in stamp prices. Royal Mail has demanded that it should be allowed to increase the price of first class stamps from 30p to 48p by 2010. Postcomm wants to cap the increase at 34p.

“We are trying to reconstruct this business so it is a modern mail service that is profitable, and if it is profitable it can afford to invest back into itself,” said Allan Leighton, the chairman of Royal Mail. “We need to put another pounds 2bn into the business to move it on.”

Read More

Slovak postal liberalisation from 2007

Posted by | Jun 5, 2005 | |

Postal services in Slovakia should be liberalised two years sooner than previously planned.

Alternative postal operators could be offering a full range of postal services from 2007.

The Slovak cabinet recently approved a postal service analysis that recommended Slovak Post lose its exclusive right to deliver all types of consignments in two years time.

The new timetable for gradual liberalization suggests that from the end of 2006 Slovak Posts exclusive right of delivery will be reduced.

Alternative delivery firms would not be allowed to handle consignments weighing less than 50 grammes at a price less than 2.

Read More

Deutsche Post board member Appel says DHL seeks US, Asian acquisitions

Posted by | Jun 5, 2005 | |

Deutsche Post World Net AG board member Frank Appel told Die Welt in an interview to appear in tomorrow’s edition that its DHL unit wants to make acquisition in order to expand its logistics operations in the US and Asia.

‘We are talking about small to mid-sized companies with sales between 10-150 mln eur,’ Appel told the newspaper.
However, in Eastern Europe DHL wants to grow organically, he said.

Appel declined to comment on whether Deutsche Post wants to acquire UK logistics company Exel PLC.

‘That rumour has already been around for three years,’ Appel said. ‘I don’t know who keeps bringing that up.’

Appel confirmed that Deutsche Post is in talks to buy the remainder of KarstadtQuelle AG’s logistics operations.

Read More

UK Postcomm consults on change to Mail Plus licence

Posted by | Jun 3, 2005 | |

Postcomm today issued a consultation notice proposing a change to the postal services licence held by Mail Plus Limited (subsidiary of La Poste France). The company has requested the change, which would enable it to provide mailroom services for customers. In practice, this means it could carry mail within and between customers’ premises, and also transport it to or from other licensed operators’ premises.
Mail Plus was granted its existing licence on 17 February 2005. That enables it to handle bulk mailings of over 4,000 items, and to “consolidate” mail.

Read More

Belgian Post to sell postage stamps online

Posted by | Jun 3, 2005 | |

Belgian postal services company De Post/La Poste plans to launch online sales of postage stamps, it was reported on May 3, 2005. De Post/La Poste’s new service will allow customers to order postage stamps online and to print them.

Read More

ANALYSIS: Stapleton stands firm over postal wrangles

Posted by | Jun 3, 2005 | |

Recent weeks have seen bitter complaints levelled at Postcomm by Royal Mail, Postwatch and direct marketers alike. So chairman Nigel Stapleton has a tough job trying to find some middle ground. Sebastian Burford reports

By anyone’s standards, Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton has had a turbulent few weeks. After squaring up to discontented direct marketers at the recent pricing in proportion (PIP) summit (PM last week), this week began with accusations from Postwatch. The postal watchdog claimed the regulator’s tardy introduction of a liberalised market has skewered Royal Mail’s performance targets and amounted to deliberate “misleading”.

The week ends with Stapleton in a war of words over Postcomm’s call for a domestic price freeze until 2010, which Royal Mail’s chairman Allan Leighton has called a “blueprint for the service’s inexorable decline”. Meanwhile, the dust has yet to settle on Royal Mail’s non-payment of compensation for missing the performance targets from the last Postcomm review.

When Stapleton took over the Postcomm chair from Graham Corbett in November 2003, could he have predicted such a rough ride?

Read More

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

P&P Poll

Loading

Have you noticed a decrease of non-EU inbound parcel volumes since the implementation of the new €3 charge?

Thank you for voting
You have already voted on this poll!
Please select an option!


View ResultsHide Results

Post & Parcel Magazine


Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.

Subscribe to the Magazine

 

Pin It on Pinterest