A second reading of the French government’s bill to reform postal services will take place in the French national assembly between April 12 and 14, it was announced yesterday. The bill, which passed its second reading in the French senate on March 10, is intended to open up to France’s postal services market to competition. Its provisions include permission for the French post office, La Poste, to set up a banking subsidiary.
Read MoreInternal Affairs and Communications Minister Taro Aso is gaining a greater say in discussions between the government and the Liberal Democratic Party [LDP] over the privatization of the postal services. LDP members are complaining about the debate being promoted under the leadership of Postal Services Privatization Minister Heizo Takenaka. “He is conducting discussions all by himself, without taking into consideration the situation within the LDP,” said a senior LDP official. It turned out that Aso volunteered to “serve as a mediator” between the LDP and the government. However, Aso, if he increases his stance of compromising with the party, may create an impression that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s reform line has regressed. It seems likely that the power balance between Takenaka and Aso will have a subtle impact on the future of the postal service reform.
Read MoreAustralia Post will be required to show greater transparency in its financial records under new rules put in place by the national competition watchdog today.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued mandatory Record Keeping Rules (RKRs) for Australia Post after receiving complaints from some of its retail and freight competitors.
Other retailers had raised concerns that Australia Post had been unfairly using its monopoly position as the country’s only provider of letter mail services to leverage itself in the retail sector through its shops.
The new rules ensure there can be no cross-subsidisation within Australia Post in terms of setting up other businesses and using the strength from its core business to subsidise others.
Read MoreSwitzerland’s postal service provider Swiss Post posted a record-high net profit of 837 mln Swiss francs (USD698.4 mln/540.3 mln euro) for 2004, up from 366 mln francs (USD305.4 mln/236.3 mln euro) for 2003, it was reported on March 31, 2005.
All Swiss Post units were profitable in 2004, the company said and attributed the strong profit rise to the higher prices of letter delivery services, which contributed 200 mln francs (USD166.9 mln/129.1 mln euro) to the profit.
Cost reduction through reorganisations and optimisations added 130 mln francs (USD108.5 mln/83.9 mln euro) and 120 mln francs (USD100.1 mln/77.5 mln euro) came from a drop in personnel costs.
Read MoreThe British post’s subsidiary GLS has accused DHL of practising price dumping in Germany. In an interview with the daily “Die Welt”, CEO Rico Back said the Deutsche Post parcel subsidiary would undercut GLS tariffs with discounts between 8 and 10% or 20 to 30 cent per parcel. DHL would guarantee customers the same price until 2007 and exclude any increase due to higher road toll or fuel costs. Mr Back called the practice “untrustworthy”.
Read MoreExel PLC have refused to comment on rumours that Deutsche Post AG is preparing a bid for the group.
The bid rumour pushed shares in the logistics and freight management group 8 pence higher to 860 at 12.05 pm.
‘The company does not comment on market speculation,’ a spokeswoman for Exel said.
Exel’s share price has recently been buoyed by intense speculation about a bid, with United Parcel Service Inc (UPS) and Federal Express also mentioned as potential bidders. At today’s price, Exel would be valued at about 2.56 bln stg.
Last month, the group was subject to a round of takeover speculation after it posted a 15 pct increrase in underlying pretax profits to 170.2 mln stg.
Read MoreDHL has awarded Siemens Logistics and Assembly Systems Inc., part of a USD160M contract for the integration and supply of conveying and sorting hardware. The agreement includes the provision of upper-level management software for implementation in DHL’s new letter and parcel sortation hubs. The hubs are located in Wilmington, Ohio; Allentown, Penn.; and Riverside, Calif. These facilities will serve both the air and ground parcel-sorting requirements of DHL as it continues to expand its growing customer base in the United States. Contract terms are undisclosed.
Installation will begin in May 2005 and the systems are expected to be fully operational by September 2006.
“This business partnership with Siemens provides us with the resources we need to fast-track the development of a state-of-the-art hub integration and automation system to improve service to our customers,” said Fred Beljaars, executive vice president for operations at DHL Americas.
Read MoreFedEx is looking to both operational and relationship touch points to drive customer loyalty.
Operational touch points like phone conversations, online interactions at FedEx.com and driver pickups are important, said Mark Colombo, vice president of strategic marketing and corporate strategy.
But relationship touch points are equally vital, if not more so. As an example, he cited that many people don’t want any contact with the company other than their driver who picks up and drops off packages.
“They don’t want direct mail. They just want a one-to-one relationship with a human being,” he said, noting that some drivers become such a big part of their route’s culture they end up running football pools for their customers. “That drives customer satisfaction and the brand.”
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