French banking group Credit Agricole has complained publicly about the quality of service offered by national postal services group La Poste, and has threatened to take its business elsewhere. The bank may be trying to renegotiate a more favourable commercial contract with the postal group. It has made enquiries about the prices charged by the Dutch and German postal services.
Read MoreRoyal Mail made a loss of more than GBP500m last year on letters weighing less than 100g, which includes all first and second class letter post and bulk mail. The loss, which will be revealed when Royal Mail publishes regulated accounts in the next fortnight, could increase pressure for a further rise in the price of a postage stamp. Royal Mail will use the figures in its battle with the regulator, Postcomm, over plans to give rivals access to its local delivery network.
Postcomm has proposed access charges (the price Royal Mail can levy for delivering rivals’ post to the door) as low as 11.5p per item. However, the company says the imposition of such low charges would cost it a further GBP650m over the next three years.
Read MoreExel purchases Unidock of Brazil
Read MoreFedEx have chosen a site in a Hagerstown [Md.] business park for a new mid-Atlantic processing centre for its FedEx Ground unit. The company announced last month that it would employ at least 400 people at a package distribution hub in the Hagerstown area.
Read MoreTPG, through its Chinese logistics joint venture ANJI-TNT Automotive Logistics Company (ANJI -TNT), part of its TNT Logistics division, has signed the largest automotive inbound logistics contract awarded in China to date.
The five-year contract between ANJI-TNT and Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW) was signed at the recent first anniversary celebration of the ANJI-TNT joint venture and is expected to have total revenues of over EUR 100 million.
Read MoreDHL and Open Harbor, Inc., today announced the successful second pilot deployment of DHL’s Worldwide Clearance System (WCS) to DHL’s Ireland operations. Powered by Open Harbor’s real-time Web-based platform, DHL’s WCS standardizes customs clearance processes across hundreds of its locations and millions of customers’ clearance transactions each year.
“WCS will provide DHL with total customs clearance systems integration and real-time visibility into the global trade process,” said Jeffrey Bass, DHL’s WCS program director. “In Malaysia, we’re already recognizing a significant boost in operational efficiency. Our deployments of WCS in Cork, Shannon and Dublin should provide the model for other locations within Europe.”
Open Harbor’s automated solution collects and continuously updates regulatory data. The system now holds over 8,000,000 trade rules. Once fully implemented, WCS will provide every DHL clearance location with the latest information on international trade regulations.
Read MoreDeutsche Post continues to steadily modernise its mail and parcel processing in Germany. Siemens Dematic will deliver hardware and software components that enhance the letter and parcel handling processes.
Dr Frank Appel, a member of Deutsche Post World Net’s Management Board and responsible for Corporate Services, and Johann Löttner, Chairman of Siemens Dematic’s Board of Management, signed an extensive contract package in Bonn, Germany. The total investment is approximately EUR 90m for the next two years.
Read MoreThe Romanian Postal Service will start doing business in the market of land based phone-lines by setting up a company with SIF Banat Crisana (Financial Investment Company), SIF Oltenia, the Romanian Commercial Bank and the Romanian Industrial Group, as Bursa and Ziarul Financiar dailies write. According to the president of the Romanian Postal Service, the new company – ‘POSTelecom’ – will compete with RomTelecom due to ‘the superior quality of its services and smaller fees’. The Romanian Post Service will take an 80 million dollars loan from China’s Export-Import Bank, in order to buy the equipment necessary for POSTelecom’s infrastructure, as the president of the Romanian National Postal Company, Gabriel Mateescu said. The costs to get this business working for the first four years amount to 90 million dollars while the income was estimated to 137 billion dollars. The Chinese company Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment will provide the equipments and the technology will come from China Unicom.
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