DMA forges partnership with China Direct Mail Association
The Direct Marketing Association is linking up with the China Direct Mail Association to promote global business development using direct mail.
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Royal Mail speeds ahead with delivery of SAP e-procurement
UK post operator in SAP project that is expected to save GBP 300m.
Read MoreNew Postal Operations Council (POC) tackles ambitious programme
The new Postal Operations Council (POC) formally adopted a structure focused on product lines and designated the countries that will chair the various groups within four broad committees.
The POC is meeting for the first time since Congress.
Four committees will oversee the work of the Union in the areas of letter-post, parcels, postal financial services and standards and technology. Groups within these committees will further deal with specific operational issues affecting members of the postal sector, such as quality of service, customs, security, standards, addressing and electronic services, to name but a few.
POC Chairman, Andreas Taprantzis, who is also the Greek Post’s CEO, said a simplified structure will “streamline the decision-making process. Groups and Committees are taking up a lot of the burden. The plenary should be free from trivial decision-making and focus the debate on strategic issues. We need a fresh perspective… and make [it] attractive to the management of postal operators.”
Some 700 delegates from around the world are at UPU headquarters in Berne to attend the POC, whose work plan over the next four years is ambitious.
Read MoreFedEx Ground selects site for New Portland area distribution hub
FedEx Ground has chosen a 77-acre site in Troutdale to build a distribution hub that will be double the size of the existing operation in Portland, Oregon. A formal ground breaking ceremony took place on October 29.
The 415,000 square-foot facility will be built in the new Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park and will cost about USD 100 million including land, construction and material-handling equipment. Scheduled to open in 2010, the hub will feature the latest automated material handling technology designed to initially process 25,000 packages per hour and eventually 45,000 packages per hour when it reaches full capacity after a projected expansion. The workforce at opening is projected to include more than 500 full-time and part-time employees and about 200 independent contractor opportunities, many of which will transfer from the current facility.
New TNT Express depots in Germany and Italy
TNT Express has laid the foundation stone for a new logistics centre at Rostock airport in northern Germany, investing EUR 3.7 million in the new depot. In addition, the company opened two new branches in Italy this month.
In spring 2009, the current depot in Guestrow, which is 17 km away from Rostock, will be moved to the new site, which lies on a 12,000 sqm plot of land. Some 40 employees will work at the new facility.
Separately, TNT Express Italy has opened two new branches. The new depot at Verona, northern Italy, where about 200 staff are employed, is located in an industrial area close to the nearby motorway and benefits from the latest security facilities. The site is used for local distribution during the day and as a sorting hub for nationwide shipments during the night. TNT also opened a new branch at the coastal port of La Spezia following an investment of some EUR 400,000.
Read MoreNorway Post steps up logistics growth plan
Norway’s main postal operator Norway Post has kick-started plans to expand its logistics operations by implementing a Transport Management System from RedPrairie.
The E2eTM system will replace the company’s custom legacy applications and will centralise transport planning and management to help improve carrier management.
The system is designed to automate transport operations and improve visibility of order fulfilment in real-time, while connecting multiple parties and business processes throughout the broader supply chain.
The system will be worked across the businesses in the Norway Post Logistics Group which includes Bring Frigoscandia, Bring Logistics and Bring Express.
The company is now looking to extend the system to Distribution Net, the logistics arm of the postal business.
Read MoreUAL to offer FedEx bag service
United Airlines (UAL) plans to launch a next-day luggage service designed to raise fresh revenue while giving passengers a more reliable way to ship stuff without schlepping it through an airport.
The UAL is teaming with FedEx Corp. The two will offer in the continental U.S. door-to-door, overnight delivery of suitcases, golf clubs and other items the airline normally would transport in the bellies of its jetliners.
FedEx will move the goods — while United handles customer service — for USD 149 one-way for a suitcase or other item of up to 50 pounds carried less than 1,000 miles. It’ll cost USD179 for the same piece transported more than 1,000 miles. Delivery by 4:30 p.m. the next day is guaranteed.
FedEx confirmed it is United’s vendor but declined to elaborate. FedEx already moves items by ground and air for individual travelers who arrange their own transportation and, along with its rivals, works with a growing number of luggage services that have sprung up to help customers bypass airline baggage channels.
3,000 more Post Offices face axe over Royal Mail government contract
Gordon Brown has been warned at least 3,000 more post offices may shut if Royal Mail loses a vital GBP 200million Government contract.
It is feared a new five-year contract to run the post office card account may be taken away from Royal Mail and awarded to rival bidder PayPoint.
George Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, has written to Mr Brown to warn that losing the contract will be a disaster for his members, who get up to 20 per cent of their income from the card.
And he also predicted up to 3,000 post offices may be forced to shut – on top of the 2,500 already being axed under streamlining plans.
Around GBP 2 billion of that money is then spent in stores attached to post offices.
The federation is traditionally a very moderate organisation which supported the current closure programme because it agreed there was not enough work to support the existing of 12,000 post offices.
But Mr Thomson says the prospect of losing another one in four branches would be devastating. It would mean the elderly those on benefits having to travel long distances to get their money.
Mr Thomson said the public will see the decision on who gets the card account as a “test of the Government’s faith” in the future of our post offices.
The decision on the contract will be announced in the next few weeks.
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