Author: Archive

UPS first in industry to purchase hydraulic hybrid vehicles

Posted by | Oct 27, 2008 | |

As part of a public-private partnership to increase the commercial availability and use of alternative fuel vehicles, UPS announced its first purchases of a little-known technology – the hydraulic hybrid vehicle – that promises dramatic fuel savings and environmental benefits.
The technology, originally developed in a federal laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency, stores energy by compressing hydraulic fluid under pressure in a large chamber.
Disclosing the results of its road testing on Detroit routes for the first time, UPS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the prototype vehicle had achieved a 45-to-50 percent improvement in fuel economy compared to conventional diesel delivery trucks. UPS believes similar fuel economy improvements and a 30 percent reduction in CO2 are achievable in daily, real-world use. The EPA believes the technology can perform equally well in other applications such as shuttle and transit buses and refuse pick-up trucks.
UPS will deploy the first two of the new HHV’s in Minneapolis during the first quarter of 2009.
UPS’s current “green fleet” totals more than 1,600 low-carbon vehicles, including all-electric, hybrid electric, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG) and propane-powered trucks.

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DHL launches advertising campaign appealing export strengths

Posted by | Oct 24, 2008 | |

DHL launched an advertising campaign on 20 October that will run across newspaper and magazines through to the end of 2008. The campaign will communicate speedy delivery and increasingly sophisticated services and solutions to highlight DHL’s superiority in exporting capabilities.

This campaign focuses on three DHL services – DHL EXPRESS PALLET, DHL BREAKBULK EXPRESS, and DHL EXPRESS 9:00 / DHL EXPRESS 12:00 – and are focused on communicating the characteristics of these services as well as highlighting the service advantage DHL promises to its customers in an easily comprehensible manner.

DHL will appeal the features of the three services, along with the concept of “When hasso (the idea) changes, hasso (shipping) also changes,” in three phases via newspapers and magazines, which is a witty means to communicating in Japanese that DHL has a shipping solution for every idea / need of the business.

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Belgian postal service announces postage increases

Posted by | Oct 24, 2008 | |

The Belgian postal service (La Poste) has announced that it is being forced to increase postage prices from January 1, 2009

It said that: “Due to strong inflation and an increase in the prices of energy, certain postal services will see their prices increasing from January 2009.”

The price of a postage stamp, for a standard post in Belgium, will rise from EUR 0,54 to EUR 0,59 . It said the price (EUR 0,59 ) is still below average prices currently in force in Western Europe for items under 50 gr.

Other products will also see changes to pricing know an adaptation of their tariffs. La Poste said that more than 70 pct of the costs for the Post office were in wages, but rather than consider wage cuts, the price of stamps would have to rise to reflect the increase in costs associated with fuelling more than 6.000 vehicles and some 5.000 motor cycles. La Poste said it was feeling the impact of the big rise in the prices of the fuel: in one year, its fuel costs increased by 24 pct.

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UPS begins construction of intra-Asia hub in Shenzhen

Posted by | Oct 24, 2008 | |

UPS began construction of its new intra-Asia air hub at Shenzhen International Airport in the heart of China’s Pearl River Delta.

Once completed, the Shenzhen facility will replace UPS’s current intra-Asia hub located at the former Clark Air Base in the Philippines and serve as UPS’s primary transit hub in Asia. The facility is expected to open in 2010.

The repositioning of the air hub will slash at least a day off shipment times-in-transit for Asian customers while offering a new level of service to the manufacturing region located just north of Shenzhen, not far from Hong Kong.

Currently, the markets of China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan account for more than half of UPS’s total intra-Asia volume. Of this, a sizeable proportion of Asia package export volume now originates in southeast China and Hong Kong.

The UPS Shenzhen Intra-Asia hub will be built on a land area of 89,000 square meters (958,000 square feet) and include a dedicated 150,000-square-meter (1.6 million square feet) ramp provided by Shenzhen Airport, an express customs handling unit, sorting facilities and cargo handling areas.

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Postcomm's proposal to modify conditions to Fedex's licence

Posted by | Oct 24, 2008 | |

Postcomm has published a proposed modification to the licence of FedEx UK Limited. This proposal relates to earlier modifications of the licences for other non-Universal Service Obligation licensees in March 2008.

If the modification is made, the effect will be the removal of the obligation on FedEx UK Limited to maintain a guarantee, or contract with another operator, to ensure the delivery of mail in the licensee’s care should the licensee cease to carry on business.

Representations regarding this modification should be made by 23 November 2008.

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Post Danmark first nine months of 2008 results

Posted by | Oct 24, 2008 | |

In the first nine months of the year, Post Danmark achieved a profit after tax of DKK 666 million compared with DKK 401 million in the same period the year before. This is an improvement of DKK 265 million and a somewhat higher profit than expected. The operating profit amounted to DKK 726 million compared with DKK 590 million the year before, equivalent to an increase of 23 per cent. Against this background, Post Danmark’s expectations for a somewhat higher profit before tax for 2008 than was recorded in 2007 are maintained, which is in accordance with the earnings expectations published earlier.
– The profit improvement in the first nine months of the year was the result of growing revenue and lower expenses. In light of the economic slowdown, our performance was satisfactory, also when we look at associates and joint ventures which contributed a large part to the profit improvement, Helge Israelsen, CEO, Post Danmark, says.
Income rose by DKK 108 million compared with the same period last year, owing to a slower transition to the low-priced C letter than expected and despite declining volumes for the main products. The lower expenses resulted from a staff reduction and a downward adjustment of DKK 126 million made in relation to Post Danmark’s pension adjustment obligation.
– In the first nine months of the year, Post Danmark continued the major changes which are to strengthen our company in an increasingly competitive environment. This means fewer employees and as, at the same time, we have been able to retain more senior employees in our company, we have reduced both our direct payroll costs and costs in relation to the recruitment and training of new employees, Helge Israelsen says.
On 1 April 2008, Post Danmark published plans for a merger with Posten AB. The parties aim at completing the merger with effect from 1 January 2009. The effects of this forthcoming merger are not included in the Interim Financial Report, except for expenses relating to the preparation of the merger which in 2008 are expected to amount to approx. DKK 75 million, of which DKK 39 million was paid in the first nine months of the year.
– The Danish and Swedish parliaments have made the necessary legal amendments to enable the merger between Post Danmark and Posten AB. We have completed a due diligence process and analysed the two organisations’ IT platforms in order to prepare and implement the merger when the preparatory work is completed and the application has been considered by the EU competition authorities. We still expect the merger to take effect from 1 January 2009, Helge Israelsen says.
1 USD = 5.77559 DKK

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Royal Mail delivers postal service warning

Posted by | Oct 24, 2008 | |

Royal Mail said its profit had more than doubled but warned its one-price-goes-anywhere universal postage service was in the red and under threat.
The company said the challenge from electronic media and rival postal services meant it needed to step up modernisation while plunging stock markets had sent its pension fund deficit soaring.
Chairman Allan Leighton said: “This strong performance has been delivered against a backdrop of falling mail volumes, increased competition, an unsatisfactory regulatory regime and the challenge of meeting the demands of our pension scheme.” Royal Mail said the deficit in its pension fund, in accounting terms, had risen about GBP 1bn to GBP 4bn owing to plunging equity values. It is expecting next year’s actuarial valuation to show a larger hole. The letters business was facing tougher competition from email and private-sector rivals, and now has a daily postbag of 79m letters – down 5m on two years ago. It warned the economic downturn could mean an additional squeeze on the operation as companies cut back on advertising.
Chief Executive Adam Crozier said that, despite the improvement in performance and reduction in costs, the business still had problems. “The scale of these challenges means there is an urgent need to step up the pace of modernisation and ensure everyone is playing their part in transforming our operations and delivering a world-class postal service.

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DHL widget helps German online parcel customers

Posted by | Oct 23, 2008 | |

DHL Parcel Germany has enhanced its online services with the launch of DHL Widget enabling private and small business customers to book their online parcel shipments more comfortably and helping ebay sellers to gain a quick overview of relevant shipment details.

DHL Widget is an online programme dynamically combining all DHL online functions such as online franking, postage calculator, parcel tracking, address directory and a finder for parcel drop-off and collection points (Packstations, Paketbox), making the online preparation and tracking of parcel shipments easier for the customer.

The new programme transfers the products and addresses from the directory, chosen by the customer in the postage calculator, directly into the online franking service. As an additional service customers can allocate their shipments a memorable name such as ‘Parcel for Granny’ or ‘ eBay auction’. Plain symbols inform the customer about the status of the shipment. DHL provides the customer a proactive email service informing about the effected delivery.

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