Author: Archive

Taiwan and China poised to launch direct postal exchange

Posted by | Oct 16, 2008 | |

Taiwan and mainland China are poised to set up direct postal link, which will halve the delivery time and postage cost, said Kao Kung-lian, secretary general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), yesterday (Oct. 15).

The postal link will cover not only common mails but also parcels and express-delivery packages carried out by Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd. and its Chinese counterparts, according to Kao.

The statement was confirmed by Yang Yi, spokesman of Taiwan Affairs Office of China`s State Council, who said yesterday that direct postal link will be a major topic in the talk between Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), and P.K. Chiang, SEF chairman, during the former`s upcoming visit to Taiwan. The talks will also cover such issues as direct shipping link, direct charter freight flight, direct charter passenger flight on weekdays, and direct cross-Strait flight route.

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TNT trading statement

Posted by | Oct 16, 2008 | |

Trading conditions in TNT’s European Express business have significantly worsened in September and, based on the volume patterns in the first two weeks of October, TNT expects this pressure to continue in the fourth quarter.
Within a context of severe global volatility in financial markets, the recessionary trend in the economy in Europe has accelerated, causing the volumes in the premium International Express (air) product to decrease around 10pct. The Economy Express volumes (road) have continued to grow albeit well below levels of 2007.
In the Express Emerging platforms the growth and margins continued to develop in line with our outlook.
TNT’s Mail business is also developing according to the outlook, producing a robust operating income and cash flow for 2008.
TNT was able to refinance its capital requirements in August, ahead of the deepening of the financial crisis in September/October. Combined with the strong cash flow, this puts TNT on a solid financial footing going forward.
TNT will present an updated outlook for 2008 in its Q3 publication on October 27. The margins in the Express ‘’International & Domestic’’ line of business are currently expected to develop around a solid 9 pct for the full year, with somewhat lower revenue growth. No changes in other lines of the outlook are currently foreseen.

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Vietnam: More inspection of postal and delivery companies needed

Posted by | Oct 16, 2008 | |

Do Thi Tinh, deputy inspector of the Ministry of Information and Communications spoke with Buu Dien Viet Nam (Viet Nam Post) about major problems with enterprises operating postal and delivery services.
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) sent an inspection team for the first time to carry out a large-scale examination of enterprises operating within the postal system. What were the major problems discovered?
In 2007, the Government issued Decree No 128/2007/ND-CP on managing postal delivery services. This decree mandated that firms engaging in postal delivery not only continue to register with their city or provincial department of planning and investment, but also to register and get a licence from MoIC.
One year after the decree, however, only 13 postal delivery enterprises had been licenced from MoIC, eight enterprises were waiting for licences after turning in the appropriate documents and 14 others had informed the ministry of their business. According to our statistics, some 200 enterprises are operating in delivery services.
In our recent investigation, the major problem seemed to be that many enterprises did not know about the new State policy. They did not know that doing business in delivery services is a conditional business field which requires them to get a license from MoIC, and therefore only registered with their respective department of planning and investment.
During inspections, we informed postal delivery enterprises without licences about the need to become registered with MoIC and commanded them to supplement their documents and send them in.
What have been done about the violations?
Many planning and investment departments do not apply fines, but only give warnings and order violators to turn in their documents. It has also happened that strict punishments were given.
Our inspection team has carried out examinations in three provinces and cities and has given fines up to VND50 million (USD 3,100) to enterprises without licences, those which use measuring devices that have not been tested, or those which are charging different prices than what is on the set price list.
Did the examination and fining processes encounter any difficulties?
Some enterprises which no longer operate in postal delivery services are still registered with departments of planning and investment; there are also many providing services without registering at all. This causes much trouble for the management of these enterprises.
Another problem is that enterprises in some provinces have proper offices from which to do business, while others have an unofficial person operating without an official office.
Post offices also have many violations such as expired agency contracts, collecting the wrong amount of money for calls and having no records of subscribers.
The MoIC inspection team is planning to amend and supplement some more articles in Decree No 142/2004/ND-CP on fining violations in postal services. Why does the decree need to be amended?
In the past, the inspection unit of the ministry discovered many violations of enterprises. But the decree either does not have any sanctions for these violations, or the sanctions are not feasible. The violations include having no business registration, inadequate billing information, no customs procedures or quarantine with international packages, buying unidentified postal stamps, as well as unfair competition by offering high discount rates.
Meanwhile, the sanction is too high for those who do not register their services, which makes it difficult to apply.
What is your opinion of the State’s management of postal and delivery services?
State management on postal and delivery services has not been adequate. The inspection team from MoIC is too small, and there is too much work. In my opinion, it is necessary that the State strengthen inspection in postal and delivery services in cities and provinces in order to make enterprises operating in this field do the

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U.S. Postal Service issues report on USO and Postal Monopoly

Posted by | Oct 15, 2008 | |

The Postal Service submitted a report to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on its position related to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and postal monopoly. The Postal Service confirms its continued commitment of trusted, affordable universal service to the American public. The report supports that no changes to the USO and monopoly are necessary at this time while additional flexibilities will be required to ensure affordable, universal service into the future.
Obligations of the USO include uniform prices, quality of service, access to services, and six-day delivery to every part of the country. To assure financial support for these obligations, the postal monopoly provides the Postal Service the exclusive right to deliver letters and restricts mailbox access solely for mail. Therefore, the USO and postal monopoly are inextricably linked.
The Postal Service said that the USO should continue to be broadly defined and there should be no changes to the postal monopoly. Any changes would have far-reaching effects on customers and the trillion dollar mailing industry.
During hearings held earlier this year, the PRC also heard from mailers, mailing associations, and postal unions and management associations. Comments generally indicated that changes are not currently needed.

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TNT wins Asia express logistics award

Posted by | Oct 15, 2008 | |

TNT Express was today recognised for its express logistics excellence in Asia Pacific at the annual SCMLogistics Excellence Awards held in Singapore.

TNT said that it gained the “Asia Pacific Express Logistics Excellence” award in recognition of its efforts in raising the bar of end-to-end supply chain and logistics standards in the Asia Pacific region. In particular, it recognised TNT’s success in increasing service levels, reducing costs and maximising lead times for its customers; offering a comprehensive end-to-end suite of solutions to customers; and spearheading logistics innovation. .

In addition, it has built up its Asia Road Network for regional overland transportation to link over 125 cities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and China. Other measures include an enhanced Customer Contact Centre opened in July 2008 and the introduction of several RFID-based solutions, including its RFID-ready Life Sciences Express Hub in Singapore, its largest dedicated life science facility in the world.

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Australia Post delivers record results

Posted by | Oct 15, 2008 | |

Australia Post delivered strong community service performance and record financial results in 2007/08, according to the corporation’s Annual Report.
The government-owned postal corporation earned a record pre-tax profit of AUD 592.2 million (up 5.4 percent on the previous year).
Revenue growth in each of the three core business areas – letters, parcels and retail – boosted overall revenue by 5.3 percent to AUD 4.96 billion.
Australia Post also met or exceeded all of its community service obligations, including delivering 95.9 percent of domestic letters on time or early (well above its 94 per cent target).
The Annual Report indicates that letters continue to be a vital form of communication in Australia, with the volume of domestic letters increasing by 2.0 percent. This was the strongest growth in letter volumes since 1999/2000.Australia Post’s Chairman David Mortimer said these results underline the continuing strength of the postal corporation as it prepares to celebrate its bicentenary in 2009. 1 USD = 1.45183 AUD

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