FedEx Corp., by any estimation, must be classified as one of the biggest success stores in the history of American business. Yet while FedEx is often mentioned in the same breath as United Parcel Service and, increasingly, Deutsche Post World Net, it has been moving in a distinctly different direction from those companies. Today it has a portfolio that in some ways barely resembles that of its two larger rivals.
Read MoreNorway’s mail service can be hard hit by industrial action after 20,000 postal workers were offered an overall wage reduction during this year’s salary negotiations.
Talks broke down a week and a half ago and in all probability a massive walkout will take place on Tuesday, May 14. The mood among postal workers is palpably tense. After a year of restructuring, layoffs and shutdowns, employees are in no mood to accept a wage cut. Negotiations are now the responsibility of the state arbitrator and a solution has to be in by midnight May 13.
The U.S. Postal Service is taking its pitch for vast postal reform directly to Congress and nudging its big customers to do the same.
Already, Postal Service officials have briefed more than 150 lawmakers on their proposal to transform the agency into a profit-making enterprise.
The Postal Service strategy, which appears to bypass an appeal to the broader American public, may be the most effective available, given that the greatest interest in low postage rates and universal service comes from business.
But it may not be enough to get Congress to act, many observers say.
Europe may be treading a long and painful path towards postal liberalisation, but at least private companies will feel they have some prospect of competing on an equal footing with the public postal operators (PPOs) once the European Commission has decided its final strategy.
In China, by contrast, doors appear to be closing in the face of express companies such as UPS and FedEx, which have invested heavily in the parcel and document market. China Post announced its intention in February to extend its monopoly to items weighing up to 500g. It will ban private operators from undercutting its EMS express arm on price for heavier items, and from making any deliveries to government offices.
The development of a flexible, freight-carrying train would take a major stride forward in May and June with the launch of trials involving leading industrial and retail businesses. The socalled Freight Multiple Unit (FMU) project, devised by Exel, Amec and Isotrak, combines a smaller train based on road technologies with track and trace programmes.
Read MoreOne in three of the most senior postal managers will have to leave Consignia within a year in a shake-up which goes beyond previously announced restructuring plans. Allan Leighton, chairman of Consignia, told the BBC’s Breakfast With Frost: “I had 150 top managers together about a week ago and said to them that I expect some change, and the probability is a third of them wouldn’t be around in a year’s time, and that’s going to be a fact.”
Read MoreBritain’s economy will suffer unless it removes restrictions on cargo flights by international airlines, Fred Smith, chairman and chief executive of FedEx, the world’s largest express air freight company, has warned. FedEx flies cargo into the UK but is prevented from picking up freight and carrying it to Europe by a 1978 air services treaty between Britain and America.
Read MoreThe head of Britain’s beleaguered postal operator said Sunday that the company planned to drop its unpopular name – Consignia. Chairman Alan Leighton told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the name, adopted last year by the former Post Office, would likely be changed within two years.
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