THE Royal Mail is to launch trials of new “delivery patterns” which will lead to post arriving later and the ending of second deliveries, it was announced today. The changes, to be tested in 14 areas of the UK, will mean a single delivery arriving by lunchtime. The plans, due to be extended across the country from the autumn, are expected to lead to job losses among postal workers.
Read MoreLeaders of a million businessmen and women who work from home tonight attacked plans to deliver post later in the day and end second deliveries. The Royal Mail said the changes, to be tested in 14 areas of the UK, will mean a single delivery arriving by lunchtime. Royal Mail said some people will receive later deliveries, although others could see no change, or even have post delivered earlier than at present.
Read MoreThere is no issue more critical to the future of commerce than managing global supply chains, which is why the future of UPS is bright, the company’s chairman and CEO said today. And that, Eskew added, is why UPS has been migrating “to a complete supply chain solutions company … a company that makes it as easy for a customer to ship a package or manage a supply chain from Iowa to India as it is from Iowa to Indiana.” The company said it expects improving revenue trends and earnings increases in the low-teens. Among the factors contributing to the estimate are an expected 50-to-60 percent improvement in the profitability of UPS’s international package delivery business and a gain in profitability of approximately $100 million in its non-package segment this year.
Read MorePresentations from KEP Congress (in German)
Read MoreBirmingham-based Business Post, one of the four companies with licenses to compete with the Post Office, has rubbished talk that the competition would lead to the collapse of the national mail service. Business Post’s chief executive Paul Carvell said yesterday talk of the Post Office’s imminent collapse was overdone. ‘I bet you the Royal Mail will still have 95 per cent of that market in two to three years time,’ he said. ‘A few players like us coming in and taking a few percentage points will not do the damage they are saying. ‘I’d be the happiest chief executive in Birmingham if I had around three to four per cent market share in the next four years.’
Read MoreThe profitable – or otherwise – monopoly of the Post Office is about to be challenged by the Birmingham-based Business Post. “Mail is profitable. Don’t believe this ‘it costs 28p to deliver a 27p letter’ talk. The mail itself is profitable — it is all the overheads which the Post Office carries that drag it down.” So says Paul Carvell, chief executive of Business Post. Business Post believes it can undercut prices and provide time-sensitive services.
Read MoreGermany’s finance ministry has not ruled out a further offering of shares in postal operator Deutsche Post AG in 2002, according to a reply given on Tuesday to a parliamentary written question. ‘Further steps to privatise Deutsche Post AG will be taken in the context of the 1994 post reform when conditions on capital markets allow,’ the finance ministry wrote in response to a question from the opposition about whether a further placing in 2002 was possible.
Read MoreThe SA Post Office has warned that the lower-than-expected 9% postal tariff increase for this year will adversely affect development programmes, and will mean that mail volumes are unlikely to see a return to growth. The organisation had requested a 12%-15% hike in tariffs in the hope that the ailing entity could improve its revenues and grow the business. The approved 9% tariff increase means the cost of a standard letter will go up to R1,52 from R1,40.
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