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General Parcel opens new hub in the Czech Republic

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

Czech parcels carrier General Parcel Cechy, a subsidiary of Germany’s Geis Group, has opened its new central hub at Chomutovice, close to the capital, Prague.

The company has invested about EUR 5 million in the new parcel hub which includes a 2,100 sqm building. The new facility has capacity for up to 7,000 parcels an hour. It has 15 docks for loading and 5 docks for unloading of trucks including enough space to be expanded to up to two more truck docks.

“The new hub enables us to keep up with the increasing shipping volume which is rising by 30pct per year,” said Joachim Fink, managing director of the Geis Group.

The new central hub will handle only parcels while the former mixed hub at nearby Modletice will handle only freight shipments in future. The separation of parcel and freight handling will thus increases capacity at both hubs while still enabling the company to profit from the synergies provided by their close proximity, General Parcel said.

Daniel Knaisl, managing director of General Parcel Cechy, highlighted the good location of the new hub. “Our new facility is located about 2 km from the Czech main traffic axis, the D1 motorway from Prague to Brno. This is thus an ideal position for a central hub.”

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NUPGE concerned postal review will lead to deregulation

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has written Canada Post expressing concern that a “strategic review process” currently under way by the Crown corporation may set the stage for “deregulation of our public postal system.”

“Our first concern is that the review process does not include public input,” NUPGE secretary-treasurer Larry Brown says in a letter to the agency.

“As the public continues to be the owner of Canada Post, public hearings in multiple locations across Canada would be the most appropriate course of action. This is not happening,” Brown writes.

“Our second concern is the impact that deregulating the postal service will have on the quality, universality and environmental impact of postal delivery.”

Brown says the public, small businesses and non-profit organizations all rely on a regulated post office to provide reasonably priced service in all regions of Canada – one of the largest countries in the world.

“A regulated public postal service that has exclusive rights for letter delivery is able to set fair rates that are sufficient to defray the costs incurred by this vast public service,” he argues.

“Canadians expect that any profits obtained by their postal service will be invested in improvements of the service, like post offices, rural delivery and door-to-door delivery. The non-profit aspect is important to Canadians.”

Brown argues that deregulation threatens affordable service by opening up mail delivery to profit driven businesses, a development that has led in other countries to fewer jobs, less service and higher rates for both the public and business.

“Postal rates in far smaller countries, like the U.K. and Sweden, have increased at a much greater rate than in Canada after these countries deregulated their service,” he notes.

Brown also says a well regulated service ensures that good environmental practices are followed. “With a competitive model and many companies delivering in the same community, greenhouse gas emissions would be multiplied. … A regulated system is more environmentally friendly.”

He also notes that it is in the national interest to protect the jobs – with good wages and working conditions – that now exist at Canada Post. “A deregulated postal system would destroy jobs and transform good jobs to bad jobs with a profit-driven model where wages and benefits compete with bottom line profits,” he adds.

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SMS-based service soon to ensure mail delivery

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

A new SMS-based, 24X7 modern postal service is likely to be introduced in Qatar by next year.
George Scott-Campbell, director of IT Services at General Postal Corporation (Q-Post), told Gulf Times that the service, Q-Post24, would end the problem of people not getting mail sent to their office P O Box address.
Subscribers to the service would be notified through a text message when a mail or parcel reached the post office, he said.
The service would have outdoor lockers at supermarkets, petrol stations and similar places. Q-Post had already sold advertising space on the giant boxes.
The boxes can be accessed by an electronic card. The parcel will have a PIN number, which will be sent through SMS.
Using the card and the PIN, the locker bins can be opened and the parcel collected.
Scott-Campbell said a Gulf company wanted to supply the hardware for the service, which was originally developed in Britain as a business-to-business service known as .
According to the manufacturers, ParcelExchange is a cost-effective and sustainable solution for the ‘last mile’ in the delivery process.

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TNT Germany cuts Economy Express transit times

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

TNT Express Germany has enhanced its Economy Express service by cutting transit times for exports to about 30 countries over three continents.

“Economy Express” is a convenient option for less urgent shipment orders worldwide, TNT Express Germany said in a statement. The transit times for the service have now been significantly reduced including to the economically promising states in Latin America and South East Asia that are of special interest for many German companies.

The “Economy Express” transit times to Brazil have been reduced to only two days. Transit times for shipments to Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela und Honduras have been cut by one day. In a similar way, the delivery of express shipments to South East Asia including Thailand, Cambodia, Bhutan und Laos takes two days less than before. For Indonesia and Philippines, the transit times have been accelerated by one day.

Furthermore, the flight times to destinations in the Caribbean have been reduced thanks to the new routings via Frankfurt. In addition, even the transit times to Oceania have been reduced with shipments from Germany arriving in the Solomon Islands, South West Pacific in only five days, a week earlier than previously.

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City Link in Major Expansion Programme

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

City Link has announced the opening of a number of new depots as well as the extension of several existing sites as part of a programme to expand the company’s nationwide depot network.

The company will open four new depots by the autumn and extend a further two depots.

New depots will open at Worcester, Norwich, Coventry and Stoke all by October in an aggressive build programme which will also see Cwmbran depot refurbished and the Oxford depot extended.

Stuart Godman, City Link’s Sales & Marketing Director, said: “These new depots will increase our capacity and will help us further improve our levels of customer service, which is at the very core of our operation. “The investment marks our commitment to continue to grow the business and provide our customers with exceptional service.”

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Qatargas to sponsor Postal Congress

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

Qatargas is to sponsor The Congress of Universal Postal Union to be hosted by Qatar in 2012. This was announced in a press conference held at the premises of Q-Post who signed a contract with Qatargas in the General Post Office, West Bay yesterday.

“As members of Qatar Gas, we are responsible to participate and help in anything that will raise the name of Qatar,” said Ghanem Mohammed Al Kawary, Director of Administration Department. The state of Qatar was elected as deputy chairman of the new administration Council of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for Asia. This took place in a voting session in the Swiss Capital.

Qatar, for the first time, joined membership of the UPU administration council through elections in the Asia and Oceania group.

The Universal Postal Congress (CPU) board consists of 41 elected countries as per various regional groupings. Ali Mohamed Al Ali, Chairman and Director General of Qatar General Postal Corporation (Q-Post) said in a statement that the election of Qatar as deputy chairman of UPU Council of Administration represents a new achievement for Qatar which is getting ready to host the 25th UPU Congress conference in 2012.

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USPS eyes early retirement offers for 130,000 employees

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

The U.S. Postal Service extended early retirement offers to 3,200 headquarters employees Wednesday and said the offer could eventually be extended to as many as 130,000 employees nationwide — nearly 20 percent of the work force.

The latest offer is restricted to headquarters employees at least 50 years old and with at least 20 years of service, or to those with 25 years of service regardless of age.
No financial incentives or bonuses will be paid to employees who decide to retire. In addition, employees under the Civil Service Retirement System who take the offer will have their annuities reduced by 2 percent for every year they are under 55. There is no similar reduction for employees in the Federal Employees Retirement System.
Under the plan, announced yesterday, 3,200 headquarters employees and employees in headquarters-related jobs who meet the minimum age and length-of-service restrictions will be able to retire.

This includes career executives and other managers at the agency’s L’Enfant Plaza headquarters in Washington and at related facilities, including the Engineering and Development Center in Merrifield, Va., and at postal data centers, spokesman Greg Frey said.

A timeline for when those eligible employees must decide and take early retirements hasn’t been set, he said.

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HDNL awarded second OnLine Green Award by IMRG

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

Home Delivery Network Limited (HDNL) has picked-up its second Large Supplier of the Year award in IMRG’s Online Green Awards. Following its success in 2007, the UK’s largest dedicated home delivery and collection service has continued to build upon its achievements in reducing its carbon footprint and increasing efforts to deliver 300,000 parcels to every postcode, every day in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

Company focus this year was to be greener at the grass root level of the business, with an emphasis on cultural change throughout their structure. This grass roots approach engages all 6,500 members of staff across 72 locations and has proved extremely successful, allowing the company to reduce its utilities carbon usage by 490 tonnes for the 07/08 financial period, with other savings being made across the company.

The change has included small scale initiatives such as staff reducing energy expenditure by turning off lights, closing down computers and machinery when not in use. The introduction of more hand held terminals, allowing signatures to be recorded electronically and increasing online parcel tracking has reduced paper waste.

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