Author: Archive

With Junk Mail Bill Stalled, New Report Details Effects

Posted by | Aug 7, 2008 | |

A bill to stop the delivery of unwanted mail has stalled for now in New York State, a development welcomed by the U.S. Postal Service, which has opposed the legislation since its introduction in 2007.

Meanwhile, an environmental nonprofit organization, ForestEthics, published a report yesterday detailing the detrimental environmental impact of junk mail and a petition signed by about 60,000 people who support a “do not mail” registry. The report also cites a 2007 Zogby poll that found that 89 pct of Americans support the idea of a registry.

Since 2007, 19 states have introduced legislation that would create a “do not mail” registry similar to the “do not call” list that prevents telemarketers from calling people who prefer not to receive such calls. The “do not mail” legislation, however, was not discussed on the floor in most of the states in which the bills were introduced this year. The “do not call” bill became law nationwide in 2003.

State Senator Carl Kruger, a Democrat of Brooklyn, said the bill he introduced in 2007 has been tabled, but that he will continue to pursue the legislation.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service, Joanne Veto, said the bill has not yet passed in any state because people realize the economic impact of what she called the “USD billion” mailing industry.

Only a fraction of mail ends up in landfills, she said, and the postal service lets recipients choose, to a certain extent, the mail they want to receive.

Unsolicited mail is different from unwanted phone calls, Ms. Veto said. “Mail doesn’t interrupt your dinner,” she said.

The largest postal union, which represents about 300,000 workers, also opposes the registry.

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NZ Post still shores up Kiwibank

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

Kiwibak total assets at the end of March this year were NZD 6.6 billion, a 51 per cent increase on the previous year but still modest when compared to our biggest bank, ANZ National, with total assets of NZD 112.5 billion.

Kiwibank’s speedy growth means it continues to rely on its parent New Zealand Post for the additional capital it requires to back its increasing loan book. It cost taxpayers NZD 80 million to start. Since then about another NZD 260 million has been poured in, including NZD 55 million in additional capital in the 12 months to June last year, and probably a further NZD 30-40 million to to June this year.

“We will soon be in a position where we won’t need that additional capital,” says chief executive Sam Knowles. “We’re pretty close to that point where our profits will be supporting growth.”

Kiwibank remains a small bank, with only about a 2.5 per cent share of the market.

Last year, Kiwibank’s June year net profit was NZD 25.5 million, a 61 per cent increase on NZD 15.8 million in 2006, which was more than double 2005’s NZD 7.2 million first profit.

But their much smaller size aside, Kiwibank’s reported profits have always raised questions as to how comparable they are to those of other banks.

Sceptics say there has been no clarity over how much of Kiwibank’s bottom line is from business such as bill payments, which was previously part of NZ Post’s operations.

Mr Knowles says it Kiwibank’s sharing of NZ Post’s outlets would make any prospective sale of the bank somewhat problematic.

1 NZD = 0.722146 USD

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SingPost Group’s unaudited results for the first quarter for the financial year ending 31 March 2009

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

Singapore Post Limited (“SingPost”) announced its unaudited results for the first quarter of the financial year ending 31 March 2009.

SingPost Group achieved a 4.6 pct growth in revenue from SGD115.5 million to SGD120.9 million in the first quarter of FY2008/09 on the back of improved performances by its three business segments.

Mail business recorded a 2.4pct growth in revenue to SGD93.6 million on higher mail
traffic, while Logistics revenue increased 11.8pct to SGD18.0 million, as a result of growth in Speedpost traffic, vPOST shopping and shipping transactions and warehousing, fulfilment and distribution services.

Growth in retail products, agency and financial services revenue contributed to the 17.6pct increase in Retail revenue to SGD16.5 million.

The Group’s rental and property related income was up 34.9pct to SGD7.2 million, mainly due to higher rental rates at Singapore Post Centre and an increase in lettable space.

Miscellaneous income was lower by 34.1pct at SGD1.4 million compared to SGD2.1 million in the same quarter last year, which included a one-off gain of SGD1.9 million from the disposal of a property.

The Group continued to focus on cost management in the face of inflationary pressures on operating costs. Total expenses rose by a slower 3.4pct compared to the past few quarters.

For the first quarter of FY2008/09, net profit grew 2.9pct from SGD38.4 million to SGD39.5 million. Excluding one-off items, the Group posted underlying net profit growth of 11.6pct to SGD38.9 million.

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Royal Mail – Massive restructuring in North West (UK)

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

Royal Mail blames falling mail volumes for a massive restructuring of sorting operations in the north-west of England that are likely to see the closure of mail centres in Liverpool, Stockport, Oldham and Bolton.

However, Hellmail has learned that plans had been in the pipeline for some ten years with a proposal to combine sorting operations on a new site at former air-base Burtonwood, close to both Manchester and Liverpool and the cessation of its use of the rail network by 2004, key to plans to make better use of the road network. A planning application for development on the Omega South site at Burtonwood had already been submitted.

Preliminary plans included transferring processing from three mail centres, five outward vouching offices and three centres for bulk mail handling to new mail centres and a new regional distribution centre. A new sorting and distribution centre at Warrington to replace Crewe and Liverpool mail centres, a new Chester mail centre replacing the current Chester mail centre were already penned. It also, at that time, included five outward vouching offices in the Wirral and north Wales, and a new Crewe regional distribution centre replacing Brunswick Dock, Westhoughton and Lostock bulk handling centres.

Putting more mail on to Britain’s roads rather with less reliance on the rail network has clearly altered the network structure as well as access and selecting logical sites for distribution, the subject of much controversy, are rapidly reaching the final decision stage.

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USPS reports third quarter loss (U.S)

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

The U.S. Postal Service ended its third fiscal year quarter (April 1 – June 30) with a greater-than-expected net loss of USD 1.1 billion. The national economic slowdown reduced mail volume at an accelerated pace and continued inflation in fuel prices produced rapidly escalating transportation costs. Despite these financial challenges, Postal Service employees delivered record-breaking service performance in the third quarter.
For the third quarter ending June 30:
• Operating revenue was USD 17.9 billion, a decrease of USD 437 million, or 2.4 percent, compared to the same period last year.
• Operating expenses totaled USD19.0 billion, an increase of only USD 178 million, or 1.0 percent, from the third quarter last year, despite substantial increases in fuel prices.
• Expenses include USD 1.4 billion of the USD 5.6 billion payment to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund that the Postal Service is required to make by Sept. 30, 2008, under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.
• Mail volume was 48.5 billion pieces, a 5.5 percent drop from the same period last year. First-Class Mail and Standard Mail volume were each down 5.5 percent in the third quarter, reflecting the challenging economic environment.
The fiscal 2008 year-to-date net loss totals USD 1.13 billion. The Postal Service had essentially broken even in the first half of the fiscal year. With no economic recovery in sight, the Postal Service expects an end-of-year, economy-driven net loss.

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Electronic money transfers: Spain and Morocco's Posts sign up

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

The Spanish Post (Correos de España) and its Moroccan counterpart (Poste Maroc) signed a reciprocal agreement yesterday to set up an electronic money transfer service.

José Damián Santiago Martín, CEO of Correos de España, and Anass Alami, Director General of Poste Maroc, announced that a service was being launched between the two countries, at a brief ceremony during the 24th Universal Postal Congress.

This service will be available at about 1,000 post offices in Morocco and 2,300 in Spain.

Around half a million Moroccan nationals live in Spain, said ALAMI.

In 2007, it is believed that Moroccans living in Europe sent around 4.8 billion EUR back to their country of origin. That figure was bound to rise considerably over the coming years, said Poste Maroc’s Director General, adding that he was very happy to be signing the agreement with Spain.

This accord follows on from the successful cooperation agreement signed between the UPU and the Spanish Government in December 2007. Its aim was that Spain would facilitate money transfers with Latin America and North African countries via the UPU’s international financial network. A goal that has been achieved in less than seven months.

This launch of exchanges between Spain and Morocco could pave the way for similar services in other North African countries.

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France’s Edouard Dayan and China’s Guozhong Huang re-elected to UPU top jobs

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

40 member countries elected to Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council Geneva (Switzerland), 6 August 2008.
The 24th Universal Postal Congress today re-elected, by acclamation, France’s Edouard Dayan and China’s Guozhong Huang to the positions of Director General and Deputy Director General of the Universal Postal Union’s International Bureau for the period 2009-2012.
First elected at the 2004 Bucharest Congress, Dayan and Huang were the sole candidates for the positions. The member countries elect the organization’s two top officials at each UPU Congress. “Between Bucharest and Geneva, the UPU has travelled far. We have embarked upon profound change. All countries, whatever their size, whatever their level of development and postal organization model, are finding in the UPU an organization which, thanks to solid experience within the United Nations family, helps them to play their part in a world postal network and a constantly changing global environment.
Around these values of universality, solidarity and unity of the world postal family, the Universal Postal Union has, in recent years, successfully embraced change,” declared Edouard Dayan immediately after his election. For his part, Guozhong Huang said: “The role played by our institution in economic development and social progress is invaluable. Nowadays, with the challenge of globalization, the role of the postal sector as a basic infrastructure is greater than ever. The UPU’s raison d’être is more and more evident. If we can move with the times, adapt to changing environments and persevere with our reforms, the postal sector will remain able to play its irreplaceable role and the UPU will be an international organization that can forge ahead with cooperation between all postal sector players worldwide.” Congress also elected the member countries of the 2009-2012 UPU Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council. The Council of Administration’s 41 member countries ensure the continuity of the UPU’s work between Congresses, supervise its activities and study regulatory, administrative, legislative and legal issues. The Council approves the biennial budget and the accounts of the Union.

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Commune post offices must be brought up to date

Posted by | Aug 6, 2008 | |

Though commune post offices have played a crucial role in the national postal system, they will soon be subject to an overhaul to bring them more in line with latest developments in the area.
According to statistics from Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), the first commune post offices opened 10 years ago, and now there are 8,025 nationwide, each of which serves, on average, around 4,500 people.
In the beginning, these post offices offered necessary services like delivering letters, cards, gifts, newspapers and magazines and selling stamps and envelops.
They also supplied public telephone and telegraph services.
In addition, they offered some free papers and magazines for local people to enhance public knowledge.
Commune post offices then began adding new services like money transfers, bill collection and mobicard sales.
However, at present these post offices offered out-of-date services and required investment for improvement, said Hop.
VNPT should supply high-speed Internet to these offices and offer new services to make the offices more valuable cultural centres for people in the countryside, he added.
The province was ready to invest in infrastructure for those offices, said Ho Duc Phuoc, Deputy Chairman of Nghe An Province’s People’s Committee, and VNPT only needed to improve technologies and services to meet demand.
The cultural post offices should house Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) and Base Transmission Stations (BTS), said Do Trung Ta, special envoy to the Prime Minister of Information Technology.
Do Ngoc Binh, the director of Viet Nam Postal Communication (VnPost) agreed with the idea and added that motorbike and car insurance cards could also be sold at the offices.
VnPost had classified cultural post offices so suitable models could be established for each locality, said Binh.
Quang Ngai Province is one area making progress, with 30 out of 162 offices connected to the Internet and free Internet service every Tuesday and Thursday.
There are also base transmission stations (BTS) in the province’s cultural post offices.
The Ministry of Information and Communication was submitting a plan to the Prime Minister to turn commune cultural post offices into public post offices, said Hop.
The Ministry of Information and Communication and Intel Viet Nam yesterday also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a Connect Communities Programme in which public telecommunication spaces would be established in rural areas of Viet Nam.
However, as far as business goes, each year VNPT loses billions of dong per year from these cultural post offices, according to Pham Long Tran, the chairman of VNPT’s executive board.
According to VNPT statistics, the sales of a commune’s cultural post offices have risen from VND 93,000 (USD 5.6) per month in 1999 to VND2.35 million (USD 1,407) per month in 2007. However, this was not enough to offset the VNPT’s operation costs.
In addition, sales were decreasing as mobiphone cards and public telephone services dwindled with a rise in land line subscribers, said Ngo Van Thuc, the director of Bac Ninh Province Post Office.
Also, households used to rely more heavily upon newspapers before television and the Internet became widespread, but things had changed, Cuong said.
Hopefully, services and activities provided by such offices would change, so they could regain their position in commune culture, said Cuong.

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