With reference to the press release from May 2008, TNT and trade unions ABVAKABO FNV, BVPP, CNV Publieke Zaak and VPP have signed the new collective labour agreement for TNT. Trade union members have accepted the agreement in principle reached by negotiators and TNT on 23 May. The new collective labour agreement will be in effect from 1 April 2008 to 1 April 2009.
Read MorePostmaster General John E. Potter has named Pritha Mehra Vice President of Business Mail Entry and Payment Technologies and Maura Robinson Vice President of Pricing. These newly created positions are the latest in the Postal Service’s reorganization efforts to leverage competitive opportunities resulting from recent changes in federal law.
On July 1, Potter announced that he had created two new divisions, Shipping and Mailing Services and Customer Relations, and strengthened another, the Office of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality. All are intended to position the Postal Service to meet the challenges ahead.
Mehra will be responsible for an end-to-end, mail flow visibility strategy as well as for a seamless process for mail acceptance, payment, and delivery using standardized Intelligent Mail barcodes, continuous tracking, and mail-quality feedback in real time. She will report to Tom Day, Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality.
Robinson’s duties will include pricing all postal and non-postal products and services, and providing analytical support and evaluation of all contract pricing and new product initiatives. She will report to Stephen Kearney, who was recently promoted to Senior Vice President of Customer Relations. Kearney served previously as Vice President of Pricing and Classification.
DHL Spain has recorded strong year-on-year revenue growth of 7.7% in 2007 and opened a new depot for pharmaceutical products near Barajas International Airport in Madrid to expand its presence in the country.
DHL Global Forwarding, the DHL unit combining air, ocean, ground transportation and customs brokerage services with dedicated warehousing and distribution centres, generated strong sales revenues of EUR 123.6 million in Spain in 2007 with an increase of 7.7 pct compared to EUR 114.7 million in 2006.
In addition, the company is further expanding its operations at the air cargo hub at the Barajas airport in Madrid where it already has a depot, with the new “Life Sciences Competence Centre”. The 500 sqm facility was designed for the logistics of pharmaceutical and biotechnological products including a temperature-controlled chamber (2º-8ºC) for 72 palettes and another chamber for 190 palettes.
Read MoreGLS Germany has signed a purchase contract for a 5,000 sqm facility located in Vaihingen-Enz, southeast Germany, and plans to start construction of the new depot at the end of this month.
The new GLS depot is planned to go into operation in April 2009, GLS said. The warehouse will have the capacity to handle about 55,000 parcels per day. In line with the company’s safety standards, it will be equipped with a state-of-the-art video surveillance system and high-performance alarm device. After signing the contract, GLS now plans the next step pushing the realisation of the new depot.
“We are happy about the easy completion of negotiations,” says Klaus Conrad, managing director GLS Germany. “The cooperation with the town Vaihingen has been quick and professional in every respect.”
For 2008/2009, GLS plans to invest EUR 94 million in infrastructure and services with priority on Germany, Poland, Netherlands and France. Along with the construction and upgrading of depots, the company wants to focus on rolling out industrial parcel production processes throughout the network as well as implementing new solutions for the “last mile” in B2C business.
Read MoreTNT has launched an international road express service between Argentina and Brazil under its plans to create a cross-border road network in South America.
The new service will be provided by TNT Mercurio Argentina, a new unit of the Brazilian road express operator acquired in early 2007, and will be initially offered in the northern province of Cordoba, TNT Express Argentina said in an online newsletter.
The road transport company will operate out of the TNT Cordoba office, targeting customers with exports and imports to/from Brazil who use full-load or consolidated freight services. TNT Mercúrio Argentina will also link TNT’s existing offices in Mar del Plata, Rosario, Mendoza, Córdoba, Salta and Buenos Aires to create a domestic road transport network offering door-to-door deliveries.
The province of Córdoba lies north-west of Buenos Aires and on the main transportation routes between southern Brazil and Chile. The city of Córdoba, the second-largest city in Argentina, is a major industrial centre, including automotive and hi-tech manufacturing.
TNT Express Argentina already offers international time-definite air express services and domestic transportation of documents and parcels. In Brazil, TNT Mercurio employs 7,000 staff, has a fleet of 2,631 vehicles and has a network of 110 depots.
Read MoreAir Cargo Management Group reports that revenues for the U.S. domestic air freight and express industry totaled USD 32.81 billion in 2007, a slim 1.0 pct increase over 2006, but nonetheless a new record for the industry. “Gains in 2007 must have come from fuel surcharges, as total market revenue-ton-mile (RTM) traffic and the daily shipment counts of the express carriers both declined,” noted Robert Dahl, ACMG Proj¬ect Director.
Traffic volume for the industry was 14.924 billion RTMs, down 1.5 pct year-over-year, and the number of shipments moving through the major express networks was 6.644 million per day, down 1.8 pct versus 2006. “The industry remains at or near 1999 levels based on both these performance metrics; in other words, this industry has gone through eight years with no net growth,” Dahl said. “Furthermore, part-year data for 2008 gives little hope of any major increase this year. In fact, there are numerous challenges facing the industry, including re¬cord-high fuel prices, a weak U.S. economy and a perceived shift of air shipments to trucks, which could lead to further traffic declines in 2008 and 2009.”
ACMG finds that the US domestic air freight and express industry continues to undergo significant structural changes in both the express and general freight sectors. The players in the express side remain unchanged, consisting of FedEx, UPS, DHL and BAX Global; however, DHL is changing its business model in the domestic U.S. market to eliminate its own contracted air network, instead buying space starting this year from UPS to move its shipments on an airport-to-airport basis within North America. When the DHL shift to UPS is complete in 2009, there will be just three express freighter networks operating within the U.S. (UPS, FedEx and BAX/Schenker), down from eight in the mid-1990s.
Read MoreSouth Florida-based DHL returns for a second year as sponsor of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim, held in Miami Beach at The Raleigh Hotel, July 18 through July 21. The annual designer swimwear event introduces the 2009 collections and highlights DHL’s role in delivering the latest fashions to runways and customers across the globe.
As a major international presence in South Florida’s business community, DHL provides its supply chain expertise to world-renowned designers, including many recognized brands with roots or an expanding customer base in Latin America. In fact, DHL is the primary supply chain partner for many of the designers participating in this season’s shows, including Tibi, which will debut a swimwear collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim, and ViX Swimwear, among others.
Globally, as the Official Express Delivery and Logistics Provider of IMG’s Fashion Weeks, DHL delivers Fashion Week events to four continents. In the U.S., DHL is the sponsor of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim is presented annually in Miami Beach at The Raleigh Hotel. Coinciding with the swimwear industry’s largest trade show, the invitation-only, runway-platform extravaganza provides designers’ swimwear and resort collections exposure to national and international media, style setters and fashionistas. South Beach becomes the host for fashion, beauty, supermodels and celebrities to coalesce to celebrate the sexiest swimwear designs in the world.
Read MoreLa Poste and eBay have signed a partnership that will enable French Internet vendors to purchase their postage online. The new service, in the pipeline since December 2007, allows eBay users to print out their own postage labels for letters and parcels direct from the auction site. The sender simply enters the weight, the destination and the required service (standard or registered post). Once payment has been received via PayPal, the label is simply printed out and attached to the packet to be sent.
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