Author: Archive

NetApp Delivers for Belgian Post Office

Posted by | Jun 11, 2008 | |

The Belgian Post Office recently collaborated with NetApp for its data backup and archival. To manage this data, the post office is switching to a virtual infrastructure developed by NetApp in combination with conventional physical tape. In doing this, the post office is keeping pace with the current trend of virtualization in the storage environment, minimizing risk, and maximizing its return on investment in IT spend.

Because of the increasing quantity of data and activity on the post office’s network, implementing a more flexible system became a critical business need. After researching its options, the Belgian Post Office decided to partner with NetApp to create an archival and backup system that took advantage of the flexibility of disk-to-disk speed and flexibility and integrated with its existing tape infrastructure. The resulting system allows for near-constant availability of backed up data, more robust disaster recovery, and the ability to grow the system in the future with less overall cost.

“The Belgian Post Office had a classic need that growing businesses often face — and that the NetApp® VTL was specifically designed to fulfill,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions Marketing at NetApp. “We’re extremely pleased to share this example of how partnering with NetApp to reduce backup times and increase data availability can also have a greater effect on reducing future costs and achieving broader business goals.”

The NetApp NearStore® Virtual Tape Library is a disk-to-disk backup appliance that appears like a tape library to a backup software application but provides the superior speed and reliability of disk technologies. Developed specifically to address the requirements of backup administrators, NearStore VTL solutions increase the performance and reliability of backups, simplify backup management, and reduce D2D storage costs by up to 67% through the use of high-performance disk compression.

Read More

Postal service to get new legal framework in Vietnam

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

Viet Nam is updating the set of laws surrounding the post in order to guide postal activities and control new market developments, especially the participation of domestic and foreign logistics companies.

Viet Nam would also raise the quality of postal services by separating the post from telecommunications and establishing an independent postal enterprise, the Viet Nam Posts Corporation, said Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Thanh Hung.

He said the ministry was considering raising the price of postage stamps from VND800 to between VND1,200-VND1,500.

Hung said the present price was below operating costs, but added that a hike would help local postal operators improve postal networks and invest in new technologies, as the Government was still paying compensation for losses in the postal sector. However, he said the timing of any hike would not be decided until next year.

Hung was speaking as about 150 delegates from 30 countries gathered in Ha Noi for the 31st Asian Pacific Postal Executive Council (APPU-EC) meeting.

They will focus on such things as domestic express mail services (EMS), mail security and e-business.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), several new postal services will be outlined at the meeting, such as e-post from South Korea.

“The aim is to strengthen co-operation among postal administrations in the Asia Pacific region,” said Nguyen Thanh Hung.

Hung said the five-day event would also discuss and harmonise regional views on proposals for the Universal Postal Union Congress later this year.

“Viet Nam continues to develop its postal sector, and I hope the event will help us gain more practical experience from member countries,” said Hung

Read More

New Zealand exporters remain optimistic

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

New Zealand exporters remain confident about the strength of their overseas markets, according to a survey, with most unaffected by fallout from the global credit crunch.

A survey of 244 export businesses by DHL in May found that the fluctuating New Zealand dollar against the US dollar was a benefit, with over half of respondents to the bimonthly survey reporting cost savings.

Of the companies to make savings, about a quarter planned to use them to cover rising operating costs such as fuel.

The New Zealand dollar was volatile last month, after surprisingly poor retail and employment data cast further doubt about the strength of the economy and increased the expectations of interest rate cuts.

The kiwi ended May close to where it began, around US78c, but swung about US4c during the month.

Of companies surveyed who export to the US, 58 percent reported no impact to their current export orders, 22 percent experienced a fall and 5 percent had an increase.

Over the next six months, 77 percent of exporters anticipated no change or an increase in orders to the US.

“Given the impact the US sub-prime crisis has caused to markets worldwide and the New Zealand public’s concerns about potential local effects, it is positive that most exporters are reporting they are unaffected by the crisis and even optimistic about orders in the near future,” said DHL Express New Zealand General Manager Derek Anderson.

Eighty percent of exporters expected orders to markets other than the US to remain stable for the next six months.

Key New Zealand trading partners remained solid economically, with Australia and Asian economies growing strongly, and Europe and Japan showing surprising growth, said Jason Wong, Director of Economics and Strategy at First NZ Capital.

Read More

DHL faces anti-trust probe as Ohio representatives question UPS deal

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

Representatives of the U.S. state of Ohio are pushing for the Federal Justice Ministry to launch an anti-trust probe into Deutsche Post World Net AG.’s plans to tie up its U.S. air express DHL operations with UPS, Die Welt reported.

The representatives are trying to prevent DHL from cutting up to 8,200 jobs in the course of entering into a ten-year co-operation with competitor UPS.

In March, Deutsche Post said its fourth-quarter profit slid by more than 60 percent after it wrote down the value of its DHL unit. DHL is slashing network capacity in the U.S. by 30 percent, which includes closing and consolidating sorting facilities and streamlining pickup and delivery routes.

A spokeswoman for Deutsche Post told Die Welt that the company does not expect U.S. authorities to object to its planned co-operation with UPS.

Read More

DHL Express (USA) ceases @home service

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

DHL Express just confirmed with PARCEL that it will discontinue the DHL@home product effective September 1, 2008. The service tendered packages to the USPS for final delivery, reducing costs for the shipper.

According to DHL: “By doing so, DHL removes a product that brings with it significant operating costs and is not aligned with our core strengths nor with our more focused network. By eliminating the product from our network, we have the opportunity to further improve performance in our core domestic and international products and long-term financial performance of the US Express business.

“DHL is committed to serving our domestic customers with a network dedicated to continuous improvement in service reliability. We anticipate that discontinuing the @home service with its seasonal spikes of volume and operational complexity will further improve reliability throughout the year and enhance service levels particularly during peak season.”

DHL Express is directly notifying all @home customers of the change.

Read More

Post Office Ltd (UK) rules out more closures

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

The Post Office has moved to stem fears that thousands more branches could be closed on top of the 2,500 scheduled to shut, claiming it has “no plan or desire” to shrink the network further.

The reassurance follows speculation that the Government’s closure plan would need to be extended by cutting another 4,000 post offices. Post Office executives said today they had the funding to maintain branch levels for at least the next three years.

The controversial plan by Royal Mail to close 2,500 branches to save GBP 500,000 a day, will take the network down to 11,500. Until now, further reductions had not been ruled out.

Speaking before the Commons Enterprise committee yesterday, Alan Cook, the Post Office managing director, said: “We must be clear about this. We strongly maintain a desire to keep the network at 11,500 plus.”

He added: “We do have to work within government funding and policy, but we would oppose further plans to shrink the size of the network.”

However, Mr Cook admitted the pledge could only be kept if his company won the government’s post office card account, through which millions of people are paid state benefits.

Ministers have put the card account contract out to tender and are understood to have received rival offers. The National Federation of SubPostmasters has warned that up to 3,000 post offices could be forced to close if the network loses the card account contract. The government is due to make a decision later this summer. Yesterday, Mr Cook said he was confident that the Post Office would win the contract.

Read More

Norway Post buys Swedish transport firm

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

Norway Post today continued its Nordic expansion with the acquisition of Swedish road haulage company CombiTrans for an undisclosed sum. The deal will strengthen its logistics activities in the region.

CombiTrans, with 105 employees, had operating profits (EBIT) of SEK 50 million (euro 5.4 million) on revenues of SEK 540 million (euro 57.9 million) in 2007. In 2006, it dispatched 16,000 vehicles and 94,000 consignments with a freight haulage weight of 348,000 tonnes.

The company, set up in 1986, specialises in international road haulage services for single consignments, as well as full and part loads. It covers the whole of Europe, with particular focus on Greece, Turkey, the Balkans, and the rest of Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia and the Middle East. It has offices and terminals in the Swedish towns of Varberg, Malmö, Ystad and Jönköping, as well as in Greece.

Norway Post has expanded strongly in the Nordic region in recent years in order to reduce dependency on the mail market, diversify into growth sectors such as international transportation and logistics, and counter the expansion of multinationals in the region. It has invested over euro 636 million on acquisitions, and aims to double revenues from outside Norway to nearly 50% of group revenues by 2011.

Read More

Correos signs up a further 2,000 intermittent permanent workers

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

Correos is going to contract around 2,000 workers as intermittent permanent employees, instead of signing temporary contracts as it did up until the last collective agreement, to cover its employment requirements in the summer campaign for deliveries on foot and by motorcycle and sorting. The postal operator has once again decided on this type of contract that has enabled the creation of stable, high-quality employment and contributed to an increase in the quality of the services it offers citizens and businesses.
Last year, more than 3,000 workers joined Correos as intermittent permanent employees, 50 pct of which have become permanent employees in the Public Company within its Permanent Transfer Selection Process, the postal company’s horizontal mobility and promotion system.
In this way, CORREOS promotes a clear strategy of fostering stable, high-quality employment, significantly reducing job insecurity. Since November 2006, it has taken on nearly 10,400 permanent workers to carry out delivery tasks in urban and rural sorting offices, and customer services in the post offices. These will now be joined by another 2,000 workers, hired as intermittent permanent employees to cover the structural personnel requirements that occur every year during holiday or peak activity periods, such as the summer and Christmas campaigns.
Correos has been applying this new company recruitment system, which is more agile, dynamic and decentralised, since the 2nd Collective Agreement and General Employment Agreement, signed on 19 June 2006.
This new system contributes towards improving the quality of the service given to customers and users, as the workers gain experience in their jobs and work areas thanks to their stable labour relationship with the postal company.

Read More

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

P&P Poll

Loading

How ready do you feel for the de minimis changes coming in July?

Thank you for voting
You have already voted on this poll!
Please select an option!




View ResultsHide Results

Post & Parcel Magazine


Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.

Subscribe to the Magazine

 

Pin It on Pinterest