Author: Archive

Australia Post's AUD 155m tax grab

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

Australia Post will pay a “special dividend” of AUD 150 million to the Government in the 2008-09 financial year. The amount is on top of the AUD 300million Australia Post provides to the commonwealth annually.

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham asked Australia Post executives how they justified slugging consumers with increased postal charges when that money would simply be transferred to the Government’s coffers.

The committee heard that about AUD 90 million would be raised from increased postal charges applied to ordinary small and large letters, which were mostly sent by private individuals and some small businesses.

About AUD 55 million would be raised from pre-sorted letters, which are mostly sent by businesses, while the remaining money will come from other types of letters.

Australia Post group financial controller Michael Tenace said the amount to be raised from increased postal charges had nothing to do with the special dividend to be paid to the Government, which would come out of profits generated over two financial years.

He said the proposed price hikes were to cover the increased costs of delivering letters.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is reviewing Australia Post’s proposal to raise the basic postage rate from 50c to 55c and increase the price of other mail services.

The ACCC will release its preliminary views on the matter next month.

Australia Post corporate secretary Michael McCloskey said the average extra cost for households would be AUD 2.70 a year.
Australia Post’s CAD 155m ‘tax grab

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DHL sign air freight agreement with USPS and FedEx

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

DHL signed a major ground and air freight agreement with the United States Postal Service and its principal air express operator, FedEx.

Deutsche Post World Net plans to announce details of the agreement via webcast from Bonn.

The agreement calls for FedEx to carry some air and ground freight on behalf of the USPS. Sources familiar with the agreement said FedEx will takeover those unprofitable air routes initially and increase the service gradually.

DPWN Chief Executive Officer Frank Appel is also expected to announce the closing of a quarter of DHL’s U.S. stations and the elimination of hundreds of jobs. DHL is expected to redirect its growth efforts on its international service.

FedEx and DHL declined to comment and the USPS was non-committal about the venture.

In January 2001, FedEx and the Postal Service announced two major agreements. One called for FedEx Express to provide airport-to-airport movement of containers holding around 3.5 million pounds of Priority Mail, Express Mail and First Class Mail. The other part of the agreement involved the drop off of packages at FedEx Drop Boxes nationwide. At that time, the venture was expected to generate approximately $1 billion a year for FedEx.

The USPS declined to say how much it pays FedEx annually.

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UPS says intra-Asian trade offsets slower U.S. demand

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

United Parcel Service Inc said on Tuesday that its business within Asia was more than offsetting slower trade to the United States, but it added that Asian companies were cautious about the outlook.

UPS said that it expects business within Asia to drive growth in its global freight forwarding business this year to “quite a bit higher” than forecasts for 8 percent growth in the freight forwarding industry worldwide.

“We’re seeing very strong growth intra-Asia. It’s the China effect,” Derek Woodward, Asia-Pacific president of the world’s biggest package delivery firm, told a news briefing.

A UPS survey of small and medium-sized Asian companies, released on Tuesday, showed that more than half were optimistic about their prospects this year given strength in intra-regional trade and growth in business in Europe and the Middle East.

But they sounded a note of caution, saying U.S. economic woes were creating uncertainty, particularly for Japanese companies.

For the first time since the survey’s launch four years ago, more than half of Asian SMEs, or 51 percent, said they would freeze or cut staff this year. Some 62 percent felt less competitive than last year, partly due to rising labour costs.

The survey, conducted in December and January across 12 Asia-Pacific markets, polled more than 1,200 well-established SMEs.

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MARABÚ II implemented in Spanish provincial capitals and major cities

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

CORREOS has successfully completed the implementation of Marabú II, the new automated system for monitoring collection from letter boxes, which will improve the efficiency and quality of the postal service.
This computer application can accurately track collections of letters and other post deposited by the public in the boxes on the main streets and squares of all Spanish capitals and all towns of over 50,000 residents.
The results obtained to date show that Marabú II ensures collection efficiency of nearly 100%. Through this computer system, which provides data daily, CORREOS monitors the entire trajectory of the different collections carried out each day and obtains information as to their exact time, as well as the arrival of this post at each automatic sorting office.
The letter boxes and sacks containing the mail are identified with their corresponding bar code. This enables the letter carriers to use their portable terminals to register the barcodes of the letter boxes and the sacks that carry the collected mail, as well as other data: the condition of the letterbox, how long the collection took, the time of day when most letters are posted, the most and least used letter boxes, and so on.
At the end of their route, the letter carriers can upload the data from their portable device to a central computer, where the exact time and the sacks collected are registered in a database. This way, any service issues can be dealt with immediately.

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TNT Express ranked in the Top 10 of Germany's most customer-friendly companies

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

TNT wins the Impulse award TNT Express has been selected one of the ten most customer-friendly companies in Germany within the “Germany’s customer champions 2008” contest commissioned by the business magazine Impulse.

TNT was ranked number nine among 50 companies participating in the contest and number four among the B2B providers for excellent and customer-oriented management as well as outstanding customer relations. TNT said it was the only company in the transport and logistics industry to be selected in the Top 10 of this contest.

The competition consisted of a multilevel process – a self-evaluation of the management, a customer survey and a separate assessment through experts. The assessment was based on criteria for increasing customer orientation stated in the excellence model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

“The high percentage of B2B providers among the best ranked shows that relationship management has also become very important in contact with customers,” commented Jutta Roller, Director Customer Service TNT. “The contest is a benchmark for Customer Relationship Management. The fact that we belong to the best in this category confirms our strategy of proximity and accessibility.”

TNT Express Germany has won a number of customer service awards in recent years.

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DHL Russia introduces new time definite delivery service

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

DHL Russia has launched a new time definite delivery service ‘DHL Express 10:30’ providing door-to-door delivery of express shipments to the largest cities worldwide on the next business day before 10:30 a.m to better respond to customer needs.

This service with a flexible and convenient pick-up system is currently offered for the delivery of documents and goods from Moscow and the surrounding region to the largest US cities, the company announced. Other cities around the world will be added to broaden the offering.

‘DHL Express 10:30’ provides a money-back guarantee and the opportunity for customers to track their shipments via the DHL website, email or SMS.

Shipments are collected not only during the working days but also Saturdays. Customers can also ship their documents independently via one of the DHL service points in Moscow thus ensuring they meet their commitments to their American business partners on time.

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FedEx Corporation Honored with Presidential Export Award

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

The Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez joined President Bush at the White House to present the FedEx Corporation of Memphis, TN with the Presidential ‘E’ Award for excellence in exporting.

The ‘E’ Award is the highest honor the federal government can give to American people, firms or organizations that have made significant contributions to the increase of American exports. The Presidential E-Award was created by President John F. Kennedy, by executive order in 1961.

Among the company’s many efforts to drive US exports, FedEx operates an initiative with the US Commercial Service aimed at boosting exports from US businesses. The agreement is designed to help simplify the complexity of international trade, particularly for small and medium size businesses looking to source and sell in the global marketplace.

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DPD brand business development in the CIS Countries to exceed 50 million euros

Posted by | May 27, 2008 | |

In response to growing customer requirements for quality parcel and freight delivery within the CIS, GeoPost and Yurtiçi Kargo have made a decision to enter the transportation logistics markets of the CIS countries under the DPD brand.

The range and quality of transportation logistics solutions to be offered in the CIS, by the companies trading under the DPD brand, will be similar to those provided by DPD in Russia.

Businesses in Kazakhstan and the Ukraine are already fully operational. The DPD Max service was recently launched in Kazakhstan; the service represents a reliable domestic road-based parcel and freight delivery solution. The first DPD Max route was opened between Almaty, the business capital of Kazakhstan, and Astana, the country’s official capital. The DPD Max service is an unmatched offer in

Kazakhstan’s transportation logistics services market. In addition to the traditionally high level of DPD’s service quality, the service also represents an effective solution for environmentally-conscious customers. Due to the service’s road-based approach, the CO2 emissions of road-based freight transport are lower than transporting that same freight by air. In the near future, the DPD Max service will also be launched in the Ukraine.

The opening of a number of branches within the CIS is planned for the near future, for example, in Kazakhstan there will exist 9 branches, by 2013. Total investment in DPD business development in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan between 2008 and 2012 will exceed EUR 50 million.

In addition to Kazakhstan and the Ukraine, plans are in place to enter other CIS markets with strong development potential.

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