The Spanish post operator Correos increased profits last year by 5.2 pct and is extending its portfolio with an upgraded parcel service. Correos closed 2007 with a pre-tax profit of EUR 149.6 million, a rise of 5.2 pct on the previous year. Revenues were up by 4.4 pct to EUR 2.1 billion.
Read MorePostcomm will hold an open meeting on 14 May at which Royal Mail will present its case on the reasons for its quality of service failures in the past year.
In June 2007, Postcomm agreed Royal Mail’s request to suspend – until the end of its current financial year – the payment of compensation to bulk mail customers, and to ensure that the company is not subject to a downward adjustment to its allowed revenues (known as the ‘C factor’), where industrial action has taken place and quality of service figures have dropped.
Postcomm agreed to the request because it wished to ensure that Royal Mail was not discouraged from taking the steps needed to modernise its business – such modernisation would be to the benefit of all mail users.
The regulator’s agreement to these suspensions was subject to it convening an open meeting at which Royal Mail would present the main points in its application. For it to be satisfied, Postcomm expects Royal Mail to be able to demonstrate that the industrial action arose as a result of carrying out its transformation plans and not for some other reason, and had a direct causal link to quality of service failures.
Major stakeholders in the postal market have been invited and offered the opportunity to ask any questions they have with regard to Royal Mail’s application; this will help ensure the regulator has appropriately considered the views of all interested parties before it makes its decision.
Read MoreThe Royal Mail, Channel 4, BBC Worldwide, Scottish Water, Northern Ireland Water, Glas Cymru and the national air traffic control system should all be privatised, while government stakes in British Energy and the nuclear industry should be sold off.
That’s the main recommendation of a report by the Adam Smith Institute, which reckons the sales would raise around GBP 20bn for the government. The report ‘Privatization – reviving the momentum’ said the sales would be timely, given the state of the economy and the “increasing tightness” of public finances.
As well as financial benefits, the privatisations would boost investment, lower prices and give greater choice and better services to customers, as well as underpinning billions of pounds worth of economic activity.
The report’s author Nigel Hawkins said: “Privatisation in the UK remains unfinished business. The task for government, of whatever colour, should be to complete it and to reap the many benefits – including proceeds of some GBP 20bn.”
Read MoreAmtrak is continuing its investment programme with 100 Mercedes Sprinters on order for delivery by the end of the year.
The first 50 Mercedes Sprinter 311CDIs will be delivered in July, with the rest due by December. Amtrak has already invested in almost 100 Ford Transits (350CDI Long Wheel Base) for its C+D fleet.
Last year, Amtrak added 18 double-deck trailers to the six already in its fleet, to cut the number of trunking vehicles between its Aldridge hub and 57 depots nationwide.
“Investment in IT systems, giving us full visibility throughout the network with real-time PODs, and some reorgansiation of the depot network, have also helped us to run the most efficient operation possible,” says Mr Jones. “The new vehicles are part of our continued investment in the company as we build the business and expand the customer base.”
The vans have been supplied by Reflex Vehicle Solutions Ltd.
Read MoreTesco is taking on iTunes with a new music and films download service. Tesco Digital will launch next month with more than three million tracks. 1.6 million of those will be compatible with MP3 players straight away.
It plans for the site to be compatible with iPods by the end of the year.
By then it’ll also be offering downloadable films, TV shows and computer games.
Tesco will only say that prices with be “competitive” and prices will vary depending on the album or single tracks.
The chain launched tesco.com in 2000 and was the first major British supermarket to enter the music download market in 2004.
But that service is only available in Windows Media format.
Graham Harris, Tesco’s commercial director, said: “We wanted to create an exciting and easy-to-use entertainment shop that Tesco customers of all ages and technical ability can use and trust.
“We’re starting out with a comprehensive music offering, but customers can expect downloadable TV and films as well as games to buy very soon.
“It really is a case of watch this space.”
As well as food and clothes, the supermarket giant now sells furniture, mobile phones, credit cards, petrol, loans and mortgages.
Tesco confirmed its place as the UK’s largest retailer on Tuesday when it announced last year’s profits were up to more than GBP 2.8bn.
Read MoreA project to develop a postal air waybill (PAWB) and several related activities could enable airlines to manage mail traffic as part of their general cargo systems very soon, with significant cost and service benefits to their postal service customers. Air cargo and airmail must now travel internationally with different documents: the air waybill and postal delivery bill consignment note. Separate processes are required to track the two traffic categories, a problem compounded by the fact that airlines use air waybills to track whole consignments, whereas postal organisations want to be able to track individual bags or trays.
To bring these systems together, airlines and the postal authorities will have to work together to integrate the functions of their cargo and mail system, explains Jörgen van Mook, manager of Operations Planning for the International Post Corporation. “Then the airlines can manage mail in their cargo systems and, over time, do away with the stand-alone systems they use only for mail.” That objective is a central element in a joint initiative called the Future of Mail by Air established in early 2006 by members of the IPC and a group of mail-carrying airlines, including AF-KL cargo.
The postal authorities want airlines to improve the quality of service they provide, particularly for tracking mail consignments, and at the same time charge them less. However, in aligning the processes and systems required to do this, they want to avoid changing the legal status of mail, says Mr. van Mook. “Mail has to remain mail and not become cargo.” Mail and cargo are ruled by different conventions, Mr. van Mook explains. “Mail is ruled by the Universal Postal Union Convention and carried under postal delivery bills. It also has separate procedures for customs clearance.”
The Patch
Postal authorities and airlines have come up with the clever idea of creating a postal air waybill number, a reference number that enables airline cargo systems to track mail without the legal status it would have travelling with an air waybill. “Manifesting mail in a cargo system under a postal air waybill number does not mean creating an electronic air waybill,” Mr. van Mook says. “Mail would continue to travel with a postal delivery bill. However, it would have a special handling code, MAL, in the airline tracking system. IATA recently approved this designation specifically to enable mail tracking. Using a PAWB number, carriers can identify traffic as mail in their cargo systems and identify it for customs.”
Stéphane Bocquet, AF-KL Cargo’s director of Airmail, says the PAWB development is significant. “We will be able to add more value for our customers in the postal sector by providing enhanced tracking and tracing at a reasonable cost. The mail situation today is similar to the time when carriers and forwarders agreed to develop Cargo 2000 in order to ensure better visibility of their shipments.” Moreover, the continuing development of Cargo 2000 could also play a role in the airmail sector, adds Marloeke Werst, AF-KL Cargo’s sales director of Airmail Services. “Cargo 2000 provides the status messages required for tracking cargo based on the use of air waybill numbers. If we introduce postal air waybill numbers for airmail, then it opens the possibility of using Cargo 2000 to generate the messages for that traffic as well.”
In Practice
“The idea now is to let individual airlines and postal authorities decide how they want to number their mail shipments,” says Christophe Eggers, international networks manager for La Poste. The process starts when the post enters the airline booking system and creates a profile for tracking. Then, either the airline issues a PAWB number or the post provides the airline with a number. In one case, the airline could send an allotment of
PAWB’s to the post, which could allocate them to shipments as it sees fit and inform the carrier accordingly. Alternatively, the post could send the airline an EDI
Delta Air Lines announced a long-speculated deal to acquire Northwest Airlines for about USD3.1 billion Monday, a combination that will create the world’s largest airline and could lead to a series of other deals to reshape the U.S. airline industry.
The new carrier will operate under the Delta name, and be based in Atlanta.
Delta said the carrier will maintain the nine hubs of both airlines in the United States, Europe and Asia, serving more than 390 destinations in 67 countries. The combined carrier will have USD35 billion in annual revenue, more than 800 airplanes and 75,000 employees, according to Delta.
But many of the employee unions at Northwest were quick to voice opposition to the deal, even though Delta said it is not looking to cut non-office staff.
The deal could lead to less competition and higher fares on some routes where the two carriers now compete. But there is relatively little overlap between the current Delta (DAL, Fortune 500) and Northwest (NWA, Fortune 500) systems.
The greater impact on competition and fares could come if other major carriers follow suit and negotiate their own deals in response. Some experts have suggested that several deals could eventually leave three mega-carriers handling about 80% of the nation’s air traffic.
Read MoreInternal Revenue Service representatives said Monday 14th April they were expecting an increase in the number of tax returns filed this year.
The rise is due largely to an extra incentive — being one of the 130 million Americans expected to receive a federally funded rebate intended to encourage increased spending and stimulate the nation’s economy.
The IRS will use tax returns to determine eligibility and assess the amount a person receives, with single filers getting up to USD 600, and couples up to USD 1,200, plus USD 300 per dependent child.
Increased volume this time of year is nothing new for the U.S. Postal Service, which expects to handle around 59 million federal tax returns this year, or 43 percent of all individual returns filed.
Despite the increase of electronic filing in recent years, this year’s overall rise in filings is expected to also raise the number of mailed returns over last year by 3 percent, according to Tim Ratliff, postal service spokesman for the Northern Illinois district.
“Obviously, there is an increase of people filing electronically for all sorts of reasons,” he said. “At the same time, there is still a huge percentage of people that still depend on the postal service to mail their tax returns.”
And as in the past, Ratliff encourages people to file as early as possible but said the postal service has managed to adapt in order to accommodate one of the more exasperating traits in human nature.
Read More
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.
