Author: Archive

French Post Office makes Ebay despatches simpler

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

French postal operator ‘La Poste’ has launched a new service which allows French Ebay users to sort all their parcel needs online, through Ebay itself.

With only a few clicks, users can decide on how the item should be delivered, the weight, destination and whether the item is to be insured, before paying via PayPal – the method of payment preferred on eBay.fr.

The form is then printed on a simple A4 sheet of which a part will attached to the parcel, the other stamped by the counter clerk in post office and used as proof of sending. Once the parcel is prepared, the shipper merely has to leave it with a local post office – where many fast counters dedicated to parcels have been available in France since 2006.

The brand new service is free to eBay.fr users, costs no more than normal parcel rates but saves sellers time in preparing parcels ready for despatch. The parcels can also be tracked online.

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Spanish Post Office renews cleaning contract with Pardo-Valcarce Foundation

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

Spanish postal operator Correos and the Pardo-Valcarce Foundation have renewed a contract which will continue to see employees with special needs, repairing, maintaining and washing equipment used by Correos employees including crash helmets, mail bags and plastic containers.

Correos has been working with the Foundation for 16 years as part of it’s Corporative Social Responsibility plan. Correos continues to support the use of people with physical and mental disabilities.

In 2007, a total of 59 young people with disabilities were employed with the Occupational Factory in conjunction with support from the Special Center of the Pardo-Valcarce Foundation.

In recent years many containers that were made from fabric or rafia have been replaced with plastics, all of which which require regular cleaning. The cleaning unit has seen 844,938 washed trays, 15 pct more than in 2006. The cleaning is to remove bacteria, fungi and to reduce the risk of diseases.

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French postal workers angry about modernisation plans

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

With increasing use of the Internet and the SMS, the French are writing less and less. The French postal oprator, La Poste, recorded a fall of 1 pct in mail volume in 2007. However, French unions have reacted angrily to plans by La Poste to introduce bigger sorting centres to replace smaller ones which could see hundreds of redundancies.

Raymond Redding, Director General of La Poste emphasised the need to modernise saying: “We are investing some 81 million euros in new mail equipment in Brittany to ensure the business remains profitable.”

New modernised sorting operations are to be set up in Brittany, as well as at Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, close to Rennes, and on the industrial park of Kergaradec, in Guipavas, close to Brest.

Postal operations in Brittany are carried out by some 7.550 post-office employees but trade unions are concerned that some 450 sorters would be made redundant by the changes, primarily in the old sorting offices of Saint-Brieuc, Vannes and Quimper, which unions say will just become ‘transit points’.

In an official statement, the French postal union said “There is inconsistency in the drawing up of these plans and this is effectively a downsizing of a public service with the removal of these sorting offices.” Union members are deciding what their next course of action should be.

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Deutsche Post sale of Postbank would require changing German constitution

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post World Net AG.’s possible sale of Deutsche Postbank AG. may face legal hurdles as it would require amending the constitution, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing a letter sent to German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck by trade union DPV.

According to a law in the German Basic Constitutional Law related to the privatisation of German mail services in the 1990s, civil servants working in companies succeeding former state-owned Deutsche Bundespost must remain employed there.

Some 35 percent of Postbank’s current staff are civil servants entitled to wages according to government pay scales and a pension.

‘It will (be) irreconcilable with Constitutional Law if Postbank is sold and becomes part of another bank’, unless the buyer sets up structures similar to government agencies to accommodate civil servants, the union said in the letter.

DPV demanded that plans to sell Postbank be dropped to preserve jobs and Postbank’s branches.

Germany’s Basic Constitutional Law has been changed 52 times since it came into effect in 1949, including the amendment that in 1994 set the legal basis for the privatisation of the Bundespost, which was split into what are today Deutsche Telekom AG.

Deutsche Post is currently examining all future options for Postbank, in which it holds 50 percent plus one share.

Several banks and financial services providers, including Deutsche Bank AG., Commerzbank AG. and insurance giant Allianz SE. have recently signaled an interest in acquiring Postbank.

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Azerbaijan and Turkey agreed to transfer money by e-way

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

The visit of Turkish post representatives to Azerbaijan has been completed, during which switching to e-system of money transfers was discussed.

Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies informed that the main topics for discussions were questions on switching to e-system of money transfers between Azerbaijan and Turkey instead of existing transfer system via fax and a possibility to join Azerpocht state enterprise to Eurogiro money transfer system.

“After held meetings Turkish party reported that in two months they would solve technical questions and submit information to Azerpocht administration,” it was reported.

During the visit the guests familiarized with reforms regarding communications in Azerbaijan and Azerpocht work principles.

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Pallet-Track Leads With Innovation In Our Industry

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

With all the focus from the HSE that pallet networks are experiencing of late (Motor Transport 20th March). Pallet Track was pleased to announce to its shareholder members this week the introduction of a quality control department to monitor all aspects of the transhipment operation.

In the non-pedestrian environment of the sort areas where visiting line haul drivers are unable to supervise both the unloading and re-loading of their freight PT has invested a six-figure sum in the introduction of a completely independent team which reports solely to the daytime operations management.

The team will be responsible for supervising and reporting on the quality of the member (arrival vehicle), Pallet Track Fork-Lift truck drivers and management operatives during the sort process and ultimately the presentation of the loaded outbound trunk vehicle prior to departure back to the depot.

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Easter 2008

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

Another ‘first’ in our industry sector was the foresight for Pallet-Track to fully prepare for the busiest week in the year by adopting an additional two sort operations.

Given the previous two years historic volume increases PT decided to add two Economy (48-hour) sorts on Wednesday and Thursday (19th & 20th March). The previous year had seen growth in volume spiral by over 32 pct on these two days, with the demand for next day (as opposed to economy) increasing from 65 to 85 pct.

A complete 68-depot sort operation was undertaken with an additional workforce of over 20 members of staff some of whom were office staff seconded to the sort process. Approaching 2,500 pallets were successfully transhipped during the two-day process which enabled the more time restrictive night operation to function efficiently. In total the combined sort operations handled over 9,500 pallets.

The result was that no delay was incurred by any network member which in turn helped all PT members customers receive their goods on time prior to the holiday period.

Nigel Parkes PT Managing Director comments:

“The whole project was a complete success, we had the element of experience and a willingness to make this ‘first’ succeed from the membership to our staff who both worked tirelessly during the night and day operations. It was an extra benefit for staff normally positioned elsewhere in the business to fully appreciate the hard work and attention to detail the operations team provides night in night out”

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Panalpina introduces new airfreight service to Latin America

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

Panalpina, together with its partner Centurion Air Cargo, has launched a new service – Palmair – linking its worldwide network with Latin America via the Miami, Florida gateway.

Panalpina will offer a direct transhipment concept for destinations in Latin America.

Miami serves as both Centurion Air Cargo’s base as well as Panalpina’s gateway to Latin America for freight originating from Europe, Asia and North America.

With the new concept, the two companies establish a link between the Latin American connections of Centurion and Panalpina’s European Road Feeder Network with its hub in Luxembourg.

Centurion has subcontracted the first leg to Luxembourg-based Cargolux – also one of Panalpina’s major business partners. This set-up gives Panalpina total control of the entire cargo flow from origin to destination.

The main destinations served through the new service are Bogota, Medellin, Barranquilla (all in Columbia), Caracas (Venezuela), Lima (Peru) and Manaus (Brazil), amongst others.

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