Author: Archive

La Poste CEO says eyes Germany's PIN Group

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

La Poste is considering taking over insolvent German postal firm PIN Group, Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper quoted exectives at the French company as saying.

“It goes without saying that we are looking at it,” La Poste Chairman Jean-Paul Bailly was quoted as saying in a preview of the paper’s Tuesday edition.

Raymond Redding, head of La Poste’s mail division, was quoted as saying: “Parts of PIN are viable and therefore interesting. Takeover possibilities in the mail business are very rare.”

La Poste planned to reach a decision by the end of this month, the paper added.

La Poste, which is owned by the French government, did not have any immediate comment on Monday when contacted by Reuters.

PIN ran into financial difficulties after German publisher Axel Springer, which owns 64 percent of PIN, gave up on a rescue for the business in December after the German government agreed to a minimum wage for postal workers.

This came ahead of liberalisation of the sector and amid pressure from dominant German mail company Deutsche Post.

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Newspaper sites attract more nonprint readers

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Last week, a comScore study showed that younger people interested in news–a natural constituency in previous decades–are ditching print newspapers at an alarming rate. The good news: online newspaper sites are attracting many of these non-print readers.

Specifically, comScore found that 18- to-24-year-olds were 38% more likely than the general population not to read a newspaper in a typical week. The 35-44 cohort were 9% more likely not to read one. The flip comes with the 45-54 cohort, which were 24% more likely than the general population to read one.

Some would argue the data simply reflects the fact that young people are less interested in news in general. But the comScore study says it’s just the reverse. Non-newspaper readers consume more news in general than heavy newspaper readers from a variety of online sources, including newspaper Web sites.

That’s a plus for newspaper Web sites, with nonprint readers 4% more likely to visit The New York Times Web site, 6% more likely to visit The Wall Street Journal, 12% more likely to visit the Los Angeles Times, and 8% more likely to visit the Chicago Tribune.

But the news is tempered by the presence of myriad online competitors, as online news consumers also crave variety. They were 29% more likely to visit FoxNews online, 15% more likely to visit CBS News digital, 24% more likely to visit Topix, and 18% more likely to visit Google News.

The finding is further tempered by the relatively small size of online revenues compared to the rest of their operations. Online contributed about 10% of total revenues for The New York Times Company in 2007, 8% at McClatchy, and about 13% at The Washington Post and 5% at Gannett. However, in the latter two cases, the percentage growth is partly attributable to steep declines in overall revenues, meaning the basis of comparison is shrinking.

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Canada Post seeks new ways to protect carriers from dog, bear and human attack

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Canada Post is looking for a new weapon to protect its carriers from dogs, bears and the occasional violent human.

The Crown corporation is asking manufacturers to come forward with alternatives to the small pepper-spray cans that posties now carry, which can be ineffective in a strong wind or when dogs move too quickly.

“We’re looking for the latest technology or products that are out there to protect our employees,” corporation spokesman John Caines said from Ottawa.

About 300 Canada Post workers are bitten on the job every year, Caines said. Most bites are minor. Some, however, are debilitating.

“I had a gash along my leg – about five inches long and an inch wide – and I had to get a skin graft,” said Gary Garbutt, a retired postal worker who still clearly remembers a 1986 pit bull attack in Winnipeg’s tony Charleswood neighbourhood that left him in hospital for 10 days.

“He got me on the inside of my wrist, too, and made a gash there of about two inches (before the owner called him off).”

Pepper spray might not have made much difference in Garbutt’s case, he said, because the dog was on him before he knew it.

“I turned around, he was eight feet away. He was on my leg before I had a chance to do anything,” Garbutt said.

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Poste Italiane signs Technology Innovation Partnership with Egypt Post

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Poste Italiane and Egypt Post have signed an agreement for the technological development and improvement of Egypt’s postal service. Poste Italiane has chosen Finmeccanica to be its partner in this initiative of international importance. Finmeccanica is a leading Italian group at a global level in the production of technological systems and platforms applied to a variety of production sectors.

The international agreement signed by Poste Italiane with Egypt’s postal service provider is aimed at promoting an overall improvement in the quality of mailing, and increasing the system’s innovation, including through the introduction of value added services.

The partnership between Poste Italiane and Egypt will take the form of regular bilateral consulting sessions and joint technical working groups which will allow for the sharing of technical information and the diffusion in Egypt of more advanced solutions which can be implemented within the postal sector.

Poste Italiane will make available its knowledge and experience with regard to updating and improving postal mechanisation systems. With the aim of introducing innovative technologies into Egypt and providing technical support for the optimisation of logistic processes.

The know how of Poste Italiane and Finmeccanica will make it possible to offer Egypt Post solutions to improve the organisation of its postal service, automation and distribution of correspondence and deliveries, security systems, hybrid mail, applications for the peripheral network of Egyptian post offices, innovation in the ICT sector and staff training.

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Free recycling through the mail. U.S. Postal Service starts service in 1,500 Post Offices

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Free and green. Those are the goals of a pilot program launched today by the U.S. Postal Service that allows customers to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges by mailing them free of charge.

The “Mail Back” program helps consumers make more environmentally friendly choices, making it easier for customers to discard used or obsolete small electronics in an environmentally responsible way. Customers use free envelopes found in 1,500 Post Offices to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players – without having to pay for postage.

Postage is paid for by Clover Technologies Group, a nationally recognized company that recycles, remanufactures and remarkets inkjet cartridges, laser cartridges and small electronics. If the electronic item or cartridges cannot be refurbished and resold, its component parts are reused to refurbish other items, or the parts are broken down further and the materials are recycled. Clover Technologies Group has a “zero waste to landfill” policy: it does everything it can to avoid contributing any materials to the nation’s landfills.

It was this philosophy that won Clover the contract with the Postal Service, besting 19 other companies, said Anita Bizzotto, chief marketing officer and executive vice president for the Postal Service.

The free, postage-paid Mail Back envelopes can be found on displays in Post Office lobbies. There is no limit to the number of envelopes customers may take.

The pilot is set for 10 areas across the country, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego, but could become a national program this fall if the pilot program proves successful.

The Postal Service recycles 1 million tons of paper, plastic and other materials annually. Last year, USPS generated more than USD 7.5 million in savings through recycling and waste prevention programs. The nation’s environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the Postal Service eight WasteWise Partner of the Year awards, the agency’s top honor.

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Royal Mail confirms that industrial action harmed services

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Figures recently released by Royal Mail confirm that industrial action during the second quarter of 2007-08 damaged services for postal customers.

78.4 per cent of First Class letters reached their destination the working day after posting, compared with an on-target performance of 93 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Royal Mail Marketing Director Alex Batchelor said, ‘We are very aware that our customers simply didn’t receive the service they deserve as a result of this year’s strike action by the Communication Workers Union —and we’re very sorry that they were let down.

‘Customers are all too aware that strike action continued during the third quarter of the year which means that targets will also be missed for the autumn period. The recent vote in favour of our pay deal is good news for customers —it’s a green light for Royal Mail to invest in new technology and modernise our operations so that we can return to the record highs in quality of service reached in the last two years and build on that success for the future.’

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Go west! Home movers fall for the charm of the West Country

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

UK home movers are flocking to the West Country, a unique study of over half a million address changes by Royal Mail revealed today.

Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset all make appearances in the top ten most desirable areas to live in the UK. Calculated by net moves*, they claimed fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth places respectively.

The study of mail redirection data revealed that, between them, the four counties attracted 10,847 new householders who travelled more than one million miles to relocate from other parts of the UK.

Kent tops the table with an impressive 5,068 moves into the area. Only London and Surrey achieved higher move-in levels, but because they have also experienced significant moves out, neither makes it into the top 10.

Other counties to appear include West Sussex (2nd), Suffolk (9th) and Essex (10th). Hampshire (3rd) and Lincolnshire (7th) also performed well.

Royal Mail’s Home Movers Barometer is managed and compiled by data value management specialist DQM Group, based on 0.6 million mail redirection requests over a 12-month period. It also shows that, while not making it into the top 10, smaller regions have been successful in attracting new residents.

Most significant are the Scottish Isles (not including the Shetland or Orkney Islands), which welcomed 289 new households, who moved an average of 217.82 miles each to relocate.

Additionally, existing residents of Hampshire, Kent, Essex and Devon have been proved extremely loyal, all demonstrating a high level of moves within their respective county. People from Kent were most fond of their “Garden of England”, clocking a substantial 12,646 internal moves and an average of just 5.39 miles per relocation.

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Cash-strapped holidaymakers could lead to city breaks explosion

Posted by | Mar 17, 2008 | |

Eastern Europe’s emerging city break destinations could be set to benefit from the UK’s economic downturn, just as Barcelona, Prague and Dublin did after the stock market crash 20 years ago – according to a new report by Post Office® Travel Services.

The report, which examines the growth of city breaks over the past two decades, concludes that demand for city breaks may explode in 2008 as it did after Black Monday in October 1987.

Cities like Krakow, Tallinn, Riga and Dubrovnik are among those predicted to grow in popularity this year – for many of the reasons that people flocked to Barcelona, Prague and Dublin in the late eighties and nineties, according to the Post Office².

Short breaks to eurozone cities still dominate – taking eight of the top ten places – but the Post Office® warns holidaymakers to be prepared for the pound in their pocket to buy less in these cities. Sterling has slipped by 11 per cent against the euro since last March. However visitors to Prague will feel the pinch even more, because the pound has fallen by 22 per cent against the Czech koruna. Only in New York – a new entrant to Superbreak’s cities top ten – will the pound stretch further – by five per cent

Of the Eastern European cities, Budapest is likely to offer best value to UK visitors this year as its currency, the forint, has strengthened least – by eight per cent – against sterling. In Krakow, which has benefited from the biggest increase in the number of flights from UK regional airports, the pound will buy 19 per cent less than a year ago.

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