Author: Archive

Empost Continues The Success Of Ezimail Service

Posted by | Mar 16, 2008 | |

Ezimail is a unique mail service introduced by Empost that entails the personal delivery of mail directly from the central mail room to any location at the convenience of the customer. The leader in express courier and cargo and logistics in the UAE, Empost introduced Ezimail to ensure the arrival and delivery of mail to customers daily and regularly, without the need to visit the post office.

Elaborating on the benefits of the service, Empost’s CEO, Mr. Sultan Al Midfa said: “Ezimail affirms Empost’s unique capability of offering quick, integrated and functional solutions to small and large businesses alike. Our objective has always been to become the unmatched, premium, complete end-to-end service provider in the distribution, focusing on the needs of our customers at all times. Ezimail is an extension of Empost’s initiative in consistently delivering cost-effective solutions that will offer greater value to our customers helping them save on the most important resources of time and money.”

Through Ezimail, the mail is delivered in a sealed satchel to ensure safety and high confidentiality. Ezimail also offers customers added convenience by collecting mail for delivery to the post office besides the option to purchase postal stamps. Some of the features of Ezimail are the collection and delivery of ordinary postal items, registered letters, EMS/Mumtaz items and other normal mail contents.

Empost accredits its consistent growth through innovation and refinement of services, which have been the company’s primary strengths for over a decade. The company has evolved over the past decade to cater to growing and diverse business needs through a host of value-added services such as Total Mail Management, Heavies Express Service, Economy Express, Ezidox, Track and Trace, and a stream of other services including insurance on all dispatches. A reliable, comprehensive logistics solutions provider, Empost’s multi-pronged approach is put into practice by a team of 1,000 specialised staff members to make it the UAE’s fastest growing integrated freight forwarding and logistics solutions provider.

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Deutsche Post to transfer more outlets to retail partners

Posted by | Mar 16, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post World Net AG plans to have more of its own outlets operated by retail partners such as supermarkets and bakeries, a company spokesman said, confirming an earlier report.

Luebecker Nachrichten earlier reported Deutsche Post will sell by 2011 about 700 of its 800 own outlets.

Most of the outlets affected are small branch offices with one or two workers, the spokesman said, adding the move will not lead to job cuts.

Deutsche Post last year already transferred about 200 of its outlets to partners such as retail stores and lottery ticket sellers.

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Councils 'kept in dark' on post office plans

Posted by | Mar 16, 2008 | |

Royal Mail has been accused of obstructing plans by councils to save hundreds of post offices from closure.

The Government says 2,500 branches must close to preserve the network’s GBP 150 million annual subsidy and cut its GBP 4 million-a-week losses.

Up to 50 councils in England and Wales are investigating ways of saving threatened branches, offering rescue packages of GBP 18,000 per branch over three years from council tax receipts.

But some local authorities claim that Royal Mail is standing in the way of such plans by withholding key information about branches until a consultation period has elapsed, so the councils cannot assess whether they are viable businesses to take on.

Royal Mail has also allegedly stipulated that authorities who want to use the Post Office branding must meet criteria on minimum turnover and the number of counters.

Sir Simon Milton, the chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents 410 councils, claimed that Royal Mail executives lacked enthusiasm over the plans.

He said: “There is not the high-level commitment within the Post Office to engage seriously with alternative means to keep post offices alive.”

Ideas put forward in December 2006 by Lord Bruce Lockhart, Sir Simon’s predecessor, to help keep branches open included charging peppercorn rents and letting councils run services from their own premises, such as town halls and leisure centres.

The suggestions were made personally to the Royal Mail boss, Adam Crozier, but nothing came of them.

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Post rivals urge watchdog to bare teeth over Royal Mail privileges

Posted by | Mar 16, 2008 | |

Private postal operators are calling on the Government to take a “brave” decision to end Royal Mail’s monopoly on large parts of the market as it considers the future of Britain’s mail services.

Operators including TNT Post and DX, which employs a fleet of private sector postmen in Scotland, are pressing the Government to end the special privileges afforded to Royal Mail, such as VAT exemption, which they say prevent equal competition.

As the regulator PostComm considers responses to a consultation on the future of postal services, which closed on Friday, the operators are urging Sir Nigel Stapleton, PostComm’s chairman, to take a brave stance. They hope the PostComm inquiry will set the tone for a wider review by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is due to report this summer.

James Greenbury, chief executive of DX, said: “The first decision PostComm and the BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform] have to take is to actually take a position on Royal Mail. Our view is that Royal Mail is an institution left over from the 1970s. It has a number of advantages over all of the competition which have to be levelled out. They don’t have to charge VAT and we do. It takes out 40% of the market.”

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post, said: “We need a level playing field. The market is still overshadowed by VAT distortion which closes off 40% of mail volumes to competitors.”

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Triangle Publications Present an Interview with CEO of Business Direct, Paul Carvell

Posted by | Mar 15, 2008 | |

In the first of a series of online interviews published on ME-news, Paul Carvell, CEO of UK time critical logistics company, Business Direct gives us an insight into last mile solutions.
Q. Paul, tell us a little about the history of Business Direct?
A. The company began in 1993, as a specialist logistics company delivering time critical parts for field engineers pre 8 am. After recognising a gap in the market in 2001, the concept of an automated exchange was designed, and developed, and commissioned in 2004. As a result, the company listed on the AIM market in August of that year, raising capital to roll out a national network of ParcelXchanges. Two additional acquisitions were subsequently made namely ‘Esprit’ the in boot delivery operation of ANC, and ‘Concord’ the specialist logistics company working in the Hi-Tech sector. In 2007, ParcelXchange was launched globally, primarily to Post offices and is now in use in more than 5 European countries and in South East Asia.
Q. So as a result of all this action, how many units do you have in the field?
A. The first PX units were rolled out nationally in 2004; currently there are 310 sites with 4,500 individual lockers in the UK. Additionally, there are drop boxes and PUDO’s (manned counters) positioned around the UK taking the total number of delivery points to over 500, all capable of track and trace. Globally, we anticipate that ParcelXchange will be used in circa 12 countries across 3 continents in the next 12 months.
Q. I’ve read recently of successes both inside and outside of the UK market, tell me more?
A. The business is split into three divisions: In Night, Global Licensing and Specialist;
In Night has been gaining rapid market share from parcel carriers, (depot collect and pre 10 am), competitors and branch collections in the B2B field service market. Major wins include Jungheinrich and Siemens Medical, all wishing to improve productivity, reduce cost and enhance customer service and response to down time (up to 30% reduction in costs). Major strategic partners include DHL, TNT and Parcelforce – where we are seen to be adding value to their services.
ParcelXchange Worldwide – We have had significant wins with DHL Ireland and are undergoing trials in Finland, Estonia, France and S.E. Asia. Our major prospects are OEM’s, In Night carriers, but more importantly Post Offices around the world. The major opportunity is for Post Offices to lease the ParcelXchange equipment and operating the software under license for their own use – there is no CapEx and the customer can start small and build up as their requirements grow.
Specialist – This is an area for key growth with companies such as Computacenter, Xerox and other major I.T resellers. Other areas are Two Man, Technical Courier and Sameday. Many of these customers also work with the In Night division – “One Stop” package for IT logistics.
Q. It all sounds very positive, has there been much resistance?
A. The PX system works at Six Sigma levels (99.9% +) everyday and offers a national pre 8am service unavailable from the carrier market at prices below sameday/pre 10-am carrier tariffs. AT Kearney recently reported that all the carriers are in need of this service, particularly for B2C growth. Ironically only DHL, TNT and Parcelforce have so far adopted this bolt-on to their range of supply chain services. Carriers should not be threatened and should adopt this new technology by working with us – we are not mainstream Express competitors and it could dramatically reduce their cost of first time failure, and improve their service to their B2B and growing B2C customer base. UK failed delivery costs to UK Carrier players is thought to be £123m p.a (source: IMRG) – using a PX offers the customer the opportunity to dramatically reduce failed deliveries and consolidate their delivery points. Globally, a large proportion of interest has been in units containing 50-100 lockers which will naturally drive down costs. I don’

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Consultative committee takes stock of rural postal network in India

Posted by | Mar 14, 2008 | |

Of the 155,204 post offices in the country, 139,046 post offices are functioning in rural areas with an average coverage of 22.61 sq.km per rural post office.

This was disclosed by minister of state of communication and information technology Dr. Shakeel Ahmed during the review meeting of the consultative committee of the parliament attached to his ministry.

“Since Independence, the Department of Posts has expanded its network by over 664 per cent, becoming the largest postal network in the world” Dr Ahmad told the members of parliament.

He further added that 3,000 new branch post offices are to be opened in 11th Plan, of which 2000 would be departmental post offices and some of these would be in the rural areas.

Highlighting the details of the expansion, he said office equipments would be provided to 10,000 rural branch offices while 50,000 pillar letterboxes would be installed in villages with branch post offices.

In the current Five Year Plan, all departmental post offices and 64,000 extra departmental post offices would be computerised and connected to the National Data Centre. He said that the department has been mobilising savings from rural areas for Small Savings Bank and National Savings Certificates, disbursing pensions, undertaking verification of electoral rolls, etc, as part of its agency and retail functions.

Members cutting across party lines stressed the need for enhancing the postal network in rural areas, especially in North-Eastern States.

Senior officials of the ministry of communications and IT, and officials also attended the meeting from MTNL and BSNL.

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Regulation, competition and universal service in the postal sector: Intervention by Paul Champsaur, Chairman of ARCEP, IDEI conference, Toulouse

Posted by | Mar 14, 2008 | |

We are now 10 years after the first European postal directive and 2 years after the creation of an independent regulator in France, and there seems to be clear evidence that competition in the French postal market remains negligible.

An overview of the European scene reveals that the move towards competition is generally slow and painful. I observe however with concern that the gap widens between the situation in several other European countries and in the French market, which remains particularly static.

“Progressive market opening” was meant to facilitate business adaptation and to avoid disruptive changes in the market structure. It is crucial that the short time (three years) from now on to 2011 is used to: 1° favour the emergence of competitors 2° and at the same time, drive the adaptation of the incumbent.

1/First, I would like to remind the objectives of the postal market liberalization

Two questions:
– What is the ultimate goal of this policy ?
– How can we guarantee an effective and accessible mail service in this context?

Objectives :

At the very origin of the liberalization process, in the eighties, one finds basically a critical view on the quality and effectiveness of postal services in Europe. Policy makers pushed for the realization of a European single market in order to boost productivity and innovation.

Economic effectiveness is the principal motivation for postal markets opening. This motivation was stronger for the liberalization of the telecommunications sector, where the abolition of monopolies also resulted from intense technological innovation which, at the same time, justified and facilitated the opening to competition. Opening the postal markets to competition was primarily seen as a way to reduce the imperfections which the economic theory associates with a monopoly. In the French case, an official report by senator Larcher in 1997 perfectly illustrated these imperfections :

– Rather vague obligations on the incumbent, whose cost and financing were all but transparent ;
– Tariffs unrelated to costs, leading to potential waste of resources;
– No incentives to economic efficiency, resulting in outdated industrial processes ;
– And finally, poor quality performances.

Theoretically, efficiency could also be obtained by the way of efficient regulatory pressure on the monopoly USO supplier. This is the American model of a USPS under tight control of the “postal rate commission”. However, accommodating this model in Europe seemed difficult. For example, USPS is a company whose activity is almost entirely restricted to the monopoly segment. On the contrary, European operators have grown into diversified companies, in which the regulated activity coexists with other commercial operations of all sorts (notably banking services).

Regulating a monopoly is difficult in this context, and I shall add, but it is a personal comment that market pressures will generally prove, in the long run, to be more effective than the pressures from the regulator.

My following point is related to the links between competition and the universal service obligation and its financing

Market liberalization, is also politically justified by the argument that USO are sustainable in a competitive context. This subject was at the center of the last year’s European negotiations and I’d like to elaborate a little more on it.

We can observe that approximately half of the postal market is “captive”: it consists of “single piece mail” traffic, which is hardly affected by competition. Single piece mail is expensive to collect and to process industrially. The challenge for the USO operator is to obtain costcovering tariffs for this traffic; these tariffs can remain geographically averaged, because single piece mail will remain out of reach for competitors (it is not a contestable market). If the USO operator is able to rebalance his tariffs in order to recover its costs, it can then provide t

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Itella and Kauko Group acquisition confirmed

Posted by | Mar 14, 2008 | |

Itella and Kauko Group have confirmed the acquisition of Kauko Group by Itella Corporation on Friday, March 14. Kauko Group is specialised in international freight. The acquisition was approved last week by Finnish Competition Authority.

The acquisition strengthens Itella’s position as one of the leading service logistics operators in Northern Europe. – In future we have even better chances to provide global delivery solutions to our clients, says Katri Sahlman, the Development Director of Itella Logistics.

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