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USPS set to host 'passport fairs'

Posted by | Mar 13, 2008 | |

Twenty-five Vermont post offices will be staying open a little late Saturday.

The post offices — along with 23 in New Hampshire — are holding “passport fairs” organized by the United States Postal Service to help families who may want to get passports under new travel regulations.

Flying to and from Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean now requires a passport, according the Postal Service. While land or sea crossings to those destinations do not require passports, they do require proof of citizenship.

Skulnik said hours will vary from post office to post office, but refreshments will be available at each.

Passports cost USD 100 in fees for adults and USD 85 in fees for children under 16.

People can fill out applications online at www.usps.com/passport, print them out and bring them to the Post Office to save time, but Skulnik said to be sure not to sign the application before bringing it in. The application must be signed at the post office, in front of an “acceptance employee.”

Photos can also be taken at the Post Office for an extra USD 15.

The process can be completed in under an hour, Skulnik said, and the State Department usually mails out passports within four to six weeks of receiving a complete application.

People seeking just the proof of citizenship required for trips to Canada can instead apply for the new passport card, which Skulnik said was designed as a less expensive alternative, costing USD 45 for an adult or USD 35 for a child. Skulnik said the State Department likely won’t mail out the cards until late spring.

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Mobile phone subscribers are set to increase worldwide with an estimated 4.5billion subscribers in 2011

Posted by | Mar 13, 2008 | |

With it mobile payments are set to soar which is good news for companies investing in this sector; and good news for the customer.

A survey on the use of mobile wallets and payments will be discussed at the forthcoming Money Transfers Conference in Dubai on Monday 28th April.

Samee Zafar of consultants Edgar Dunn will describe how the mobile has moved from being a vehicle to making telephone calls to a versatile device with many capabilities.

In particular he will focus how mobile owners use them as a mobile wallet and vehicle for cross border remittance payments

As the survey points out, “Mobile money transfer is considered to be the most strategically important mobile financial service among those surveyed.”

A full session on the development of the mobile payment sector will feature in the Dubai Money Transfer Conference at the Habtoor Grand Hotel.

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Hermes Logistik eyes Europe and mulls over mail

Posted by | Mar 13, 2008 | |

Hermes Logistik, the leading German B2C challenger to DHL, plans to press ahead with European expansion this year and is considering whether to enter the domestic mail market should the minimum postal wage be vetoed.

The parcels carrier, a subsidiary of mail-order giant Otto Group, said it increased German revenues by 9% to EUR 1,041 million in 2007. Profit figures were not disclosed. Volumes grew to a new record with a 6% rise to 216 million parcels from business customers and a 21% increase to 28.5 million parcels from private customers.

Hermes has launched new products, including a furniture and large goods transport service, alongside its core parcels delivery service with the aim of growing into Germany’s largest consumer logistics provider after DHL.

After announcing last December that it had put on ice plans to enter the mail market in cooperation with TNT Post, Hermes said the March 7 decision by the Berlin administrative court against the minimum postal wage opened up a new perspective. “We will follow developments very closely and review whether the new situation is reliable enough to give competition in the postal market a truly fair chance,” commented managing director Hanjo Schneider.

In Austria, where it entered the market in mid-2007, Hermes now claims a market share of 38% for B2C parcels. It has gained European Commission approval to take a 30% stake in Italian B2C firm Porta a Porta by buying out Swiss Post. Through close cooperation with sister companies Parcelnet (UK) and Mondial Relay (France), Hermes Logistik has a group-wide market share of 22% of the estimated EUR 1.5 billion European private parcels market.

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AOL launches paperless coupons service

Posted by | Mar 13, 2008 | |

AOL wants you to stop clipping coupons or even printing them out. The company is launching a new service, Shortcuts, for manufacturers to distribute coupons on the Internet.

Instead of clipping them out of your newspaper insert, you can simply choose the ones you want online and add them to an account tied to a grocery store’s loyalty program. To redeem those coupons, you simply present your loyalty card at the register.

The program is free for consumers and retail chains, while manufacturers pay to have their coupons listed. Charges will be based on how many get selected and redeemed.

Manufacturers can also buy banner ads to accompany the coupon listings at Shortcuts.com.

The new service, the latest aimed at distributing paperless coupons online or by cell phones, comes as Time Warner Inc.’s AOL continues trying to boost advertising revenue to offset steep declines in subscriptions for dial-up Internet access.

Although AOL expects manufacturers to continue distributing coupons in print publications, Shortcuts director Sharon Baker said companies could eventually offer exclusive deals online.

That could leave out people with little or no Internet access, who often are poorer and the ones who most need such discounts. But Baker said that, because it will be free to consumers, Shortcuts actually will break down barriers — no longer would you need to buy a newspaper for the savings.

Shortcuts was scheduled to launch Thursday with the Kroger Co. grocery store chain and one food manufacturer, General Mills Inc.

Coupons from Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Kraft Foods Inc. are to come later this month.

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Australia Post choose AVI to upgrade its address recognition and mail automation capabilities

Posted by | Mar 13, 2008 | |

AddressVision Inc. (AVI), a Bull Group subsidiary and a leading provider of postal automation solutions, has announced that Australia Post has chosen AVI to upgrade its address recognition and mail automation capabilities for processing the country’s letter mail. As the chosen prime systems integrator, AVI leads a world-class team which includes Prime Vision B.V., RAF Technology, Inc. and LSI.

AVI’s solution is based on independent functional modules delivered within an industry supported, open architecture framework. AVI will integrate its solution with more than 50 legacy mail processing machines, in 11 processing centers nationwide, to modernize and extend automation capabilities across the country, extending the lifetime of existing equipment. AVI’s solution also expands Australia Post’s available recognition capabilities by at least 10%, through the addition of name and firm based matching, and by providing dynamic updates and corrections to postal address data via AVI’s Address Learning component.

AddressVision Inc., a Groupe Bull Company, provides software solutions to help organizations more accurately and efficiently organize, process, and deliver mail, whereby increased mail-piece effectiveness, and decreased processing times and costs are achieved.

Prime Vision is a leading supplier of mail and parcel automation solutions. Prime Vision’s parcel automation identification solutions suite, Parcel Vision, incorporates our unique OCR recognition technologies for handwritten and machine generated text and is fast becoming the de-facto high-performance standard in the global express-parcel market.

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Royal Mail's Special Delivery Next Day service – Postcomm's decision

Posted by | Mar 13, 2008 | |

In January 2008, Royal Mail made an application to Postcomm to limit the compensation available with the Special Delivery Next Day service, and included with that application a statement of agreement from Postwatch.

The document published today – Royal Mail’s proposed changes to its Special Delivery Next Day service. Postcomm’s decision (pdf, 77KB) – closes the consultation that Postcomm undertook in 2006 and sets out the regulator’s decision on Royal Mail’s 2008 application

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