Author: Archive

Poste Italiane long term IDR affirmed 'A+'; outlook stable – Fitch

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

Fitch Ratings said it affirmed Italian postal group Poste Italiane SpA’s long-term issuer default and senior unsecured ratings at ‘A+’ and short-term issuer default at ‘F1’ with a stable outlook.
The ratings reflect Poste Italiane’s strong links with the Italian State, rated ‘AA-‘ with stable outlook.
Fitch said in its view, the strong links stem from the State’s 89.5 pct ownership of Poste Italiane, the large range of state-related tasks performed by Poste Italiane, its role in public sector funding, the contractual relationship between the two as defined in the unsigned Contratto di Programma and the fact that Poste Italiane is the largest employer in Italy.
The postal services activities remain loss-making and are subsidised by the profitable financial services activities. However, the attributable operating loss narrowed in FY 2006 to 4 mln eur from a 227 mln eur loss in FY 2005 on improved efficiency and automation, and an increase — albeit delayed — in domestic mail tariffs in April 2006, Fitch said.

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Korea Post Tops Brand Rankings

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

Korea Post beat private logistics companies by large margins to be named as the best package delivery service in Korea for the fourth consecutive year.

The Korean Management Association (KMA) announced Tuesday that the government post service scored 596.7 points in its annual Brand Power index, far ahead of private firms such as Hanjin (499.5 points), Korea Express (441.2 points) and Hyundai Express (413.4 points). The KMA report is considered the most credible consumer survey index in Korea.

“It’s the trust of the people that gave us the honor of being first for four straight years,” said Jung Kyung-won, president of Korea Post. “We will continue to expand our logistics infrastructure to raise our national competitiveness and service to the public.”

Korea’s door-to-door package delivery service market has seen extensive competition between the public postal service and private firms such as Hanjin, CJ and GS. Korea Post has excelled in customer satisfaction with the introduction of customer-oriented services such as weekend delivery, morning delivery and airport delivery, the survey said.

This year, Korea Post is also seeking to establish a next-generation logistics system called u-POST (ubiquitous post), based on the synchronization of information with mobile technologies, radio communications and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. It has been cooperating with the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute to develop an RFID-based mail operations system.

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Dutch aim for postal liberalisation on July 1

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

The Dutch government hopes the postponed liberalisation of the mail market, originally due in January, will come into force on July 1 depending on developments in Germany and Dutch labour negotiations.

Dutch Junior Economy Minister Frank Heemskerk said in a letter to parliament published late on Monday he hoped to have a clearer view on both matters by the middle of April.

“I hope it can then be concluded, taking into account the necessary caution, that it remains possible for the new postal law to come into effect on July 1, 2008,” he said.

The Netherlands decided in December to postpone the full opening of its mail market partly because of fears that a German minimum wage for postal workers impedes competition there after Deutsche Post lost its remaining monopoly on Jan. 1.

Dominant Dutch mail company TNT had hoped to expand in Germany but says it cannot compete effectively with Deutsche Post because the minimum wage per hour is too high.

TNT has sued the German state at a court in Berlin and Heemskerk said he would report back to parliament on an expected ruling in early April after a hearing on March 7.

He also noted Dutch postal companies were due to hold talks with workers in March about labour conditions in the Netherlands and said he would follow these talks closely.

The FNV trade union says the Netherlands should only open its postal market to full competition when all workers get minimum wages and have labour contracts.

TNT’s workers have employment contracts, but rivals privately-owned Sandd and Deutsche Post’s Dutch unit Selekt Mail usually do not offer contracts and pay postal workers by the number of items delivered.

Rabo Securities said in a note it did not expect the government would meet the July 1 date as the outcome of the German court case was highly uncertain and it doubted whether Dutch unions would reach a deal in time.

“From sources in the market, we understand that negotiations are progressing slowly. Especially the challengers Sandd and SelektMail are unwilling to sign a collective labour agreement, as long as there is no clarity on the liberalisation,” it said.

TNT has the remaining monopoly for letters up to 50 grammes in the Netherlands, estimated to be worth about 1 billion euros (USD 1.5 billion) in 2007.

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Consultation Starts On Changes To Post Office Network – Post Office Ltd announces plans for the Northern and Western Isles

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

Post Office Ltd today opened a six-week local public consultation on its Area Plan for the Northern and Western Isles.

In line with the criteria and factors set by the UK Government in its response document, DTI, The Post Office Network, Government Response to Public Consultation in May 2007 (www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page36024.html) – the Area Plan for the islands proposes future provision of Post Office® services through a total network of 113 branches across the area, resulting in the closure of 19 existing branches.

Post Office Ltd proposes to close 13 branches in the Western isles, mainly on the island of Lewis and 6 branches in Orkney and Shetland.

Under the proposals, 97 pct of the area’s population will either see no change to their nearest branch, or will remain within one mile (by road distance) of an alternative branch.

The detailed Area Plan proposal for the Northern and Western Isles is now available.

The UK Government has already undertaken a 12 week national consultation before reaching a decision to reduce the UK wide network of Post Office® branches by up to 2500 from its current level of over 14000 while continuing to provide funding to support a more sustainable network in the future. The proposals now published support the national accessibility criteria introduced by the UK Government.

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TNT's profit rises faster than turnover in Romania

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

In 2007, TNT saw its net income rise by over 40% on 2006, after turnover increased by around 30%.

In 2006, TNT Romania’s net income reached 4m euros, therefore against an increase of over 40% the final figure could top 5.6m euros, while against a 30% advance, turnover could exceed 30m euros.

“The results are in line with TNT’s international strategy of focusing on the operations where solid performances are achieved, and where TNT has gained a leading position,” said Bogdan Enache, general manager of TNT Romania.

With regard to TNT’s revenues, international deliveries account for the largest percentage, with DHL and UPS as the company’s main rivals on this segment, while on the segment of internal delivery services, the main competitors are Cargus, Fan Courier, Curiero and TCE Logistica.

Last year, the overall value of the courier services market was estimated at 180m euros, while forecasts for 2008 point to 200m euros, according to TNT representatives.

“We don’t suggest a slowdown on the courier market, but rather a maturing market. This year, we expect a positive, balanced trend, and an average growth rate of 20-25%,” Enache explained.

Such a stable trend, he added, is a characteristic of neighbouring countries that joined the EU in 2004, and depends on the sustained development of the business environment.

“In recent years internal deliveries have outpaced international ones, however, considering the overall volume of deliveries the fact that growth rate differences have started to narrow is significant. Many domestic operators have been talking about rising cost pressure, considering the development of an efficient infrastructure is also necessary,” added Enache.

International courier services account for around 40% of the overall market, and the tendency is for long-term sustained growth.

“The new opportunities generated by the impact of the tighter commercial relationships with EU countries, as well as the development of several large investments and production centres mean that we anticipate a continued upward trend on this segment,” added the TNT representative.

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Wall Street’s mobile teams begin on-site disbursement of workers’ salaries

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

The service, which comes with no extra charge to the workers, is available to companies that have signed agreements with Emirates Post to have their workers’ salaries paid out through mobile teams of Wall Street Exchange.

The Wall Street teams visit designated venues, usually workers’ accommodation sites, on fixed days to disburse the salaries, using laptops and GPRS to enable workers to transfer money to their home countries through Wall Street’s large network of correspondent banks across the globe, including South Asia, for a competitive fee.

The worker can either transfer money to a beneficiary bank account or send cash within minutes using other available money transfer channels, including Instant Cash and Western Union.

Abdul Basit Al Suwaidi, CEO – UAE, Wall Street Exchange said:

“Wall Street is among the first companies to offer this value addition of salary disbursal at the doorstep of workers. We have signed agreements with several companies, involving thousands of workers. The first experience of distributing salaries through our mobile teams was completed in February with a success rate of 99.9%. The response from the companies and the workers has been overwhelming.”

Companies signing agreements with Emirates Post for enabling the salary payout of workers enjoy several benefits and advantages, including convenient locations, extended timings, timely payment and, most importantly, the facility of transferring money without going through the trouble of visiting an exchange company.

The Wall Street mobile team service is available to companies with over 500 workers.

In the case of companies with less than 500 workers, they will have to collect their salary from designated post offices.

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InfoPrint enables transactional mailers to implement USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode (U.S)

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh announced a new solution that will enable large mailers to continue to receive postal discounts on automated mailings by replacing current Postnet barcodes with the new Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB). This is a mailing solution that allows transactional mailers to make these barcode replacements without changing their base applications or over spraying finished envelopes to continue to benefit from the automated discounts from the United States Postal Service (USPS).

IMB is being introduced to improve mail tracking and give mailers continuous updates on the location and status of each mailpiece. This tracking system not only applies during the delivery process to the customer, but also responds with initial entry data if a return service is requested.

Large mailers, including financial, healthcare, telecommunications and insurance companies, currently receive a discount on each automated mailpiece sent ranging from USD 0.03 to USD 0.23. Without upgrading to support IMB by the time specified by the USPS, these companies will no longer be eligible to receive their postage discounts, which could exceed USD 1M per month for many large companies. The date currently proposed for the upgrade to IMB to be implemented is May 2009, concurrent with the next annual USPS price change. This will include separate prices for the full-service and basic option and the Postnet Barcode will remain eligible for an automation price until May 2010.

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Amtrak Strengthens Management Team

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

Amtrak has appointed three new directors to its Operating Board as it gears up for the next phase of development. They will all report to Alan Jones, Amtrak’s Managing Director.

Phil Whitlock has been appointed IT Director, a new position created to reflect Amtrak’s continuing investment in state of the art technology, ensuring delivery of the best customer service. The latest developments include e-billing, credit card bookings and the phasing in of more than 1,000 new scanners for drivers and depots as part of its leading edge track and trace capability. The new on-line booking system, in partnership with NetDespatch, has just passed 10 million bookings.

Joe Dudley, who has recently returned to Amtrak after a spell at NetDespatch, has been appointed as Deputy IT Director.

The Sales and Commercial teams will be strengthened with the addition of Michael Hawkins as Commercial Director and Tony Hammond as Sales Director,. Michael has a significant track record in the parcels business, having worked for UPS for many years and more recently was with DHL Express. Tony has had a successful career in Royal Mail and TNT and was, until recently, Sales Director of DHL Mail.

As well as investing significantly in IT, Amtrak has restructured its depot network to make it more efficient, re-organised its trunking schedule, improved the efficiency of its C&D fleet, taken delivery of hundreds of new vehicles and greatly improved customer service.

Gerry Ruffell, who took on the role of Commercial Director when the business was acquired, will oversee the introduction of Tony and Michael into the business before moving on to other challenges.

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