Author: Archive

Postcomm consults on licence application for Mr Aaron Leitner (trading as Post 123) (UK)

Posted by | Feb 27, 2008 | |

Postcomm today began a 30-day consultation on the proposed grant of a postal operator’s licence to Mr Aaron Leitner (trading as Post 123).

Under the licensing framework that took effect from 1 January 2006, and was amended in January 2008, the licence would:

– allow Mr Leitner to provide all types of postal service;
– be issued for a rolling ten year period; and
– require the company to comply with copdes of practice on mail integrity (safety and security of the mail) and common operational procedures (designed to ensure the multi-operator market works well in practice).

The consultation notice and proposed licence can be found on the Post 123 consultation page.

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Swiss Post statement: Financing not guaranteed for basic service

Posted by | Feb 27, 2008 | |

Swiss Post is not pleased with today’s decision to lower the monopoly limit within a short time to 50 g. A reduction of this type also requires a simultaneous adjustment of the operating conditions. Furthermore, this overly hasty procedure contradicts the current stance taken by the Federal Council and Parliament.

PostFinance’s scope limited

Swiss Post is sorry that the Federal Council has not taken the further development of PostFinance’s activities into consideration. This limits the earnings power of Swiss Post and is detrimental to the Swiss economy, as the 43 billion francs in customer deposits cannot be invested in the Swiss SME and mortgage market. Swiss Post is continuing to call for expansion of its activities so that PostFinance can offer mortgages and loans in its own name.

Fund unsuitable

Swiss Post wishes to continue providing a good, nationwide basic service in future. This constitutes an important basis for Switzerland’s economy and the whole population. The Federal Council wants to adhere to the current level of the basic service but is taking away Swiss Post’s financing basis by abolishing the monopoly. In order to finance Switzerland’s extensive basic service we need the appropriate resources. Without such a residual monopoly, this would have to be downsized. The alternatives – a fund to be set up primarily by Swiss Post or compensation to be paid by the Confederation – are not suitable instruments. Swiss Post hopes that the consultation will produce a more balanced result.

Swiss Post needs greater flexibility

The Federal Council’s draft postal law limits the entrepreneurial scope of Swiss Post excessively. It must be able to organize itself along entrepreneurial lines ahead of full market liberalization. A number of studies show that both the basic service and the company itself would otherwise suffer and structural financing shortfalls would arise. This is why Swiss Post is calling for fewer restrictions from the politicians. The draft law does not provide for a level playing field, even if this is what the Federal Council intends. In the specific proposal, Swiss Post will ensure that it is not disadvantaged in comparison with private-sector competitors. In view of the rapid opening-up of the market to competition, the Federal Council’s proposal to introduce collective employment solutions for the respective sectors will have to be implemented quickly.

Discussion about the purpose of liberalization

In its press release, the Federal Council did not mention a reason for liberalizing the postal market. Previously it justified this by citing trends in the EU, with which Switzerland has to keep pace. In contrast to many EU countries, customers in Switzerland are very satisfied with the services that Swiss Post provides, and, according to the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication, Swiss Post’s prices are appropriate. Swiss Post thus believes there is still a considerable need for more discussion regarding the complete liberalization anticipated by the proposed law.

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Amtrak taps 10 million online bookings through NetDespatch

Posted by | Feb 27, 2008 | |

Amtrak and NetDespatch are celebrating after reaching a landmark 10 million online bookings. Amtrak customer taps4less.com reached the milestone while booking its daily shipment of bathroom supplies, to be delivered by Amtrak on a next day service nationwide.

Amtrak’s business has been revolutionised by its Online Collections, Despatch and International services supplied by ‘Software as a Service’ specialist NetDespatch. Like many other Amtrak customers, taps4less.com benefits from a fully electronic system for booking, pre-labelling and tracking. T aps4less.com ship s tens of thousands of parcels a year, and the NetDespatch Velocity service has proved vital to optimising its business by eliminat ing the keying in of shipments , cutting out virtually all paperwork and transcription errors .

One of the biggest benefits brought to Amtrak by NetDespatch is the ease with which their customer s can link their order processing and warehouse systems to the NetDespatch servers via the Internet. When taps4less.com found it could integrate so easily, the company immediately connected its own sales ordering system, so that o rder details only need to be entered once; usually by the customer online.

Reaching 10 million online booking is a real landmark. Our customers are always very enthusiastic about Online Despatch and also Connector, our easy web integration tool. We can thank NetDespatch for all their innovation and hard work delivering what is a clear market leader in online technology,” comments Gerry Ruffell, Commercial Director of Amtrak.

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UPS Canada helps expand largest global Green Fleet

Posted by | Feb 27, 2008 | |

PS Canada announced it will be rolling out 139 additional cleaner-burning, propane delivery trucks. The majority of these vehicles will be deployed in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta and the rest distributed between British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The propane vehicles are joining roughly 600 propane trucks already operating in Canada. The addition of these vehicles means more than a third of UPS Canada’s 2,000 package delivery vehicles will run on low-carbon fuel.

The 139 new propane trucks are expected to reduce UPS’s carbon dioxide emissions by a total of 254 metric tonnes per year, the equivalent weight of 80 UPS trucks. This would be a 35 per cent improvement compared to conventional gas engines. Additionally, particulate matter emitted from vehicles will be virtually eliminated.

The newly added propane-powered vehicles feature the latest technology in clean-burning propane engines. Propane vehicles emit about one-third fewer reactive organic gases than gasoline-fuelled vehicles. Nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions are 20 per cent and 60 per cent less, respectively, than conventional vehicles.

UPS’s global alternative-fuel fleet now stands at 1,629 vehicles – the largest such private fleet in the transportation industry – and includes compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane and electric and hybrid electric vehicles. UPS is also working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on a hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicle.

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China’s currency sprints into the fast lane in UK Post Office bureaux de change to meet rocketing demand

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

Rocketing demand for the Chinese yuan suggests that China may be making the leap from a niche to a mainstream holiday destination, according to Post Office Travel Services.

In response, the UK’s largest provider of foreign currency is gearing up for the Olympic Games by making the yuan available on demand at its major bureaux de change branches.

Over the past three years Post Office bureaux de change across the UK have tracked a growth in sales for Chinese yuan of more than 337 per cent. This trend tallies with the experience of tour operators, who report a quadrupling of China bookings in the same period.

With the Beijing Olympic Games now less than six months away and interest in holidays to China reaching a peak, the Post Office expects demand to mushroom during 2008. It has responded by adding Chinese yuan to its top tier of currencies, available on demand in 1,400 Post Office® bureaux de change branches nationwide.

China also looks to be one of 2008’s better value destinations for UK holidaymakers. According to the Post Office, sterling’s drop in value of less than eight per cent against the Chinese yuan compares favourably with falls of over 13 per cent against the euro and other major currencies.

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Opinions over GBP 4.5m Royal Mail bonuses

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

Royal Mail bosses received more than GBP 4.5 million in bonuses last year – enough to prevent the closure of dozens of post offices.

Royal Mail accounts released yesterday show that Adam Crozier, the chief executive, was paid GBP 1.3 million in salaries and bonuses in the financial year 2006/07.

Overall, the company’s board received GBP 3.1million in “long-term incentive plans” on top of their GBP 4.1 million remuneration, of which GBP 2.5 million was salaries and the rest other bonuses.

The payouts prompted unions to ask why senior executives were getting such large bonuses while post offices were being closed and sub-postmasters were losing their jobs.

Earlier this week, Royal Mail announced a six-week consultation on plans to close 169 post offices in London by the summer. The move comes after a string of closures in rural areas.

Critics pointed out that the bonus figure was equivalent to a GBP 26,000 subsidy for each London branch facing closure.

Campaigners have said that depriving villages of rural post offices will cut a vital lifeline, particularly for elderly people.

But the Government says many offices are not profitable enough to justify a large subsidy from the taxpayer.

A spokesman for the Post Office said: “This is not simply about saving running costs – the problem facing Post Office branches is that there are too many chasing too few customers and too little income.”

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Union wants delay in opening up Dutch post market

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

The Netherlands should open its postal market to full competition only when all workers in the sector get minimum wages and have labour contracts, a senior official at Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten said on Tuesday.

“We do not want workers to pay for an open market,” Jan de Jong, an FNV Bondgenoten director responsible for road transport and haulage affairs, told Reuters in an interview.
“At this moment, lots of postal workers do not have minimum wages. Workers at Selekt Mail and Sandd earn less than 40 percent of minimum wages. They only work two, three days a week. There should be a level playing field for everybody,” he said.

The Dutch government postponed the full opening of the market, due in January, in part because of the introduction of a minimum wage for postal workers in Germany, which it said impedes competition and where TNT had hoped to expand its operations.

It also cited ongoing talks on labour conditions for postmen in the Netherlands. The economy ministry is expected to update Parliament by this week on the situation.
Dominant mail company TNT NV has the remaining monopoly for letters up to 50 grammes, with the market estimated to be worth about 1 billion euros in 2007.

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

This situation should only be tolerated in the short term until the companies are able to compete more effectively with TNT, said de Jong.

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Sagawa Express to develop and introduce a package delivery service with CO2 emissions credit with cooperation from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

Sagawa Express to develop and introduce a package delivery service with CO2 emissions credit with cooperation from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation to contribute to 6% GHG emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

We at Sagawa Express Co., Ltd. will develop and introduce a new service called “Hikyaku Express with CO2 Emissions Credit” with cooperation from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. This is the industry’s first attempt to contribute to the target of a 6% greenhouse gas emissions reduction that the Japanese government is required to achieve under the Kyoto Protocol, by taking advantage of door-to-door delivery services that have increasingly penetrated into the everyday life of the general public.

The Hikyaku Express with CO2 Emissions Credit is a service that enables voluntary donation of a carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions credit to the Japanese government by equally sharing part of the cost for purchasing the CO2 emissions credit between Sagawa Express and consumers who use our parcel delivery services when purchasing goods from mail-order businesses with whom we are in partnership.

Furthermore, Sagawa Express will launch a campaign to help stop global warming on April 1, 2008 for our individual customers who wish to contribute to the government’s 6% greenhouse gas reduction when using our parcel delivery service, in which a credit of emissions equivalent to that necessary for transporting each package will be donated automatically by ordering the collection and delivery of a package through our website.

Sagawa Express will offer the Hikyaku Express with CO2 Emissions Credit service by purchasing a CO2 emissions credit (10,000 tons from a wind power project in India) through Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation under a greenhouse gas reduction project approved by the UN.

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