Author: Archive

Rural post offices to be closed in Scotland

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

Proposals for the Highlands would see 18 branches closed and 11 replaced by reduced services.

The Post office said most residents in the area would see no change to their current service, or would be within a mile from an alternative branch.

The public has been asked for their views on the plans, which would see 180 Highland branches remain open.

Highland MSPs offered their support to communities which want to fight the proposals.

Proposals to axe 44 post offices in Glasgow, Argyll and Central Scotland have already been unveiled.

Plans for other parts of Scotland will be announced later in 2008.

Under the Highland plans, 11 outlets would be replaced by “outreach” operations which would see them become a mobile post office, or based in a shop, cafe or other business.

Another option would see a telephone service provide facilities such as parcel collection.

Labour Highlands and Islands MSP Peter Peacock said he was disappointed at the closure plans.

Sally Buchanan, the Post Office’s network development manager for Scotland, said: “Taking the decision to close any post office branch is always very difficult and we know will cause concern to many of our customers.

“We want to ensure that everyone who uses, relies on or has any concern with post office services is both fully aware of the changes we are proposing to meet UK Government requirements, and able to give views on how accessible services will be in the future.”

Up to 2,500 post offices will be axed across the UK, to put the network on a more viable footing.

The Highland proposals are open for consultation until 18 February.

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USPS plans to save USD 1B this year with automation

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

The U.S. Postal Service starts 2008 with ambitious goals for cost-cutting and modernization.

The agency last month unveiled a series of changes to its “road map,” the plan aimed at boosting its revenues over the next few years. The changes are driven, in part, by the 2006 Postal Accountability Enhancement Act, the first postal reform law in 36 years.
The plan sets an annual goal of USD 1 billion in cost reductions that the agency plans to achieve primarily by increasing automation. The cost reductions are necessary, said postal executive Linda Kingsley, even though the new law gives the Postal Service the flexibility to raise revenue by developing new products and raising prices for competitive services, such as package delivery.

“The competitive products are 10 percent of our revenue pie. Even if we double that, it still won’t do it,” said Kingsley, senior vice president for strategy and transformation. “And the likelihood of doubling our market share is pretty thin.”

The law also limits the Postal Service’s profits in market areas it dominates, such as first-class mail. The law caps postal rate increases for those products by tying them to the Consumer Price Index. The change is a benefit to consumers, particularly large mailers, but a challenge for USPS.

So the Postal Service hopes to lower costs by using automation to work smarter.
It has aggressively pursued a high-tech system called Intelligent Mail for tracking all classes of mail and identifying bad addresses. The program is in limited use by large mailers, and the Postal Service hopes it will be widespread by January 2009.

It also hopes to unveil the Flats Sequencing System in 2008. The equipment will sequence “flat mail” — magazines and large envelopes — much like letters, which are already automatically sequenced. That means mail carriers won’t have to spend time manually sequencing those items. Kingsley called it “the biggest thing we’re investing in” for the near future.

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Full privatisation of Maltapost

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

Maltapost is to be completely privatised as government announced that it will be selling its 40 per cent shareholding in the company.

The major shareholder after the privatisation of the postal services is complete will be Lombard Bank. Government will be selling 11 million, two hundred thousand shares at a nominal prices of EUR 0.25 cents each.

The offer is open until 18 January.

Maltapost chairman Dr Joseph Said said that contrary to what people think, Maltapost offers one of the most efficient services around Europe and was classified as the 16th most efficient postal services out of 40 countries surveyed.

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Business Direct Group sign International Licence with DHL (UK)

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

Business Direct Group plc has signed its first international licence of the ParcelXchange, with DHL Same Day Ireland.

The licence, which is for a six year term and with territorial exclusivity, is
for 40 ParcelXchanges in the newly-developed modular configuration of both box
sizes and number of columns, thereby addressing the specific needs of individual
locations. DHL Same Day will initially be supplied with 10 ParcelXchanges to be
located in major towns and cities throughout the Republic of Ireland, with the
roll-out beginning in the first quarter of 2008.

DHL Same Day plans to use the ParcelXchanges for in-night deliveries for field
service engineers and B2B sameday solutions. The ParcelXchanges will offer
higher levels of customer service whilst permitting consolidation of deliveries
and cost reduction in the supply chain.

Sean Moran, Director of DHL Same Day Ireland, stated, “The intelligent
ParcelXchange is the most exciting opportunity to happen in the in-night
real-time inventory management sector in Ireland for a long time.

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Local Consultations Start in the Highlands of Scotland on Changes to Post Office Network

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

Post Office Ltd today (8 January 2008) begins local public consultations in the Highlands of Scotland on changes to the Post Office network needed to meet UK Government requirements.

Proposals for the future provision of Post Office® services in the Highlands have been published today and will remain open for consultation for six weeks until 18 February 2008.

Under the Highlands Area Plan Proposals published today, 96.9 pct of the population will either see no change to their nearest branch, or will remain within one mile (by road distance) of an alternative branch.

Post Office Ltd is seeking views on the proposed future service provision in the Highlands of Scotland, including, in particular, views on access to Post Office® services, the accessibility of alternative branches to those proposed for closure and the appropriate provision of rural outreach services.

Of the 180 Post Office® branches which are proposed to remain open in the Highlands, 11 branches will be operated through a form of outreach service. The plan proposes a reduction of 18 branches from the present number of 198.

The Highands Area Plan includes proposed outreach services in rural communities in:

Kirkhill (Hosted)
Kessock (Partner)
Edderton (Hosted)
Kildary (Hosted)
Cawdor (As we have been unable to date to secure a Hosted site. A Mobile post office is now the proposed option)
Croy (Hosted)
Ardersier (Partner)
Farr (Hosted)
Latheron (Mobile)
Mid Clyth (Mobile)
Canisbay (Mobile)

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Business Direct Issues its First International ParcelXchange

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

Business Direct Group plc, the UK’s leading in-night distribution provider and operator of the ParcelXchange intelligent “drop-box” logistics solution, has signed its first international licence of the ParcelXchange, with DHL Same Day Ireland.

The licence, which is for a six year term and with territorial exclusivity, is for 40 ParcelXchanges in the newly-developed modular configuration of both box sizes and number of columns, thereby addressing the specific needs of individual locations. DHL Same Day will initially be supplied with 10 ParcelXchanges to be located in major towns and cities throughout the Republic of Ireland, with the roll-out beginning in the first quarter of 2008.

DHL Same Day plans to use the ParcelXchanges for in-night deliveries for field service engineers and B2B sameday solutions. The ParcelXchanges will offer higher levels of customer service whilst permitting consolidation of deliveries and cost reduction in the supply chain.

Sean Moran, Director of DHL Same Day Ireland, stated, “The intelligent ParcelXchange is the most exciting opportunity to happen in the in-night real-time inventory management sector in Ireland for a long time. “This is another example of DHL Same Day’s continuous investment in the business and this new service will ensure we are well positioned to constantly meet the growing needs of our customers”.

Business Direct’s worldwide ParcelXchange licensing business has been under development since February 2007, under the direction of Tim Houstoun, and was launched officially in October 2007 at the Post-Expo Exhibition in Barcelona. Considerable interest has been expressed by national Post Offices and major logistics companies in many countries around the world. Trials are currently taking place in mainland Europe and East Asia and discussions are being held with regard to several other territories.

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Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Unveils Free Online Service

Posted by | Jan 8, 2008 | |

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today announced plans to enhance DMAChoice, with the latest evolution of DMA’s Mail Preference Service (MPS), and remove the USD 1 verification fee online, to help consumers decide what catalogs they receive in their mailbox. The USD 1 charge had been an integral part of the MPS validation process.

For the first time, DMA will allow consumers to opt out of mailing
lists by individual brands for free online through DMAChoice, accessible to
consumers at http://www.dmachoice.org. In addition, consumers will be able to
select the catalogs they do wish to receive. DMAChoice has been enhanced to
provide consumers greater choice and will assure the catalog community with
the most reliability, security, authenticity, and control.

The service will allow consumers to choose individual brands and
catalogs they no longer want to receive through the website, an extension
of the service already available to consumers via mail.

DMAChoice is part of DMA’s broader initiative to meet consumer concerns over volume and choice in the receipt of mail. DMA recently announced its new Commitment to Consumer Choice (http://www.dmaccc.org/Home.aspx), a set of guidelines that apply to all DMA members using mail to communicate with consumers. The DMA Board also adopted the Green 15 (http://www.the-dma.org/Green15Toolkit/), a resolution calling all members to implement 15 business practices to deliver environmental benefits.

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Lost data disc found in depot (UK)

Posted by | Jan 7, 2008 | |

A missing computer disc holding medical records of 160,000 children has been found – stuck in a conveyor belt at a giant mail depot.

The CD, which had been lost in the post, was spotted by a worker at the TNT parcel office.

It is thought to have become lodged in the workings of a mechanical sorting system at the distribution firm’s main depot in Nine Elms, South West London.

A further EIGHT discs containing patient records are still unaccounted for.

But the find raises hopes that those – plus two others holding personal details of half the population – could be lying unnoticed, rather than in the hands of identity thieves.

TNT alerted police as soon as the disc was discovered on Saturday.

The CD vanished after being posted from City and Hackney Primary Care Trust to St Leonard’s Hospital in East London.

It was one of nine containing information on 168,000 patients which have gone missing from NHS trusts across the country.

The losses were revealed just before Christmas, following a Government-wide data security review.

That was sparked after Chancellor Alistair Darling admitted in the Commons that child benefit records of 25 million Britons had gone missing after being sent on CDs through insecure post by HM Revenue and Customs.

The Metropolitan Police serious and economic crime unit is still searching for them.

Senior officers believe they were probably mistakenly thrown away by a civil servant.

It also emerged that details of three million learner drivers had also been lost after being sent to the US.

There is no evidence any of the missing discs have fallen into the hands of fraudsters or blackmailers.

But their loss has raised concerns about the Government’s new Connecting for Health database.

The system, costing tens of billions of pounds, would hold medical.

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