Author: Archive

GSI acquires Zendor.com

Posted by | Jan 7, 2008 | |

US e-commerce provider GSI buys UK fulfilment and e-commerce vendor Zendor.com at knock-down price.

US E-commerce provider GSI Commerce has finalised its acquisition of Manchester-based provider of fulfilment, customer care and e-commerce solutions Zendor.com and now glories in the ridiculously long URL www.zendorgsicommerce.com.

With the acquisition, GSI grows its global e-commerce partner base to approximately 85. GSI will acquire Zendor.com for approximately USD 7.9 million in cash, about GBP 4 million in real money and a bargain considering the size of Zendor and the nature of its clients and it’s 2007 turnover of GBP 3.8 million.

Zendor.com was formed in 1999 as a subsidiary of parent company N Brown Group, a business with over 140 years experience in catalogue and shopping. Zendor’s client list before the sale included Woolworths, River Island and Early Learning Centre and the just announced deal with Peacocks.

Zendor operates two fulfilment centres with approximately 245,000 square feet of space and a brand new 50-seat customer care centre that opened in September of 2007 and it claimed at launch time that there was “capacity to reach 150-seats for Christmas peak trading should client growth and new business development meet company expectations.” In addition the company employs approximately 100 employees.

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Growth Fueled by Solid Performance of Freight and Logistics Products.

Posted by | Jan 7, 2008 | |

Aramex reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2007. Aramex revenues rose 25 pct to AED 451.7 million, climbing from AED 360.8 million for the same period last year.

Net profits for the third quarter of 2007 rose by 14 pct to AED 26.0 million, from AED 22.7 million for the same period last year, while net profits for the first nine months of 2007 increased by 31 pct to AED 89.4 million, from AED 68.5 million for the same period last year.

Aramex revenues for the first nine months of 2007 rose by 34 pct to AED 1,289 million from AED 961 million for the same period last year. These results include one time costs of AED 1.8 million of an investment write-off and tax expenses.

“We had solid double digit growth in all our products, especially our freight and logistics services. The gulf region continues to give us very solid results and we are witnessing consistent profitability from our Two-Way acquisition in Europe.” commented Fadi Ghandour, Founder & CEO of Aramex.

In addition to significant growth in freight and logistics, the company also demonstrated strong results in the growing document management sector through Infofort; Aramex’s document management arm and a market leader in the Middle East.

1 USD = 3.67320 AED

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India Post and Emirates Post launch 'International Express Money Order' through postal network

Posted by | Jan 6, 2008 | |

Mr. I.M.G. Khan, Director General of India Post and Mr. Ibrahim Karam Ali Bin Karam, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Post, recently signed an agreement in Dubai, putting in place a system that will allow UAE residents to transfer money speedily to any part of India through India’s postal network, the largest in the world.

Customers sending money to India through Emirates Post offices will have two options. They can either have the money delivered to the addressee’s residence, or ask the addressee to collect the money from any authorized post office in India. On the other hand, Money Orders sent from India through India Post will be payable at post offices in the UAE.

The agreement stipulates that a single Money Order issued by Emirates Post for payment in India shall not exceed USD 2,500 or its equivalent. It also lays down that only 12 Money Orders addressed to one beneficiary will be allowed in a calendar year. Amounts of less than 50,000 Indian Rupees will be paid in cash, and those exceeding 50,000 Indian Rupees will be payable by cheque.

In India, the electronic Money Orders payable at post office counters will be delivered the same day at main post offices. In the case of Money Orders payable at addresses destination, the delivery will be within two days through the IFS network. Outside the IS network, the delivery will take place within five days.

If the money is sent from India to the UAE, the amount can be collected the same day at Emirates Post offices.

The IFS-based International Express Money Order is a reliable, adaptable and easy-to-use tool and can be installed in the remotest areas of the world. The UPU anticipates that financial services could generate up to 50 per cent of a country’s postal revenue, and by promoting IFS, the dominance of big players could be reduced, thus offering customers, especially migrant workers, a cost-effective system of money transfer.

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FedEx to meet with IRS

Posted by | Jan 5, 2008 | |

FedEx will meet with the Internal Revenue Service audit team in the spring to discuss a tax assessment regarding the classification of owner-operators at FedEx Ground.

On Dec. 20, the IRS tentatively concluded that FedEx Ground’s pick-up-and-delivery owner-operators should be reclassified as employees for federal employment tax purposes. The IRS indicated that it anticipates assessing tax and penalties of USD 319 million plus interest for 2002. Similar issues are under audit by the IRS for calendar years 2004 through 2006.

FedEx said Dec. 21 that it would vigorously defend its position that the drivers are independent contractors. On Jan. 3, the carrier said it is preparing an initial response for a meeting with the audit team. The company said it expects final resolution to take a long time.

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Postal workers return in Oxfordshire

Posted by | Jan 5, 2008 | |

Postal workers in Oxfordshire returned to work this morning but union leaders are warning it could be Friday before any mail is delivered.

Communication Workers Union representative Bob Cullen said there was a backlog of “millions and millions” of letters and parcels at the Oxford Mail Centre in Cowley.

As a result, staff who would normally be delivering mail have been called in to help with the mass sorting operation.

Mr Cullen said: “The problem is that it is not just mail backed up in the system – the public and businesses have been told to hold back until today and there is going to be a deluge of new mail.”

Meanwhile, postal workers in the Liverpool and Glasgow areas refused to go back to work today and there are fears the wildcat action could spread nationally.

The situation is also likely to remain chaotic next week with strike action staggered across the service on different days.

Talks over pay, jobs and pensions remain deadlocked, although the CWU claims there has been significant movement.

But Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier fuelled the flames by claiming Royal Mail staff was paid 25 per cent more than workers in rival post firms.

He added that other companies in the business were 40 per cent more efficient, which is why the Royal Mail wanted a long-term solution to the current dispute to help it compete more effectively.

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Canada Post: Judge OKs class action suit over postal charges

Posted by | Jan 5, 2008 | |

Canada Post could be required to return tens of millions of dollars in shipping charges to thousands of businesses as a result of a recent Ontario court ruling.

Superior Court Justice Joan Lax certified a class-action proceeding initiated by Ottawa-based Lee Valley Tools Ltd., which has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with the Crown corporation about its charges for shipping parcels to customers.

The ruling noted there are more than 57,000 commercial clients that could have a claim against Canada Post, if its billing practices for parcels are found to violate the federal Weights and Measures Act.

For the past seven years, Canada Post has charged customers to ship parcels based on the greater charge of the actual weight or the “volumetric weight” of an item. This is so that the charges on lightweight yet bulky items cover the cost of transportation.

Since 2003, the Crown corporation has used a device known as a “cubiscan,” which Lee Valley has alleged can overstate the volume of objects, especially irregularly shaped parcels, by as much as 20 per cent.

Commercial clients are required to pre-pay and weigh their products and if Canada Post determines that the total was underestimated, it levies an addition charge. Until January 2007, it did not refund any overpayments to customers.

John Caines, a spokesman for Canada Post, described the class-action certification as a “procedural” ruling. “We deal with all of our customers fairly and in the same way,” Mr. Caines said. “This is the way the industry measures parcels.” He added that Canada Post is the only company now issuing credits for overpayments.

Enforcement of the Weights and Measures Act is the responsibility of Measurement Canada, part of Industry Canada. Alan Johnston, president of Measurement Canada, responded in December 2005 that the relevant section of the Act did not define a “proscribed limit of error” for shipping charges, so it could not be enforced.

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La Poste entrusts Bull to host its digital postmark application

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

La Poste entrusts Bull to host its digital postmark application.
The French Post Office Group (La Poste) has renewed the outsourcing contract for its digital postmark application for the second year running.

Customer issue

The digital equivalent of the traditional postmark, the digital postmark enables proof of an electronic event to be set up and managed (issuing identity, date and time stamping, data integrity), this proof being legally upholdable to a third party. In essence, the postmark uses specially adapted cryptographic mechanisms to enable basic questions about an electronic event to be answered: WHO initiated the event? WHEN did the event’s author create, see, sign, receive, etc? WHAT is the content of the digital event?

The ‘Digital postmark’, with its signature validation authority and date stamping authority functionality, enables the French Post Office to position itself in France as trusted third party in digital data exchanges.

Bull provided

Developed by Bull, this application is hosted and monitored 24/7 at Bull’s high security production centre. It is based on a replicated architecture distributed across ten Bull NovaScale Universal servers. It was designed in n-tier mode (portal, applications server, database server) and a J2EE environment built around the JOnAS application server developed by the OW2/ObjectWeb consortium, dedicated to Open Source middleware. The application conforms to DPM (Digital Postmark) standards drawn up by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency responsible for standardizing exchanges between the different postal networks.

Bull’s contribution fulfills the requirements of La Poste:
• Very high service quality
• Capacity to handle a rapid rise in throughput
• Minimal timescales for restoring systems in the event of a major incident.

Web Site http://www.laposte.fr

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Hermes Logistik eyes acquisition in Spain

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

Hermes Logistik is considering an acquisition in Spain and potentially elsewhere to strengthen its European B2C network, according to the company’s management.

Managing director Hanjo Schneider told the Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung (DVZ) that in Spain the Otto Group subsidiary was seeking “a solution in the next 12 – 18 months”. The Spanish B2C market is currently at an early stage of development, according to experts.

Hermes currently covers five countries, representing about 85 pct of the European B2C market, through its own network, Schneider said. The UK and France are served by Otto Group subsidiaries Parcelnet and Mondial Relay, while Hermes started operations in Austria in summer 2007.

In Italy, Hermes bought a 30 pct holding in Porta a Porta, which is majority-owned by Swiss Post, in October 2007. The Swiss postal group, however, might be prepared to split off the Italian company’s parcels distribution business, and sell it to Hermes completely, whilst retaining the mail and logistics activities, the DVZ reported.

Hermes currently uses partners to deliver to other European destinations. TNT covers the Benelux area, Swiss Post covers Switzerland, and DPD is used for all other markets.

French sister company Mondial Relay last year announced plans to expand into Belgium, Spain and Portugal, while British operator Parcelnet grew with the acquisition of the Redcats courier network last spring.

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