Author: Archive

Special Delivery: Bringing SMBs into the Global Shipping Network

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

“Each carrier has tools to make international shipping easier. DHL calls its ‘Trade Automation Services.’ UPS’ international tool is named ‘TradeAbility.’ FedEx has its Trade Network. You will have to register in order to access these tools, and some carriers charge a transaction fee for providing a service,” Mark Taylor, chief logistics officer at RedRoller.com told the E-Commerce Times.

The parcel carriers have been a huge factor driving the globalization of commerce, Taylor agreed.

“First, they see this as a high priority in their own growth and success,” he continued. “We can see this from some public statements from their CEOs. Mike Eskew, chairman and chief executive officer of United Parcel Service informs us, ‘Most of our 8 million daily customers at UPS are small businesses.

It turns out that small businesses make up 97 percent of all exporters and nearly 40 percent of exports’ total value, statistics pointed out by FedEx CEO Fred Smith, said Taylor.

“Second, international shipping is where their bread is buttered. Donald Broughton, an analyst who follows both UPS and FedEx for A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis, tells us ‘Direct international is 23 percent of revenue for FedEx, but it’s the fastest growing part of their business, and it’s almost 20 percent for UPS. FedEx is the largest air freight carrier in Asia and UPS is neck-and-neck with DHL in Europe,'” he said.

UPS provides package delivery services to 21 of the top 25 e-tailers in the U.S. as ranked by Internet Retailer magazine, according to Donna Barrett, the company’s technology public relations manager. Tracking requests on UPS.com along average 15 million a day.

There have been more than 25,000 distinct integrations within the last 18 months of UPS Online Tools, which retailers can integrate into their Web sites, Barrett told the E-Commerce Times. These have enabled more than 748,000 individual users to access tracking, time-in-transit, rating and shipping information.

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Italy's post office

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

Now might not be a great time to launch a financial services stock, but Italy’s national postal service — led by its booming banking unit — is gearing up for a float.

Having rewritten its history as a lethargic administration that could barely be trusted to deliver a letter in time, the post office was valued this year by investment banks at as much as 15 billion euros, said Sarmi. He declined to say which banks had provided the estimate.

That would make it Italy’s third-largest retail bank by market value at current share prices and is 50 percent higher than the estimated value Sarmi cited for the postal group more than a year ago.

And while billions have been wiped off banks’ market value globally by their loans to ‘subprime’ borrowers, analysts say the post office — which in a float would offer shares to both domestic and foreign investors — is a banking story that has succeeded by betting on the simple and safe.

Key to Poste Italiane’s business model has been a strategy of using its 14,000 outlets across Italy to offer bank accounts and loans, exploiting its reputation as a conservative player that has catered to pensioners and families for decades.

In 2006, about 67 percent of Poste Italiane’s revenue came from ventures outside mail.
“It’s not an exciting business but it’s profitable,” said Vetulli.

Poste Italiane has joined a broader trend of postal groups diversifying out of the low-margin mail business into more lucrative segments, as the rise of the Internet and email challenge the concept of traditional mail.

With banking also using electronic networks, postal groups have found it relatively easy to branch out — capitalising on numerous outlets that give them a market position other retail operators can only dream of, and an image of reliability.

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Poste Italiane and Bull – case study

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

Customer issue

The Italian Post wanted to upgrade the IT infrastructure and re-organise the 14,000 post offices, decentralized over the country, to better respond to the new market requirements. The main business issues were:

– Delivery of customer services was very limited, causing end users dissatisfaction.
– Employee productivity did not meet the objectives.
– Late and insufficient information reporting

The Italian Post objective was to equip each post office with dedicated workstations able to run initially the accounting and mail/parcels management applications.

Bull provided

Bull was in charge of the global Project Management, being responsible of the logistic operations including reception, delivery and deployment of the IT equipment to the Post Offices network. In particular Bull was responsible for :
– Site preparation, including electrical equipment supply and installations
– LAN cabling projects for the 14,000 offices
– Hot staging HW/SW of MVS desktops
– Equipment roll out including agency PC’s, 14,000 monitors, 1,300 ZDS servers, and 14,000 printers
– Deployment of the client-server architecture, based on Windows NT

Web Site – http://www.poste.it

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TNT to offer print management after TDG tie-up

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

TNT Post is offering print management services to its clients after signing a 12-month agreement with TDG Group.

The private-sector rival to Royal Mail will use the tie-up with the London-based firm to offer end-to-end print management services, a creative review process and environmental consultancy to direct mail clients. It will also use TDG’s services for its own print.

TNT’s agreement makes it the latest postal operator to offer some form of print management. Most notable among those who have moved into the market is Deutsche Post World Net, which in February 2006 bought a controlling stake in Williams Lea.

TNT Post has recently launched an initiative to cut its carbon emissions and TDG is hoping it can help, having recently been awarded ISO 14001 environmental management accreditation. It also has the ISO 9001 quality management stamp.

“With this agreement, we can advise TNT’s clients on how to be greener and open up a creative delivery to ensure they maximise their demands,” said Tom Gorman, TDG managing director. He added that he hoped to increase turnover from GBP 6m to GBP 8m in 2008.

A spokeswoman for TNT Post said the firm had worked with TDG in the past and the renewed link was “a great opportunity” for the firm. The group had formalised the relationship after TDG, which has recently launched a green audit for suppliers, stepped up its environmental focus.

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UPU: A good year for the Quality of Service Fund (QSF)

Posted by | Jan 4, 2008 | |

In 2007, the Quality of Service Fund (QSF) financed 75 projects, totalling 15.8 million USD, in more than 50 countries. This was the first time that the Fund, created in 2001, actually spent more money than it received. At its last meeting, in October, the QSF Board of Trustees adopted projects in China (system for translating and improving the delivery of international mail), Bangladesh (installation of X-ray detectors to improve mail security), Romania (mobile offices set up in rural areas) and other countries. A total of 21 very diverse projects amounting to 8.4 million USD were approved recently, including a regional project that will enable nine Latin American countries to set up a cost accounting programme.

The Board of Trustees also awarded certificates to Belarus, El Salvador, Fiji, Jordan, Kenya, Mozambique, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda for achieving their QSF project objectives and improving postal service quality in their countries.

The QSF was created by the UPU to finance projects aimed at improving postal service quality in developing countries. All member countries, except for the least developed countries, contribute to the Fund through an increase in terminal dues payments.

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FedEx Corp. Issues Update on Status of Tentative IRS Assessment Regarding Worker Classification at FedEx Ground

Posted by | Jan 3, 2008 | |

FedEx Corp. today announced that, in response to a tentative assessment by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on December 20, 2007 regarding the classification of owner-operators at FedEx Ground, the Company is preparing to meet with the IRS audit team to review their tentative assessment and to provide an initial response. It is expected that the meeting will occur in the spring of 2008 and that a final resolution of this matter will not occur for some time. The Company notes that some reporting concerning this matter has been inaccurate.

As disclosed in the Companys second quarter Form 10-Q filed on December 21, 2007, the IRS has tentatively concluded, subject to further discussion with the Company, that FedEx Grounds pick-up-and-delivery owner-operators should be reclassified as employees for federal employment tax purposes. The IRS has indicated that it anticipates assessing tax and penalties of USD 319 million plus interest for 2002. Substantially all of the IRSs tentative assessment relates to employment and withholding taxes for the 2002 calendar year and, if paid by the Company, would be fully deductible. Similar issues are under audit by the IRS for calendar years 2004 through 2006.

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Empost plans IPO in second half of '08

Posted by | Jan 3, 2008 | |

State-owned Emirates Post (Empost) plans to sell up to 40 per cent stake to the public in the second half of 2008, a cabinet minister said in remarks published in al-Khaleej daily on Sunday.

The company had appointed advisors to complete a valuation of the its five divisions before the initial public offering, said Minister of Governmental Sector Development Sultan al-Mansouri, according to al-Khaleej.

The valuation would not be less than Dh3 billion (USD 816.8 million), Emirates Business quoted Empost Director-General Abdulla al-Daboos as saying last month.

Empost planned to use the money it raises to acquire logistics companies, financial services firms specialised in remittances and express mail companies in Asia, al-Daboos had said in 2006.

Mansouri, also chairman of the supreme committee for the supervision of the UAE telecom sector, confirmed that the country planned to reduce the amount of royalties the country’s two telecom firms pay to the government.

He did not give details. State-controlled Emirates Telecommunications Corp and du pay 50 per cent of annual profit to the federal government.

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Commercialising postal delivery of mail and cargo

Posted by | Jan 3, 2008 | |

The Indian Postal Department, Tamil Nadu, is seriously exploring the commercial and technical viability of starting airport-to-airport mail and cargo transport via road to address the international mail delivery across India.

According to Indira Krishnakumar, Chief Post Master General, Tamil Nadu, the idea was to connect airports and take care of collection, delivery of mail and cargo between airports.

The Postal Department already has a logistic post service connecting several cities with Chennai.

“We have many surface logistic post services, which operate on a daily basis, like Chennai-Bangalore, Chennai- Madurai and Chennai-Coimbatore. In 2006, we earned a revenue of more than Rs 52 lakh through this service and earned Rs 72 lakh till this November,” said T Murthy, Post Master General, Business Development and Marketing.

The computerisation works of post offices across Tamil Nadu are also progressing.

“We have already computerised all head post offices in the State in the first phase. The second phase, covering computerisation of all sub-post offices, will be completed in another two years. The sub-post offices are classified into three categories and the computerisation works of category A have been finished,” K Balasubramaniam, Director, Technology, India Post, said. 1 USD = 39.4138 INR

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