Author: Archive

Online bargain hunters clogging up mail depots

Posted by | Nov 17, 2007 | |

Canadians empowered by a strong dollar and faced with long lines at border crossings have turned to the Internet as a way to do their holiday shopping in the United States.

But a consumers’ agency said this week that online shoppers are already facing a “bottleneck” that will only make delays longer as the Christmas season approaches.

Canada Post reported seeing cross-border parcel traffic increase 15 per cent in October compared to the same month last year, and noted a similar jump in September.

Francois Legault, a spokesperson for Canada Post, said the jump is likely related to an increase in online shopping at U.S. stores.

“We have noticed that the parcels that we have received, the majority of them are from U.S. retailers,” Legault told CTV.ca.

After the loonie hit parity with the U.S. dollar, reaching a value of USD 1.10 at one point last week, Canadians began flocking across the border to take advantage of lower prices and stronger buying power.

But in the lead-up to the Christmas season, the number of parcels and mail received from south of the border has jumped as well.

The Canadian Border Services Agency reported seeing a notable increase in the amount of packages sent to Canada from the U.S.

Canada Post and the Canadian Border Services Agency routinely increase their staff to handle the extra traffic during the holiday season.

Your package is in the mail

Mail flowing from the U.S. is checked by border services at one of three mail centers, located in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, before being returned to the chain of delivery.

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Gulf Cooperation Council countries plan postal agency

Posted by | Nov 17, 2007 | |

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have plans to set up a single regional postal agency to handle express mail deliveries. Plans are also afoot to jointly order procurements of postal equipment.

These and other issues were discussed at a meeting of the heads of postal corporations from the member-GCC states held in Jeddah on November 11 and 12.

The Qatar General Postal Corporation (Q-Post) participated in this meeting of GCC Advisory Committee. The Qatari delegation was led by Ali Mohamed Al Ali, Q-Post’s Chairman and General Manager.

Preparations to be made for the international conference of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) to be held in Nairobi and the need to have a common stand on issues were also raised at the meeting.

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Saudi Post Signs Deals on Electronic Services

Posted by | Nov 16, 2007 | |

The Saudi Postal Incorporation signed two memoranda of understanding on postal money services with Egyptian and Yemeni counterparts in the two-day 1st International Postal Information Technology Conference that ended yesterday. More than 400 companies from 140 countries took part in the international conference.

The first memorandum was signed between Mohammed Saleh Benten, president of the Saudi Postal Incorporation and his Yemeni counterpart Mohammed Ali Marghani on providing postal money services, followed by another memorandum signed between Benten and his Egyptian counterpart Alaa Fahmi for the same facility.

Saudi Postal president also signed another memorandum to establish an electronic market with a number of Saudi companies.

More importantly, postal companies should increase their investment in technology in order to be able to compete with banks in providing financial services to their customers, saying that financial posts are no more calling themselves as postal companies but rather as postal banks.

Saudi Postal recently released project “Waseel” (which translates reached), Benten said, features an address system that can be read electronically whatever the language or origin of the sender, to which Dayan quipped, “if we cant reach the address we cant deliver.”

Benten added that a number of countries have requested to be granted the rights to implement the Saudi-owned technology.

He said that the Saudi Postal service is currently cooperating with the other GCC countries to implement “Waseel” Project.

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Double boost for Palletline central hub team

Posted by | Nov 16, 2007 | |

Palletline plc has once again strengthened the senior management team at its central hub in Erdington, Birmingham, with two key appointments.

Mark Saund is the new Night Hub Operations Manager. Mark will have operational responsibility for all overnight operations at Palletline’s main hub at Tyburn Road, Erdington, Birmingham, through which around 40,000 pallets pass each week.

He joins Palletline from leading national parcels distributor Target Express in Coventry where he has worked for the last six years in a variety of roles, most recently as Operations Manager at the central hub.

Meanwhile Kerrie Evans has taken on the new role of Network Services Manager. Kerrie’s role involves supporting all of Palletline’s 67 members nationwide, acting as liaison between the hub and the members and ensuring that the network meets their needs.

Having spent 15 years as UK Sales Manager for David Wilson Homes, Kerrie then moved into the road transport sector, holding key network development posts with two other national pallet distribution networks. Most recently she has been an Account Manager for the Home Delivery Network, working with major customers including Marks & Spencer and Toys R Us.

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French government may let La Poste's bank make consumer loans

Posted by | Nov 16, 2007 | |

The French government will decide in the next few weeks whether to allow Banque Postale, a unit of the French postal service La Poste, to compete with commercial banks in offering consumer loans, the daily La Tribune said, without specifying sources.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde will meet with top officials of La Poste in the next few days to discuss the conditions for such authorisation.

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FedEx Corp. Announces quarterly dividend

Posted by | Nov 16, 2007 | |

FedEx Corp. today announced that earnings for the second quarter ending November 30, 2007 are expected to be in the range of USD 1.45 to USD 1.55 per diluted share, compared to the previous forecast of USD 1.60 to USD 1.75. For the full fiscal year, the company now expects earnings of USD 6.40 to USD 6.70 per diluted share, compared to the previous forecast of USD 6.70 to USD 7.10.

“Since we provided earnings guidance for the second quarter in September, our fuel costs have increased more than eight percent, or USD 85 million,” said Alan B. Graf, Jr., FedEx Corp. executive vice president and chief financial officer. “While we have dynamic fuel surcharges in place, they cannot keep pace in the short-term with rapidly rising fuel prices. In addition, less-than-truckload freight trends in the FedEx Freight segment remain weak, despite economic signs that the decline in U.S. industrial production has hit bottom. We are taking prudent steps to reduce expenses, and are reviewing our capital investment plans for further reductions.”

Separately, the Board of Directors of FedEx Corp. today declared a quarterly cash dividend of USD 0.10 per share on FedEx Corp. common stock. The dividend is payable January 2, 2008 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 12, 2007.

FedEx will provide additional financial and operating details when the company releases second quarter earnings on December 20, 2007.

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DHL commissioned research reveals new export landscape for ASEAN and Asia

Posted by | Nov 16, 2007 | |

DHL revealed today the findings of a study commissioned to Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on regional trade flows. The report entitled Trading up: A New Export Landscape for ASEAN and Asia, examines the movement of goods across borders in Asia, with ASEAN as the starting point. Findings show that despite goals on ASEAN integration, the new export landscape in Asia reveals that ASEAN is at a cross roads between pursuing deeper integration with fellow ASEAN member countries, or falling away to develop individual bilateral trading relationships with China. The share of exports to China from all ASEAN countries in the study except Vietnam has risen sharply while intra-ASEAN trade has shown a declining growth trend.

The release of the study is timed to coincide with the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (ASEAN-BIS), which DHL has been a key sponsor for the past 5 years. The study concentrated on the ASEAN bloc’s six largest economies – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – and analyzed the trade of its closest regional competitors, China, Japan and India. Shifting import and export trends from 2000 to 2007 are analyzed, focusing particularly on the role played by high-value exports as compared with lower-value bulk commodity goods. It is follow-up research from “ASEAN Exports: Today, Tomorrow and the High-value Challenge”, which DHL and EIU jointly released at the 4th ASEAN Business and Investment Summit 2006.

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Panalpina’s CFO resigns

Posted by | Nov 16, 2007 | |

Jürg Honegger, Chief Financial Officer of the global freight forwarding and logistics group Panalpina, has taken the decision to resign for personal reasons. He will leave the Company during the course of next year to take up a new professional challenge. His successor will be announced in due course.

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