How the 21st Century United States Postal Service May Be Unique
How the 21st Century United States Postal Service May Be Unique
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Royal Mail practices what it preaches and encourages media integration
Royal Mail has launched an integrated business to business campaign to demonstrate the power of combining direct mail and digital media.
The integrated campaign called “Meet Mr Complete” features direct mail and a microsite both created by Proximity London. It centres on the idea of integration being a more complete way to communicate with customers. Recent research by Royal Mail revealed that integrating digital advertising with direct mail campaigns can increase customer spend by almost 25 per cent.
Meet Mr Complete targets more than 5,000 business people to demonstrate that using digital and direct mail together achieves greater impact with consumers.
Activity begins with a personalised direct mail pack designed to look like a computer desktop. Inside each pack are instructions on how recipients can fold the mailer to create their own origami Mr Complete man. To encourage further engagement with the campaign a unique personalised web address is printed in each mailing which will take recipients through to an individualised Meet Mr Complete microsite.
Once online customers are guided through their own personal site by Mr Complete; an interactive 3D animated character, who demonstrates the benefits of integrating direct mail and digital media. Mr Complete finishes the journey by offering a follow up phone call from a Royal Mail media expert.
The campaign concludes with a final direct mail pack with a hand-crafted Mr Complete origami man personalised with the recipient’s name and reminding them of the positive brand benefits and increased campaign effectiveness that integrating direct mail with their digital offering can bring.
Read MorePostal rates rise; union negotiates over its future
The cost of a regular stamp goes up today from NIS 1.50 to NIS 1.55. Bulk mail rates have dropped a bit, but most of the 78 different postal charges have increased significantly.
Few of the changes made by the Communications Ministry, however, have found favor with Israel Postal Company workers who have been threatening a strike but hope that negotiations with management over the next few days will lead to a compromise.
The union has been struggling with the ministry for a year and a half, demanding that bulk mail rates be cut significantly to win customers away from private entrepreneurs who are offer cheap but profitable services in the Dan Region, while the Postal Company has to provide services throughout the country, including in the periphery, where services operate at a loss.
The union says Communications Minister Ariel Attias has yet to produce a general license setting down what services the Postal Company – which was established last year in place of the Postal Authority – may offer. The union also wants a “security net” for the employees, 450 of whom have been sent on early pension in the last three years. The workers claim management wants to fire hundreds more in the next two years. The union is also demanding that management allow the company to offer many more financial and marketing services to make up for the loss of income from their hoped-for significant reduction in mass mailing rates.
Read MoreUS Postal Service halts vehicle buys
When it comes to procuring alternative fuel vehicles, the U.S. Postal Service leads the way. Its alternative fuel fleet — nearly 38,000 vehicles that run on ethanol, compressed natural gas or other nonpetroleum products — is the largest of any employer nationwide.
The Postal Service won’t be purchasing any vehicles — gasoline-powered or otherwise — until 2015 at the earliest, said Walt O’Tormey, the agency’s vice president of engineering.
Most of the agency’s alternative fuel vehicles run on E-85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. There is strong support in Congress for increasing the use of E-85 nationwide, but the fuel has several limitations that are only now beginning to emerge.
The Postal Service is not covered under a January executive order that requires executive branch agencies to reduce their gasoline consumption by 2 percent annually and increase their use of alternative fuels by 10 percent a year. However, the agency is taking several steps to reduce its fuel consumption, including consolidating delivery routes, promoting ethanol usage where it is cost neutral, and using vehicles more efficiently, a spokesman said.
Because the Postal Service has such a large fleet — more than 210,000 vehicles — the infrastructure must be in place before the agency can move wholesale to alternative fuel vehicles. That means parts suppliers and mechanics, in addition to fueling stations.
O’Tormey recalled one instance in which the company supplying batteries for a vehicle the Postal Service was testing closed up shop.
FedEx & UPS give peak day package forecasts
FedEx expects 11.3 million packages to move through its FedEx Express and FedEx Ground networks on Dec 17, compared with an average daily volume of 7 million packages, the company said in a press release.
Last year, FedEx predicted 9.8 million packages would pass through its network on its peak day.
Spokesman Howard Clabo said last year’s figure did not include FedEx SmartPost packages — a lower cost service in which packages are dropped off at the nearest post office and then taken the last few miles to customers by the U.S. Postal Service.
Excluding SmartPost packages from this year’s prediction, the comparable forecast would be 10.4 million, a gain of 6.1 percent.
UPS spokesman Norman Black said the Atlanta-based company expects package volumes in its network to reach 22 million on its peak day on Dec. 19.
On average day the world’s largest package delivery company moves around 15 million packages through its network.
Company officials said in early 2007 that during the 2006 peak season the company moved more than 22 million packages on three separate days.
Both companies have warned recently that slowing U.S. economic growth will have an impact on their business.
In September FedEx reported a 4 percent increase in fiscal first-quarter profit but warned that slower growth would act as a drag on earnings in coming quarters.
In a conference call with analysts last week after it also posted a 4 percent increase in quarterly net profit, UPS officials said the company still expects package growth in the crucial fourth quarter but added that growth would be slower than in the past four years.
As in previous years, online retail sales are expected to be a boost for both package delivery companies.
Retail consultant TNS Retail Forward predicted in September that fourth-quarter online sales this year would grow 20 percent to USD 42 billion from USD 35 billion in 2006.
Overall retail sales should grow by just 3.3 percent as the credit crunch is expected to hurt consumer confidence, TNS Retail Forward said.
Read MoreAmtrak launches Credit Card facility
Amtrak, the business to business and home delivery parcels operator, is launching a credit/debit card payment option to make it easier for small companies and individuals to use their parcel services.
“We believe this will appeal not only to small businesses but also to people selling on the web or sending goods occasionally,” says Alan Jones, Managing Director, Amtrak. “Customers don’t necessarily want to set up an account but want a quick and easy way to organise sending a parcel.”
The popularity of web auction sites and the growth in the number of people working at home has led to a significant increase in the demand for collection and delivery of one or two parcels from residential addresses.
“Our new service enables people to send parcels without leaving the house – and especially without standing in a queue at the Post Office,“ says Mr Jones. “We also have special services for goods of high value – either cash value or sentimental value – and we anticipate people will use Amtrak to send all kinds of items.”
Amtrak is also a specialist handler for fine wines, and already offers a Personal Express (delivery only to a specifically named person) and Tender Express (for important tender or contract documents) service.
Read MoreRoyal Mail posts drop in profits
Royal Mail said on last Wednesday 31st October revenue in its letter business was down 78 million pounds (USD 162 million) in the first five months of the current year and annual operating profit dropped by one third.
State-owned Royal Mail, which lost its 350-year monopoly on postal services last year and recently faced strikes by workers, said it expected to be trading around breakeven this year and next due to declining mail volumes and investment.
The group reported operating profit for the full year 2006-2007 year of 233 million pounds, in line with expectations, following a sharp rise in pension fund costs to 722 million pounds from 193 million, falling mail volumes and increased competition.
Royal Mail said it faced making annual payments of 800 million pounds over the next 17 years to cover both its pension deficit of around 5 billion pounds and ongoing contributions.
Royal Mail’s Chief Executive Adam Crozier has said the company desperately needs to modernise, and was investing around 4 billion pounds to do so, to compete and prevent the business from failing.
The firm has plans to reduce its workforce by around 40,000, or 27 percent, by automating mail sorting processes and to fight private competition from Business Post Dutch mail company TNT NV and others.
The growth of email, text messages and the availability of vehicle tax discs and television licences online have also dented profits.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) said earlier this month over 130,000 staff walked out in a dispute over pay, pensions and shift changes, causing delays and disruption, particularly to firms dependent on mail order business.
Read MoreCabinet considers FDI cap in couriers
This is one mail courier companies would be praying is returned to the sender. A Cabinet note circulated by the department of posts has mooted 49 pct cap on FDI in courier business.
If the proposal goes through, multinationals like Fedex, DHL, UPS and TNT who hold more than 49 pct in Indian ventures will have to pare stake. The draft of the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill has another whammy in store for the private sector.
It proposes to make letters, parcels and packets weighing up to 150 gm the exclusive preserve of India Post. Private players will have to charge 2.5 times the tariff specified by Speed Post to operate in this segment.
The proposal to amend the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Act has been revived despite opposition from other government departments and the courier industry. A source said posts secretary I M G Khan has sent a communication on the proposed changes to department of industrial policy & promotion (Dipp) secretary Ajay Shankar.
The proposals specify that a person eligible to seek registration for operating in the mail sector has to be a company in which not less than 51 pct of the paid-up share capital is held by the citizens of India.
The draft Bill has been sent to the Cabinet and, once approved, the government can introduce the Bill in Parliament, source added.
The private courier companies had vehemently opposed the amendments earlier too. “In an era of free economy, if the country is embracing any legislation of such nature, it would send a wrong image internationally and it would also wipe out a vibrant part of our economy,” EICI had said in a communication to telecom minister A Raja.
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