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DHL expanding its operation in Costa Rica

Posted by | Sep 7, 2007 | |

The international shipping company DHL this week announced plans to expand its operation in Costa Rica, creating an additional 500 jobs by February 2008.

DHL Costa Rica general manager Rodrigo Quirós told the daily La República the company has been pleased with the results of the call centers it runs here and has decided to move some of its operations from the United States to Costa Rica.

The company plans to set up another call center and a department to carry out internal administrative work. DHL will be hiring about 500 people to fill these jobs, which require English and customer service skills, Quirós said.

DHL’s decision was influenced by cost factors and Costa Rica’s proven solid labor market, he added.

The company hopes to have this new department and center up and running by February of next year at its offices in La Aurora de Heredia, north of San José.

About 2,200 people work this office, which serves as DHL’s Central American headquarters. The company grew more than 35 pct last year, from 800 employees to almost 1,100.

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Slower U.S. economy may affect DHL targets-exec

Posted by | Sep 7, 2007 | |

DHL’s operations in the United States are dwarfed by those of rivals Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. and Memphis-based FedEx Corp. Hans Hickler, CEO of DHL USA, said DHL aims to compete with these companies using improved technology and customer service.

While DHL has some room to maneuver on price with its air package delivery service, which is linked to its international network, the company’s smaller ground delivery network has little leverage against FedEx and UPS, he said.

But he added that DHL does “not want to destabilize the market” with dramatic price reductions.

Hickler also said DHL is not interested in following UPS and FedEx in acquiring companies in the less-than-truckload market. Less-than-truckload operators consolidate small loads into a single truck.

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PalletFORCE has appointed Alan Cooke to the new position of Network Solutions Director.

Posted by | Sep 7, 2007 | |

Alan will have responsibility for looking at how PalletFORCE’s current models can be improved, and also will be charged with developing innovative new ways of working as the Network looks to diversify in the future.

Alan brings seventeen years of experience in the logistics industry, having worked with both logistics companies and end users. He joins PalletFORCE from T-Mobile, where as International Logistics Manager he looked after the distribution and warehousing needs of twelve European countries. Previous employers include Christian Salvesen, Exel Logistics, Kuehne and Nagel, and Tesco.

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Latvian post company now licks stamps for a fee

Posted by | Sep 7, 2007 | |

Latvian state-owned postal company Latvijas Pasts has launched a new paid service of helping customers to prepare their mail, including licking stamps. As of August, post offices in the small Baltic nation have been charging 0.03 lats (5.8 US cents) for gluing stamps to envelopes.

Arranging mail takes additional time and resources, spokeswoman Inese Kreicberga told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

“Postal regulations provide that a client is responsible for preparing a letter to be sent, while the post delivers it,” Kreicberga said.

“To those clients who want postal operators to help them with drawing up a letter, the post can offer such a service for payment,” she said.

Latvijas Pasts has been plagued by financial troubles in recent months. The second least profitable company in the country, Latvijas Pasts lost 4.87 million lats (USD 9.56 million) in 2006, according to a report published earlier this week.

The company has raised rates for money order and faced a threat of employee strike at the end of July.

The government of Latvia is considering converting post offices throughout the country into postal banks, merging postal offices with bank branches in approximately 700 locations in the European Union Baltic country of 2.3 million people.

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The humanitarian face of mail

Posted by | Sep 6, 2007 | |

The United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA), the Universal Postal Union and Swiss Post unveiled four stamps today to raise awareness of the importance of “humanitarian mail” in times of natural catastrophes or conflicts.

The UNPA issued three stamps, one for each of the UN Offices in New York, Geneva and Vienna, while Swiss Post issued one as a UPU official stamp. It is the first time that the three organizations work together on a common issue.

The four stamps were unveiled during a ceremony at UPU headquarters by Adolf OGI, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace, Edouard DAYAN, UPU Director General, Robert GRAY, Head of the UNPA in New York, and Ulrich GYGI, Chief Executive of Swiss Post.

The stamps all share a common design – a letter carrier holding a letter in one hand as he floats over a sea of hands reaching for the letter. “The design symbolizes the UN’s and the UPU’s commitment to delivering food, aid, material and mail to the victims of natural disasters or armed conflicts,” explained Robert GRAY. In certain cases, humanitarian mail enables people to find lost relatives and serves as a communication link when other communication means have been destroyed or have broken down.

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Survey records people’s attitudes to Royal Mail service

Posted by | Sep 6, 2007 | |

One year on from Royal Mail’s introduction of Pricing in Proportion (PIP), MarketingFile conducted a survey to see if business postal costs had increased or decreased.

When asked “since PIP was introduced, have your office mail costs increased”, 44 pct said yes, and 16pct said it had decreased. When asked how the changes affected their Direct Mail costs, 63 pct said costs had increased, with 25 pct staying about the same.

A sharp contrast to the Royal Mail’s initial pitch to Postcomm which stated: “The great majority of our mail will not change in price and this means that most of our customers will not be greatly affected”.

Whatever the opinion of PIP, 65 pct of businesses still use first class post for their office mail, and 44 pct for direct mail. With the British stamp still being the preferred method of payment for 49 pct.

When asked, are you happy with the service you receive from the Royal Mail, 50 pct of business users said no. Despite this, when asked if they would think about using a different provider the majority of participants said yes, but was confused about the available suppliers.

With last month’s debate between Postcomm and the Royal Mail on possible reductions of deliveries to 5 days a week, we asked “How would this affect you?” 28 pct of our readers felt it could have a serious impact on their business; with 60 pct voting they would least like to loose Monday deliveries and 64 pct happy to loose Saturday.

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Panalpina sees big savings from port centric distribution

Posted by | Sep 6, 2007 | |

The client previously managed its own supply chain once product arrived at the UK port of entry; however this was proving to be complex and costly. Now Panalpina has taken charge of the final stage of the journey using Import Services and TNT to provide two distinct services once Panalpina has moved product in sea containers, from origin to Southampton port.

Express carrier TNT collects store ready consignments from the containers at its Southampton port based depot, before putting them into its national distribution network in readiness for next day delivery to high street retailers throughout the UK.

Import Services takes the residual bulk stock into its adjacent distribution centre where storage, order processing, high volume pick/pack and distribution of replenishment orders are affected.

Distributing goods straight from the port of entry is becoming increasingly popular as it can offer cost and time savings. “We have developed port centric distribution successfully for our clients such as Flair and Carte Blanche in the toy and gift sector,” said Mike Thomas of Import Services. “Our clients demand swift movement of their products to market and retail trends also show smaller volume orders are required in store more frequently. The savings gained from port centric distribution simply outperforms traditional models of moving goods inland to distribution centers.

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Redline Communications selects Kuehne + Nagel to deliver globally integrated supply chain solution

Posted by | Sep 6, 2007 | |

Redline Communications, a leading provider of standards-based wireless broadband solutions, has selected Kuehne + Nagel to provide a global supply chain solution integrating international and domestic transportation management and contract logistics and related value-added services, with global network visibility, inventory and order management.

To support its solution, Kuehne + Nagel has established strategically located logistics operations for Redline in Toronto; Dallas, Texas; and Taipei, Taiwan. The company also has deployed its powerful supply logistics applications, which include replenishment algorithms that help improve order accuracy and inventory management.

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