China: Interesting times – Special report
China: Interesting times – Special report
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China: getting it right in the factory of the world
China: getting it right in the factory of the world
Read MoreTime:matters takes on FRA express handling
TIME:matters is to replace Fraport Cargo Services as the handling agent for express and courier shipments at Frankfurt Airport’s CargoCity North.
FCS will continue to play a central role as key cooperation partner. time:matters now directly operates the handling of express and courier shipments; both for its own customers, as well as other logistics service providers (integrators and courier companies) and their respective customers.
“This provides time:matters, as the experts for courier, sameday and emergency logistics, with the highly interesting prospect of carrying out express and courier shipments handling at CargoCity North under its own responsibility and control,” said time:matters’ chief executive officer, Franz-Joseph Miller.
“The customers can be sure that our high service standards with regards to speed, reliability and flexibility, will also take effect in this additional service area – especially given the fact that we can completely rely on the competent and proven support of FCS.”
Read MoreDHL Singapore opens Penang outlet for walk-in customers
DHL recently opened its first northern Servicepoint outlet at Jalan Cantonment, Pulau Tikus, on Penang Island.
The DHL Servicepoint outlet is designed for walk-in retail customers, as well as for account-based customers who prefer to drop off their shipments. Retail customers have an option to make payment by credit card.
The DHL Servicepoint core product offerings include Express4U (E4U), an easy-to-use and convenient service for sending documents and parcels with flat-rate prices, worldwide and University Express, the fastest, most reliable and secure way to send student applications and excess baggage abroad.
In addition, DHL Servicepoint also offers Express Pallet, a packaging and transport solution designed to match real-time distribution systems with an all-inclusive pricing.
In conjunction with the nation’s 50th anniversary, walk-in customers will also receive a guaranteed gift for every shipment lodged from August 16-December 31 2007.
The pioneering DHL Servicepoint retail strategy first debuted in 2005 as a Malaysian first at Menara Axis, Petaling Jaya. DHL Servicepoint is a direct response to market evaluation studies, which revealed that customers seek wide choices in services, especially the flexibility to ship items at their own convenience. With this in mind, the DHL Servicepoint outlets are designed with the key attributes of accessibility, convenience and user-friendly features.
The 244 sq m outlet in Penang is the latest example of this model.
Read MoreLufthansa-DHL airline applies for approval of German authorities
Lufthansa and DHL have filed for approval to set up the joint freight airline ‘Newco’, according to the German Federal Cartel Office.
The project, announced in June, is likely to launch in 2009 from Leipzig Halle airport. DHL has always been vocal about its intentions to expand its cooperation with Lufthansa. Lufthansa Cargo said that it will announce more details soon.
A joint network has been operated between Europe, Asia and the US since March 2004, and was to expand through Leipzig/Halle airport, where DHL Express is moving its main European hub later this year.
Read MoreDHL rivals in the USA show no appetite for owning aircraft
DHL added another airline to its line-up this spring with the acquisition of a stake in Astar Air Cargo, but the other mega-forwarders have no interest in owning cargo aircraft, despite a penchant for dedicated freighter-cargo flights.
DHL’s appetite for cargo airlines suffered a setback in July when ABX Air, the erstwhile freighter division of Airborne Express spun off after the integrator’s acquisition by DHL, rebuffed a takeover offer from Astar Air Cargo, the former DHL Airways. A marriage between the two would have combined the two US cargo carriers that make most of their business moving traffic for DHL. The integrator had acquired a 49 percent stake in Astar in early June along with a 24.9 percent voting interest, the maximum position in US airlines allowed to non-US entities.
DHL’s express business in the US has suffered in the wake of the integration of its air network into a single hub and is not expected to produce black figures before 2009. Nevertheless, the buy into Astar did not surprise industry observers.
The Astar buy-in followed DHL’s acquisition of a 49 percent stake in Polar Air Cargo last year, which included a 20-year block space agreement giving the integrator guaranteed lift on Polar’s transpacific flights. For intra-Asia traffic, DHL has permanent lift through its stake in Air Hong Kong and the carrier’s A300F operations in the region.
These deals are fuelled by the logistics giant’s express business, but they also drop fixed capacity into the lap of DHL Global Forwarding.
The other global mega-forwarders like Schenker, Kuehne + Nagel or Panalpina, have ruled out the possibility of owning freighter aircraft, notwithstanding a need for dedicated cargo flights.
Read MorePIN, TNT Germany create employers' association to fend off German postal minimum wages
PIN Group AG and TNT NV’s TNT Post Germany have founded a new employers’ association to scupper a minimum wage of 9-10 eur sought by rival Deutsche Post World Net AG, PIN’s chief executive Guenter Thiel told Focus magazine.
He said the existing employers’ association headed by former Deutsche Post management board member Wolfhard Bender does not represent the whole industry’s interest, but only those of Deutsche Post.
‘I’m pro minimum wages, but (I’m) contra a dictate by monopoly company Deutsche Post,’ TNT Post Germany’s chief executive Mario Frusch told Focus magazine.
The two companies also plan to include publishing houses in the new association, whose distribution networks Deutsche Post’s competitors could use in the future.
Luxembourg-based PIN Group is 71.6 pct-owned by Axel Springer.
IFW supplement on China, September 07
IFW supplement on China, September 07
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