Author: Archive

True picture is stuck in the post

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

For an organization desperate to be seen as more efficient and business-like, Royal Mail seems to be displaying a cavalier attitude to its ultimate backers – its customers and the British taxpayer. Any listed company that delayed its annual report for three months for no stated reason would be treated with impatience if not downright suspicion.

For Royal Mail, the time lag is even more egregious because it doesn’t publish its financial results separately. The annual report is the first chance to gauge the health of the company.

While the regulator PostComm says it has been given the entire document, the same courtesy has not been extended to either Parliament, customers or the media. Royal Mail won’t explain. It may just be that the GBP 4 billion refinancing of the business has injected major complications, but that should not have had any impact on the relevant reporting period.

There are two theories about the delay. One is that it is to suppress embarrassing management bonuses during the current industrial dispute, which is partly over staff pay. The other is that the bottom line is rather healthier than management would like known at a time when it is seeking to keep the annual staff pay rise this year to 2.5 per cent.

Neither is a legitimate reason for burying the news, bad or good. The series of rolling strikes is producing real pain by hitting companies’ cash flow.

Read More

Many banks and card companies to be sympathetic over postal delays

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

A number of banks and credit card companies in the UK have stated that they intend to be sympathetic with customers who may have suffered as a result of the postal strikes in terms of payments coming in late because of the postal delays.

Although banks have suffered a fair amount of bad press lately some of the leading banks and credit card companies stated that they would take the postal strikes into account when it came to customers’ accounts.

The postal strikes were set to go on for two week in total, and this means that those paying by cheque will find that their payments may be delayed, which could result in their bank accounts exceeding the overdraft limit or their credit cards going over the credit limit due to late payment.

Banks and credit card companies are urging consumers that experience this problem to contact them, stating that they will ensure that they are sympathetic when it comes to the removal of charges that were applied as a result of late payment because of postal delays.

Consumers are warned that trying to dupe the banks into thinking that payment is late because of postal strikes will not be easy.

Read More

New Chronoexpress office in Malaga, Spain

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Chronoexpres, the express parcel subsidiary of Spanish postal operator Correos, has opened a new depot in Malaga as part of its policy of continuing to modernize and improve its infrastructure.

The new facility significantly exceeds the capacity of the premises that have been used in the city until now. Covering 2,500 sqm, the depot will handle more than two million shipments every year. The new automatic parcel sorting system will have capacity to process 2,000 parcels per hour.

The workforce will consist of 24 employees, excluding drivers, and about 55 vehicles will transport goods from and to the new facility each day. The depot will serve the Andalusia city and the surrounding province.

According to Chronoexpres, the new depot will significantly strengthen its position in the south of Spain, which is a key region for the Correos subsidiary. In 2006, Chronoexpres generated revenues of more than EUR 12 million in the region. This year it expects business to grow further thanks to improved service quality.

Read More

Two local companies draw investor

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Allied Capital Corp. said Tuesday it has invested in two Dallas-Fort Worth-area companies.

Allied completed its buyout of Worldwide Express Inc., a reseller of DHL express and ground-shipping services based in Dallas. The full purchase price was not revealed.

Allied also said it committed USD 93.4 million to support the management-led recapitalization of Higginbotham & Associates. Higginbotham is an insurance brokerage and risk management firm based in Fort Worth.

Allied, based in Washington, D.C., is a business development company that invests private debt and equity capital in middle market businesses nationwide.

Worldwide Express, founded in 1994 by David Kiger and Roger MacDonell as a reseller for Airborne Express, is a franchisor of DHL shipping services in the United States. It has about 150 franchisees with more than 60,000 customers nationwide.

Higginbotham & Associates, founded in 1948, has 220 employees. In addition to Fort Worth, the company has offices in Dallas, Austin, Denton, McKinney, Weatherford and Waco.

Read More

Landair receives Gold Award from FedEx

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Landair Transport was honored at the annual meeting of FedEx Core Carriers with one of the top honors FedEx presents to its carriers. Landair’s FedEx fleet was presented a Gold Award in recognition of their “Outstanding Performance in Maintaining a Service Level of 99.56 percent.”

Each year, FedEx gives out bronze, silver, gold and platinum awards, based on carriers’ service level.

This is the second year in a row that the Landair fleet has received a Gold Award for their service and performance for FedEx.

This year’s award was based on performance for all departing and arriving FedEx loads from June 1, 2006, to May 31, 2007.

Read More

Deutsche Post in uproar over planned market changes

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

At the end of this year, the remains of Germany’s postal monopoly are slated to be fully dismantled. But Deutsche Post says it faces a less-than-level playing field and unfair competition on the open market.

This means that starting in 2008, Finland’s postal system, for example, can expand into Germany, where the Finnish companies can concentrate on lucrative big-city markets. While facing competition from abroad in the cities, Deutsche Post will also be left to deliver mail to German rural regions — a costlier and more difficult service to provide. If Deutsche Post wants to deliver mail in Finland, however, it will be obliged to fork over 20 percent of its turnover to the Finnish state.

It is that kind of scenario, what Deutsche Post calls a very uneven playing field that is causing uproar at the former mail monopoly. The German mail carrier has a legal obligation to provide universal service, covering routes that are money making as well as those that are not.

Since the partial break up of the German postal monopoly in 1998, Germany’s governing post and telecommunications body has granted some 1,000 business licenses for delivering mail. Unlike employees at Deutsche Post, the mail carriers for these start-ups are often part-time or temporary workers, who don’t enjoy the job security or compensation rates of Deutsche Post employees.

Read More

Royal Mail given extra pricing flexibility

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Postcomm has proposed that Royal Mail be given extra flexibility to increase some retail prices but has decided to leave access margins unchanged in response to the company’s request to review some aspects of the 2006-10 Price Control.

Royal Mail will be allowed to increase prices on certain loss-making products in April 2008 and April 2009 by more than was originally agreed when its four year price control was set. If it wishes, Royal Mail will be able to raise the price of a second class stamp to 29p by 2010, subject to inflation (the original price cap was 26p). The price cap on a first class stamp will not be affected by these proposals.

Postcomm is rejecting requests from TNT and UK Mail to widen the margin between Royal Mail’s prices for bulk mail products and the amount Royal Mail charges them for access to its network and delivery of bulk mail over the ‘final mile’. Royal Mail had also made an application on access, to narrow the margin. However the company has not provided sufficient evidence to support this application and has been unable to justify the level of loss it claims it is making on access mail.

Postcomm’s Interim Review document contains information extracted from Royal Mail’s regulatory accounts which were submitted to the regulator on 31 July in accordance with Royal Mail’s license obligation. Royal Mail has informed Postcomm that the sections of the regulatory accounts, which it normally makes public, will be published by no later than 15 August.

Read More

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

P&P Poll

Loading

Have you noticed a decrease of non-EU inbound parcel volumes since the implementation of the new €3 charge?

Thank you for voting
You have already voted on this poll!
Please select an option!


View ResultsHide Results

Post & Parcel Magazine


Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.

Subscribe to the Magazine

 

Pin It on Pinterest