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Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee focus on measurement

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

With Overall mail volume up a mere 0.2 percent from the third quarter of last year, the US Postal Service is stepping up its initiatives to improve performance.

Glen Walker, CFO of the USPS, announced the company’s financial results Washington last week at the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee meeting.

He reported that First-Class Mail was down 1.3 percent; Standard Mail up 1.8 percent; Periodicals down 2.7 percent; Express Mail down 1.3 percent; Priority Mail down 2.4 percent; and packages down 0.3 percent.

Walker attributes the lackluster results to the postal increase this spring.

The Postal Service has mailed about 1 billion direct mail pieces this year to educate small businesses, large commercial businesses and consumers on the importance and effectiveness of a direct mail piece. It’s part of a multichannel marketing approach that uses direct mail, Internet and television ads. So far, online-shipping service awareness has risen to 55 percent this year, up from 25 percent in 2004. Awareness of free package pickup was at 10 percent in 2004 and is now at 45 percent. Awareness of non-retail window revenue was 25 percent this year, up from 16 percent the year before.

Since on-time delivery is big during the holiday season, the USPS sent out holiday shipping and mailing guide, with 35 percent recalling getting the guide and 58 percent of those finding it helpful.

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Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. 2Q07 Net Income Totals USD 43.2 Million, Up 304 pct

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings reported sharply higher earnings for the second quarter of 2007 compared with second quarter of 2006. This reflects a continuing improvement in aircraft utilization due to proactive asset management, sustained operational execution, the positive impact of Continuous Improvement initiatives, increased AMC charter demand, and reduced net interest expense.

Earnings for the quarter included a substantial tax benefit related to DHL Express’ investment in Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc., in which DHL acquired a 49 pct equity interest (including a 25pct voting stake) in exchange for USD150 million in cash; USD75 million was received at closing in late June, with the balance scheduled to be received in 2008.

For the June 30, 2007 quarter, AAWW earned USD 43.2 million, 304 pct more than in the second quarter of 2006. Earnings per diluted share equaled USD 2.01, nearly four times the year-ago level. Revenues for the quarter totaled USD 370.4 million, with operating income of USD3 1.2 million and pretax income of USD25.2 million. Net income reflected a tax benefit of USD 18.0 million, which was driven by a net tax benefit in connection with the DHL transaction that reduced income tax expense in the quarter by USD 27.7 million, or the equivalent of USD1.29 per diluted share.

The Company recorded a deferred gain of USD 151.4 million in the quarter as a result of the DHL transaction. The gain will be recognized as income in the period in which the blocked-space agreement between Polar Air Cargo Worldwide and DHL commences, which is scheduled to occur no later than October 31, 2008.

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UPS, Teamsters close to withdrawal deal

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

United Parcel Service of America Inc., Atlanta, and Teamsters Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Fund, Rosemont, Ill., reached an agreement on the company’s potential withdrawal from the USD 20.7 billion fund, according to a letter the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent to local union offices.

Norman Black, UPS spokesman, and Central States officials Mark F. Angerame, CFO, and William J. Nellis, attorney couldn’t be reached for confirmation.

“The specific terms of the agreement are being finalized by the company and fund,” according to a letter by James P. Hoffa, Teamster president and chairman of the Teamsters National United Parcel Service Negotiating Committee, and Ken Hall, co-chairman of the committee.

Any agreement between UPS and Central States “cannot be implemented unless it is accepted by the (Teamsters) negotiating committee and ratified by the members,” the letter said. “In short, the existence of the agreement between Central States and UPS does not mean that UPS is free to withdraw from Central States and establish a new, jointly administered Teamster pension plan for its employees.”

The Teamsters committee still awaits official notification of the agreement, according to the letter.

UPS is the biggest contributor to the Central States fund, and its employees account for the largest number of Teamsters members.

UPS contributes to 20 other Teamsters jointly trusteed plans covering UPS employees.

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Poste Italiane faces competition probe

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

Italian competition regulator Autorita Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (Antitrust) has opened an investigation into possible abuse of a dominant market position by the country’s leading postal services operator, Poste Italiane. The investigation relates to liberalised services and services that are due to be liberalised in the next six years, and covers supply contracts made by Poste Italiane between December 2000 and January 2007. These contracts are thought to have been weighted in the state-owned group’s favour, and to have contained clauses that restricted competition.

Poste Italiane CEO Massimo Sarmi said that he was confident about the outcome of the inquiry, which should be revealed before the end of May next year, because the company had ‘always respected market regulations, competition, and consumer rights’.

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Postcomm's statement of policy in relation to financial penalties

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

Postcomm has decided to revise its statement of policy in relation to financial penalties (‘statement of policy’).

Under the Postal Services Act 2000, Postcomm has the discretionary power to impose a financial penalty on a license holder that has contravened – or is contravening – one or more of its license conditions. Postcomm must prepare and publish a statement of policy, in relation to imposing a penalty and the amount of that penalty.

Postcomm published its current statement of policy in February 2002. Since then, Postcomm has imposed four financial penalties on Royal Mail and there have been a number of significant changes in the postal services market, including the full opening of the market in January 2006 and the adoption of a new price control for Royal Mail in April 2006. Postcomm said, at the time the statement of policy was introduced, that it would consider revising the statement in the light of experience in its application. Postcomm has decided that it should consult now on revising its statement of policy.

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Royal Mail must deliver modern service

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

As Royal Mail faces continuing industrial unrest in a dispute with postmen and women over pay and modernization, Huw Roberts, Director of Welsh Affairs, Royal Mail Group, gives an insight into the imperative for change in Britain’s postal services

“The simple fact is that Royal Mail has to modernize. We are not immune from change – we are all sending fewer letters, the alternative electronic communication channels are growing and our competitors are taking a larger share of a smaller postbag. Strike action means our rivals, like Dutch-owned TNT and German Deutsche Post, will seize even more of the profitable business post market.

For the first time in years, we have been provided with an opportunity to invest in new technology and new equipment to transform our operations with a GBP 1.2bn loan, on commercial terms from the Government that will give us the means to compete successfully. This is taxpayers’ money and we urgently need to press on with using this loan wisely.

We can’t go on running a business based on sorting millions of items by hand every day, when newer companies are now using modern technology to do it faster and more cheaply. And none of our competitors has shown any interest in carrying ordinary post or delivering to the 1.56 million addresses in Wales or the 27 million letterboxes in the UK.

We are proud of the fact that more First Class letters arrive the next day than ever before. In the SA postcode area covering Swansea and West Wales, for example, we recently reported that 94.9 pct of First Class mail arrived the next day during 2006/2007– the best consistent quality of service results in years.

We are very sorry for the disruption to our customers’ mail services caused by the recent strike action and we are doing all we can to mitigate the impact with management volunteers collecting mail from Post Office branches and delivering as much Special Delivery and business mail as possible.

The reality is we are no longer a monopoly and rivals this year will be handling one letter in every five posted. They are winning an increasing share of the mail market – not because they work harder than our people – but because technology has made them more efficient.

The postal market is also declining – by 2.5 pct a year – in the face of competition from email and broadband development.

The simple fact is that rivals pay their people 25 pct less than Royal Mail and they are 40 pct more efficient than Royal Mail, because they have already modernized – so their costs and prices are lower.”

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Spring Global Mail appoints Chief Financial Officer

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

Spring Global Mail have recently strengthened their management team with the appointment of Wouter Hijzen as Chief Financial Officer. Mr Hijzen, a Dutch national, joins Spring from Netwerk VSP, a wholly owned subsidiary of TNT specialising in the delivery of unaddressed mail in the Netherlands.

Spring Global Mail (G3 Worldwide Mail NV) is a joint venture company, formed in 2001 by three of the world’s leading postal organisations – TNT of the Netherlands, Royal Mail Group of the United Kingdom and Singapore Post. Headquartered in Amsterdam and with more than 1,200 employees worldwide, Spring Global Mail provides creative, reliable and cost effective solutions for all types of businesses sending international mail.

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DHL awarded industry accolade for best customer support

Posted by | Aug 8, 2007 | |

DHL has been awarded the Japan Institute of Information Technology’s (JIIT) highest award — ‘Best Customer Support of The Year 2007’ — in recognition of its contact center initiatives that enable the customer service unit to achieve productivity and quality targets, while cementing its role as a profit center.

JIIT established its ‘Best Customer Support of The Year’ award in May 1998 to promote improved productivity and more effective management systems within customer support units in public and private enterprises. Award applications are submitted every April for screening by JIIT staff members, who follow up with visits to applicants’ contact centers. Award winners are announced in August. This year, JIIT honored contact centers at DHL Japan and three other firms for outstanding contributions to their companies’ operations.

DHL Japan has in place strict Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each of its contact centers. These KPIs include answering at least 90 pct of all calls within 10 seconds, and maintaining a hang up rate — the percentage of all incoming calls abandoned by the caller before communication with an agent is established — of no greater than 0.1% of all incoming calls that ring for more than 15 seconds.

Assessment of contact center performance is based on inspections conducted by a team of internal quality control staff and a mystery caller program undertaken by an outside organization.

DHL Japan also emphasizes the quality of its agent responses, and believes that the 2007 JIIT award validates recent efforts to reinforce training of in-house staff and incentive program improvements that allow contact center agents to proactively propose services to customers — changes that have facilitated KPI achievement and raised profitability.

The results speak for themselves: sales of Time Definite Delivery (TDD) value-added services deriving from requests for pickup have risen significantly, with profit doubling in fiscal 2005 and nearly quadrupling in fiscal 2006, both relative to fiscal 2004, when contact center initiatives had yet to be implemented. DHL Japan has successfully positioned its contact centers as highly-profitable units within the company.

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