Author: Archive

USPS looks to union to help curb costs and avoid contracting

Posted by | Aug 7, 2007 | |

The U.S. Postal Service is asking for the cooperation of its unions in holding down costs if it is to avoid contracting out work, Postmaster General John Potter said last week.

Potter said he needed union help to improve service, reduce costs and increase revenue, suggesting lack of help on those issues would necessitate more outsourcing, though he echoed past pledges not to outsource existing postal jobs.

While postal unions and some congressional Democrats remain opposed to almost any outsourcing, Potter said postal managers, when asked to cut costs, need the discretion to outsource functions.

The hearing was the second held by the subcommittee since the passage of the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which introduced the most far-reaching changes at the agency since it became semiprivate in 1970.

The bill left undetermined many aspects of the Postal Service’s businesses, including to what extent the agency will use contractors to cut costs. A task force of postal and union officials is working together to issue recommendations this year.

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Vertis debuts MailTrail

Posted by | Aug 7, 2007 | |

Vertis Communications has unveiled MailTrail, a mail tracking and reporting system powered by GrayHair Software.

MailTrail provides marketers with the ability to trace a direct mail campaign’s journey through the mail stream, from a package’s initial entry to its projected in-home delivery date. The system design is driven by the US Postal Service’s next-generation Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) technology.

The IMB technology combines the capabilities of the USPS’s Postnet and Planet barcodes, as well as others, into one unique barcode system.

Clients can access this mailing data collected by the USPS in a variety of formats through their Vertis MailTrail portal and a comprehensive set of reports powered by GrayHair.

The reports, updated twice daily, give a variety of views of the mailing data by campaign, mailing version and geography.

The system addresses several challenges for marketers. It allows for more accurate in-home delivery times, multichannel campaigns, managing call-center resources (since it accurately forecasts call center volumes) and rapid views of response rates and receptivity.

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FedEx Express gateway for central & eastern Europe moves to Cologne

Posted by | Aug 7, 2007 | |

FedEx Express will relocate its largest German gateway from Frankfurt/Main to the Cologne/Bonn airport in 2010. FedEx and the operator of the airport, Flughafen Köln/Bonn GmbH, signed a cooperation agreement. New ramp and sort facilities will be built on a total floor space of approximately 50,000 square meters. The reason for this decision is the rapidly-growing demand for express services in Germany and Eastern Europe and its alignment with the strategic objectives of the company.

“In order to be able to provide the highest possible quality in all our services to our customers worldwide, we need to expand our hub capacities,” said Michael Mühlberger, vice president, Operations, FedEx Express Central & Eastern Europe. “Due to a potential ban on night flights, the Frankfurt/Main location cannot provide FedEx with long-term planning reliability.”

However, the Rhine/Main region will continue to play an important role for FedEx’s intercontinental and Europe services. Therefore, a part of the workforce will continue to work in Frankfurt in the future. In addition, new jobs will be created in the Cologne/Bonn region.

Cologne airport holds a number of benefits for FedEx, including great air traffic capacities. With a volume of 698,000 tons, it is the second-largest cargo airport in Germany and has longstanding experience in collaborating with air cargo and express service providers. Due to its proximity to highways, railway transportation and the river Rhine, the airport provides an ideal infrastructure for cargo traffic.

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GLS establishes start-up in Romania

Posted by | Aug 7, 2007 | |

GLS Romania went into operation on August 1st. Headquartered in Sibiu, the new subsidiary will be headed by Gabor Szemkeo, Managing Director GLS Europe East. The investment volume amounts to five million euros.

GLS will offer a national regular delivery time of 24 hours in Rumania: full-area distribution will be achieved by the hub in Sibiu as well as ten depots in Sibiu, Brasov, Pitesti, Bucuresti (Bucharest), Targu Mures, Cluj Napoca, Baia Mare, Oradea, Timisoara and Deva.

The start-up company is linked to GLS’ European network via regular line haul transports to the Austrian hub in Ansfelden and the Hungarian hub in Budapest. “From our European transhipment centre in Neuenstein, Germany, the hub for our international line haul transports, we are able to realize a regular delivery time of 72 hours for Rumanian import parcels”, explains Rico Back, CEO at GLS B.V., Amsterdam.

Following the growth markets

GLS already has experience in establishing start-up companies in growth markets: already a year before its entry into the EU, GLS Hungary was a hundred per cent subsidiary of the GLS Group. In May 2004, GLS Slovakia was launched; in April 2005, GLS Czech Republic began its operations. “We want to be present for our customers in eastern European EU markets to meet the increase in demand”, says Back. “Establishing our own companies has proven to be a successful strategy. We are able to achieve GLS’ high quality objectives in the first few weeks of operations and the break even point usually already in the second year.”

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New Zealand Post and Salmat propose joint venture in unaddressed mail distribution

Posted by | Aug 6, 2007 | |

New Zealand Post Limited and Salmat Limited announced today that they are working on a proposal for a joint venture business in unaddressed mail distribution within New Zealand.

Subject to clearance by the Commerce Commission and other conditions, New Zealand Post and Salmat propose merging the businesses of their respective unaddressed mail subsidiaries, Letterbox Channel Limited and Deltarg Distribution Systems Limited.

New Zealand Post and Salmat will today file an application with the Commerce Commission for clearance to become equal 50 pct shareholders in a new joint venture company that would acquire the businesses of Letterbox Channel and Deltarg.

The proposed joint venture would combine the current strengths of Letterbox Channel and Deltarg while realising a number of operating efficiencies and network synergies. The proposed company would continue to provide an excellent, economic service to current customers of Letterbox Channel and Deltarg, while being better positioned to compete strongly for a share of overall media advertising spend in New Zealand.

New Zealand Post’s Group Manager, Enterprises, Stephen Henry, and Salmat’s Divisional Director, Targeted Media, Peter Boyle said the proposed joint venture company would have estimated revenue of between NZ$ 40-50 million in its first full year of operation.

They said New Zealand Post and Salmat proposed contributing the assets of Letterbox Channel and Deltarg respectively to the proposed joint venture company in acquisition of their 50 pct shareholdings. Independent assessment and discussion between the parties had determined that the two businesses were of comparable value. The shareholders would share in the joint venture establishment costs and initial working capital requirements.

Mr Henry and Mr Boyle said Letterbox Channel and Deltarg would continue operating separately and in competition pending the Commission’s decision on the clearance application and final decisions to be made by New Zealand Post and Salmat.

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US Postal Service reports results for fiscal third quarter

Posted by | Aug 6, 2007 | |

Priority and express volumes at U.S. Postal Service declined during the organization’s fiscal third quarter, while parcel post shipments increased slightly, the postal service said.

Priority mail volumes fell 2.8% to 215 million, express volumes slipped .5% to 14.2 million and parcel post volumes rose .7% to 78.3 million.

Total revenue for the quarter rose to $18.4 billion, a 2.9% gain compared with the previous third quarter, according to the postal service.

The postal service competes directly with UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. for priority, express and parcel freight.

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Two months of postal sanctions halted by agreements

Posted by | Aug 6, 2007 | |

The Israel Postal Company sanctions that have annoyed customers and caused millions of shekels in financial losses to the company over the past two months ended on Monday, the company management announced.

Union chief Reuven Karazi and colleagues decided to stop the sanctions, which most recently closed all post office branches at 3 p.m. and prior to that halted diplomatic mail, the acceptance of payments to government accounts and other services.

The workers have been protesting against the high bulk-mail rates that threatened to give an advantage to private messenger companies and, the union charged, instigate the dismissal of over 1,000 Israel Postal Company employees.

Communications Minister Ariel Attias agreed to rethink the company’s general license and to make numerous technical changes desired by the union. The introduction of higher rates, especially for bulk mail, that were to go into effect on July 1, was postponed by two months.

The Israel Postal Company said it would continue to hold professional discussions with the ministry about the general license and approval of new services as demanded by company management.

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Correos to modernise international postal centre in Barajas airport

Posted by | Aug 6, 2007 | |

Correos will install an automatic sorting system for their international parcel centre in Baraja airport. The acquisition of this equipment will speed the management of the delivery and will improve the registration of the track information. The new equipment will also offer more value added services and bettering quality control to the clients of international delivery. The total investment is EUR 1.2 million.

The winner of the public tender was Vanderlande Industries Espana S.A. The company will acquire the machines and infrastructure on behalf of Correos de Espana and re-launch the Barajas international post centre in 6 months time. The company will be responsible for maintenance of the sort service for next
5 years. Four other companies sent economic proposals for the Correos public tender.

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