Author: Archive

DHL expands infrastructure in Sri Lanka with new Express Centre in Nugegoda.

Posted by | Jul 12, 2007 | |

DHL Keells (Pvt) Ltd inaugurated its newest Express Centre in the bustling town of Nugegoda. It will cater to the increasing demands of DHL’s retail customers in areas south of Colombo and beyond.

The Nugegoda Express Centre adds to DHL’s expanding network which includes Colombo, Kollupitiya, Ja-Ela, Mt.Lavinia, Biyagama, Kandy and Kurunegala. The Nugegoda Express Centre offers a range of products and services including Jumbo Box and Express Pallet targeted at retail customers.

During the last four years, DHL Keells (Pvt) Ltd. has made significant investments towards the development of infrastructure and facilities in Sri Lanka. Among them is the purpose-built Euro 2 million (LKR 260 million), 40,000-square-feet facility at Vauxhall Street in Colombo which houses 130 staff for both the administration and operations arms of DHL Express in Sri Lanka, as well as a 24/7 call centre.

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Postal Service and Letter Carriers Union reach tentative contract agreement

Posted by | Jul 12, 2007 | |

The U.S. Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) have reached a tentative agreement on a five-year contract. If ratified by union members, the agreement will run through Nov. 20, 2011, and affect approximately 222,000 career employees who deliver mail to residences and businesses on city delivery routes.

“Upon ratification, this agreement will benefit the Postal Service, our customers and employees,” said Doug Tulino, Postal Service vice president for Labor Relations. “It addresses important issues related to labor costs, revenue and delivery operations. While long in the making, we believe that this agreement will prove to be in the best interests of all concerned.”

The Postal Service and the NALC had been scheduled to enter into binding interest arbitration later this year after being unable to reach a new tentative contract. If the current tentative agreement is ratified, the arbitration will not be needed. The Postal Service and the NALC formally opened national contract negotiations in August, 2006.

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European Bank for Reconstruction supports modernisation of Romanian postal service

Posted by | Jul 12, 2007 | |

The EBRD is providing Posta Romana with a 50 million euro loan to finance the construction in Bucharest of the country’s first fully automated sorting centre and the modernisation of an existing sorting centre in the north-western city of Cluj. Up to 20 million euro of the loan will be syndicated to commercial banks. Posta Romana will also contribute to this project with 10 million euro of its own cash flow.

The construction of an automated sorting centre is a key element in the modernisation of Posta Romana, which is facing increasing competition following the liberalisation of the market in line with EU regulations.

The state-owned company was established, in its current form, in 1991, when post and telecoms activities were separated in Romania. Today, Posta Romana handles 2.2 million letters and over 50,000 parcels daily through its 7,100 offices and outlets.

Up until the end of 2008, the company has exclusive rights to handle items up to a maximum weight of 50g. In return, it is obliged to serve all destinations in the country at the same price and quality. In other areas, such as express mail services, Posta Romana is already facing private competition.

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Nipost to Become One-Stop Communication Shop

Posted by | Jul 12, 2007 | |

Baring major changes in the direction and focus of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), the organisation is likely to grow into a one-stop shop for all communications services with particular emphasis on catering for the communications needs of rural dwellers, five years down the line.

The Post Master General (PMG) of the country, Alhaji Ibrahim Baba Mori stated this during his working visit to the SpeedyPrint Limited, a member of the Supperflox Group in Lagos.

He also maintained that the government-owned courier company still maintains considerable comparative advantage over any other courier company operating in the country presently.

Fielding questions on what NIPOST would look like in the next five years. Mori said the postal services provider would possibly grow into a one-stop shop that would cater for all communication needs of the Nigerian, particularly the rural dwellers.

He also bared his mind on the threat to the company posed by the presence of private sector players in courier and mail delivery services, arguing that the role of the latter is complementary when it comes to mail delivery services in the country.

The Post Master General also maintained that NIPOST still enjoys significant comparative advantage over the private sector players and as such does not feel threatened by the existence and activities of such operators.

SpeedyPrint is a member of the Superflox Group and its speciality is in the production of security documents particularly for operators in the financial services sector, including cheques and statement of accounts.

The company has just been licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to print cheques for the consolidated banks operating in the country and the company has commenced printing of such security documents locally. Before now, such materials were being imported into the country.

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DHL launches ShipRush

Posted by | Jul 12, 2007 | |

DHL introduced ShipRush, the software tool designed for people to ship directly from several popular software applications. ShipRush for DHL gives shippers an easy and efficient way to ship via DHL by seamlessly integrating with their preferred business software.

Shippers using QuickBooks(R), eBay(R) or Microsoft Outlook will be able to ship directly to contacts within those applications without re-keying address data in a separate shipping system. ShipRush for DHL eliminates the need to copy and paste addresses or to export and import customer information in order to ship.

ShipRush for DHL processes all DHL domestic Express and Ground shipments, while providing greater accuracy by pulling the address directly from the customer’s software or Outlook application. In addition to printing a DHL shipping label from their own application, shippers using the new product can track and view shipments, print shipment activity reports, send automatic email notifications to recipients with the tracking number, and access discounted rates with a DHL account number.

ShipRush for DHL also downloads addresses from QuickBooks or Microsoft Outlook, and pulls PayPal confirmed addresses directly from eBay. The software can run on any PC or over a customer’s local network so it is accessible to multiple users.

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Bulgarian Postal Services Firm T-Post Targets 87% Coverage by 2012

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

Bulgaria’s first privately held postal services company T-Post plans to provide its services to nearly 90% of the country’s population by 2012, it said on Wednesday.

T-Post, owned by domestic postal operator Tip Top Courier, launched its services on Wednesday. The company was licensed for offering postal services in November last year.

“We plan to invest in network development in the next five years and cover 87% of the population,” T-Post director Venceslav Krastev told SeeNews. T-Post plans to expand its network to over 1,000 offices throughout Bulgaria by 2012.

Tip Top Courier said earlier this year it plans to invest some seven million levs ($4.9 mln/3.6 mln euro) in building T-Post’s network by 2009. Bulgaria’s postal services market should be fully liberalised by the end of 2009, in line with the requirements of the European Union. The Black Sea country joined the EU in January.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)

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Royal Mail criticized over pricing

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

The Royal Mail has faced criticism from the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) after their Pricing in Proportion initiative is shown to raise costs for small businesses.

60 pct of businesses participating in a survey conducted by the BCC stated that their postage costs had risen because of the change in pricing. Only 16 pct felt that Pricing in Proportion (PiP) had simplified the system, and fewer than 1 pct believe that it is an improvement on the previous pricing scheme.

The PiP system was designed to be a revenue neutral exercise for the Royal Mail, basing costs on the size of mail as opposed to weight, reflecting the expense of handling larger pieces of mail. The survey indicates that PiP has failed to simplify the system for customers, and has even raised postage costs for some.

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Industry Document Trends – Transactional Mail

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

Dear Paul,

TransPromo documents are gaining momentum and something every company should be looking at as a vehicle to more effectively communicate with your customers.

As an association and a provider of educational forums this is the number one topic requested by our members and industry professionals to include in our programming.

The reasons are evident if you look at the results of recent surveys conducted by InfoTrends:

Consumers when asked if they have a preference for receiving traditional statements or personalized statements that contain some relevant and/or useful information to the recipients, the majority (63%) voted for the TransPromo document.
36% of survey respondents indicated that they are already combining marketing messages with their transaction data and presenting the two in one printed document, and another 33% stated that they plan to do so within the next 5 years.
Of 212 document owners who were responsible for the purchase and/or development of direct mail programs.
27% indicated that they are currently including transactional information in their direct mail documents
and an additional 24% plan to do so by 2010.

As an educational sponsor of the upcoming InfoTrends Transpromo Summit, being held in New York August 22 – 23 rd Xplor members are eligible for special member discounts.

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