Author: Archive

Post Office boosts Instant Saver rate

Posted by | Jul 5, 2007 | |

The Post Office is increasing the rate on its Instant Saver account from 5.75 per cent to 6.00 per cent* following today’s rise in the Bank of England base rate.

The new rate will be available to new and existing Instant Saver customers from August 1 2007.

Post Office Head of Savings Richard Norman said: “The Post Office® continues to be one of the few savings providers to consistently pass on base rate rises in full to customers, and we guarantee to do so until 2010.”

Post Office Instant Saver also guarantees to remain within 1.0% of the Bank of England base rate for the life of the account and offers six free withdrawals a year with a flat fee of just £1 for future withdrawals.

Instant Saver is available at all of the UK’s 14,000 Post Office branches, by telephone and online. Withdrawals can be made both at branches and ATMs, offering unrivalled choice and convenience.

*This includes a 1.0% bonus for 12 months from the date of account opening.

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Virgin Money launches pre-paid card

Posted by | Jul 5, 2007 | |

Virgin Money today entered the pre-paid card market with the launch of its Pay As You Go card.

The card is aimed at the three million people who do not have a bank account, and migrant workers, who can use it to send money home to their families.

The card works in a similar way to pay-as-you-go mobile phones, with people able to top up their card with money at Post Offices, PayPoint outlets and online.

Once money has been put on to the card it can be used to pay for things wherever MasterCard is accepted, as well as to buy things online and to withdraw cash from ATMs.

The cards can also be used by parents with children aged 13, with an online statement enabling them to monitor their children’s spending, and by people travelling abroad.

The cards cost GBP 9.95 to take out, with additional cards charged at £4.95. Money can be loaded on to the cards free at the Post Office or online but there is a 2.75% charge for using PayPoint and a 2.5% charge if a credit card is used.

People can use the cards to send money abroad by purchasing an addition card and sending it to their family. They can then load their card with cash in the UK and their family can withdraw it from an ATM abroad, although they will incur a 3.5% fee.

Cardholders will receive a 10% discount on goods and services from other members of the Virgin group, such as Virgin Megastores, Virgin Holidays and Virgin Wines.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, said: “Almost three million adults in the UK do not use banking facilities and are locked in the cash economy.

“This card will allow users to buy on the internet, on the high street, and save money on a range of Virgin products.”

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Itella: 85 million eLetters sent annually

Posted by | Jul 4, 2007 | |

In Finland, circa 85 million eLetters are sent annually. The users of this service consider the Itella eLetter to be easy to use, inexpensive and reliable. It is, hence, mainly used for sending invoices. The concept, used since the early 1990s in Finland, is also now being exported.

With the help of Itella’s eLetter service, companies send documents, for example invoices, customer bulletins or salary statements, to Itella in electronic format. Itella Information then prints and places the documents in envelopes and sends them, depending on the format that the recipient wants, to their destination either by post in paper format or electronically for example to Itella’s eTransactions service, Netposti. The eLetter service speeds up the flow of information from the sender to the recipient, resulting in the sender’s organisation functioning more efficiently. The routine work processes, such as fulfilment and posting, are carried out by Itella in a data secure manner, and it only remains for the client company to produce the content.

According to the customer satisfaction survey commissioned by Itella Information Oy in May, the users of eLetters are highly satisfied with the service: it is considered easy to use, inexpensive and reliable. 80 pct of the respondents rated the eLetter as “extremely good” or “excellent” for ease of use. 75pct considered the eLetter to be a service that matched their needs well and 76pct were satisfied with the quality of the printing and mailing services.

Almost 70 pct of the companies and organizations surveyed use the eLetter for sending invoices. Of the users of the service, around 50pct send salary statements and circa 25 pct other customer communications, such as bulletins and customer letters.

The objective of the customer satisfaction survey was to chart customer opinion about the eLetter service and to find out about the selection criteria for its use. 120 business customers using the eLetter service took part in the survey and it was conducted via telephone interviews.

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Royal Mail aims to deliver on its social responsibility

Posted by | Jul 4, 2007 | |

For Royal Mail Group, corporate social responsibility means doing the right thing for its people, its business and the communities in which it operates.

The group believes that the modern consumer wants to buy from a company that share his values; employees want to work for companies that provide a healthy and safe environment and whose values align to theirs, and communities want companies that contribute to the cohesion that builds neighbourhoods where people live and work.

The group’s success in a number of award schemes demonstrates its continued commitment to meeting the needs of its customers, staff and the communities in which they work.

In particular the group has recently been awarded the World Mail’s Corporate Social Responsibility Award 2006, Business in the Community’s UnumProvident Healthy Workplaces Award for Excellence, and 2006 Business in the Community’s Opportunity Now Award for gender diversity in the workplace.

The coming year will be one of many challenges as Royal Mail structures the business to compete more effectively. Its vision remains to be demonstrably the best and most trusted mail company in the world that consistently delivers excellent quality of service to customers.

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Deutsche Post reviving US air cargo ambition

Posted by | Jul 4, 2007 | |

Deutsche Post has quietly revived a plan to invest in the US air cargo industry which was dropped four years ago in the face of regulatory opposition.

The company last month acquired a 49 per cent stake in Miami-based Astar Air Cargo, which in turn launched an unsolicited bid for Ohio-based ABX Air. Both companies derive most of their business from long-term contracts with Deutsche Post subsidiary DHL.

The proposed deal follows years of wrangling over Deutsche Post’s role in the US air cargo business, which is subject to the same constraints over foreign ownership as passenger airlines.

DHL agreed to sell its 25 per cent stake in Astar – then known as DHL Airways – to a group of US investors in 2003 after rivals such as UPS and FedEx claimed it had broken the ownership laws.

DHL’s USD 1.05 billion purchase of Airborne Express was also subjected to similar scrutiny, and the air cargo company was spun off to shareholders and renamed ABX, while the German group kept the ground-based parcel business.

Astar, which is headed by former Northwest Airlines chief executive John Dasburg, also tried to acquire ABX in 2003, and the talks were revived last December before the Miami-based group last week made an unsolicited USD 7.75 a share proposal to acquire its rival, citing “unusual volume and pricing activity” in ABX stock.

ABX was asked to respond to a proposal which valued the company at USD 454 million. Its shares climbed 12 per cent in the wake of the announcement and were trading just above USD 8, fuelling speculation of a rival offer from management.

DHL said it expected no problems in securing regulatory backing for the two deals involving its suppliers.

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Japan Post Expands Parcel Delivery Market Share in FY '06

Posted by | Jul 4, 2007 | |

Japan Post expanded its market share for parcel delivery services in Japan by 0.6 percentage point from the previous year to 8.4 pct in fiscal 2006 that ended in March, it was learned Wednesday.

As a result, Japan Post, to be privatized in October, moved up to fourth from fifth in the market share rankings, as its “Yu-Pack” service performed well, according to data compiled by the transport ministry and other organizations.

The top three spots in the rankings were unchanged from the previous year. Yamato Transport Co. retained top position with a 36.6 pct share, up 1.0 point, followed by Sagawa Express Co. with a 32.4 pct share, up 0.9 point. Nippon Express Co. remained third with a 10.7 pct share.

The overall number of parcels handled in Japan inched up 1.0 pct to 3,207.14 million for fiscal 2006, indicating that the Japanese parcel delivery market is reaching saturation point.

The top three spots in the ranking for number of parcels were also unchanged. Yamato maintained its lead, with 1,174.56 million, up 4.0 pct. Sagawa was second with 1,037.87 million, up 3.6 pct, followed by Nippon Express with 342.87 million, up 0.5 pct.

Japan Post’s figure increased 8.6 pct to 267.95 million, the fourth highest, on the back of tie-ups with department store chains.

But Fukuyama Transportation Co. saw its number of parcels plunge by 26.0 pct to 20.46 million. The company’s market share fell 2.2 points to 6.3 pct, dropping it to fifth place from fourth.

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Spain's Unipost announced sales of EUR 89 million in 2006

Posted by | Jul 4, 2007 | |

Unipost, the main postal competitor in Spain to Correos , reported sales of EUR 89 million for last year, up 13 pct on 2005.

The company, 37.8 pct owned by Deutsche Post, processed 513 million items of mail during 2006, 11.5 pct more than the year before.

Some 6 pct of business came from the international channel, through DHL Global Mail. The company did not release earnings figures in a statement to the Spanish media.

Pablo Raventós, managing director, said exploiting the potential of direct marketing services and increasing the level of international business should see Unipost reach sales of EUR 100 million in 2007.

The company claims over 15,000 customers in all sectors and a network of 185 facilities and staff of 4,200.

Unipost was set up six years ago, a merger of regional postal operators in Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza.

Since 2001, it has achieved annual growth of 15pct per year and now delivers over two million items a day throughout the country.

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MRW opens EUR 17m Barcelona hub

Posted by | Jul 4, 2007 | |

Spanish express courier MRW continues to expand fast across Iberia with the opening of a new EUR 17 million logistics hub at Barcelona.

The 13,000 sqm facility has separate parcel and mail sorting belts with nearly 200 loading bays. The company now has over 40 such hubs in Iberia, following the opening of new platforms in San Sebastian and Granada in May.

“The platforms play an important role in the logistics of the network as they are the points where different time-definite shipments converge, permitting agility and speed in the services the client is paying for,” the company said in a statement.

MRW has also opened four new franchises in Badalona (Barcelona), Alicante city, Gandía (Valencia) and Medina-Sidonia (Cádiz) over the past month, taking its total number of outlets in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar to 775, 86 of which are in Barcelona province (25 in the city).

The company is one of Spain’s fastest-growing couriers, with over 10,000 staff, 5,000 vehicles and three aircraft. Last year revenues grew 9% to EUR 564 million.

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