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Royal Mail challenged over plans for zonal pricing for bulk mail

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

Royal Mail’s bid to introduce zonal pricing for bulk mailers has come under fire during industry body Postcomm’s fourth annual industry forum this week (12 June).

The company’s proposal would affect the cost of sending bulk mail depending on which of five zones it is sent to. In some areas, such as within the M25, the charge increase could be as great as 12%.

Around 140 representatives attended the debate on Royal Mail’s proposals, which, if approved, could come into effect as early as April next year.

The zones are priced according to population density. Low density zones would see prices hiked 11%, whereas the business district of central London would see a drop of 28%.

Royal Mail justifies this anomalous increase because of the congestion charge, increased recruitment and salary costs and other factors.

Postcomm will publish a consultation document in July, after which there will be two months for interested parties to raise issues. A final decision will be taken 2 January 2008.

The Postcomm spokesperson questioned whether an April 2008 rollout would then be a feasible date and whether there would be enough time to communicate these changes to bulk mailers.

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Marketers can seal the deal with new high-tech envelopes

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

According to the Intelligent Document Task Force, created by the Envelope Manufacturers Association Foundation and the U.S. Postal Service, high-speed inkjet technology could allow for more information to be encoded onto mail pieces. This may allow envelopes to one day become an extension of a Web site, communicating information through a bar code, read by a bar code reader for the home. The bar code could direct a consumer to a Web site, making it easier to shop online or return merchandise.

Recently, the USPS expanded its Intelligent Mail bar code system to include flat mail. The system provides the ability to use a single bar code to store more information on individual pieces of mail. This allows for better tracking of mail pieces, which facilitates better sequencing of marketing efforts. For example, if a marketer knows consumers in a particular city or region will receive a direct marketing piece on a certain day, it could buy advertising time in the local television market timed to correspond to the “mail moment” closely.

An exciting area of research and development is intelligent stamps. There are many potential uses for stamps featuring wireless technology. Perhaps one day a stamp will communicate with a cell phone and call up a Web site about a product or service or issue a missing child alert. This technology could also be used on the envelope itself.

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Mailing groups ask USPS for rate relief

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

Mailing groups, including the Direct Marketing Association and the Mail Order Association of America, are calling on the U.S. Postal Service’s Governors to quickly implement the rate reductions recommended by the Postal Regulatory Commission for Standard Mail flats. They are also asking that the temporary rate relief be extended beyond the Sept. 29 deadline recommended by the PRC.

The PRC’s “Second Opinion and Recommended Decision on Reconsideration,” issued May 25, establishes a transitional temporary rate reduction of 3 cents for all Standard Mail Regular flats and 2 cents for Standard Regular nonprofit flats. In its reconsideration proposal, the USPS suggested the same reduction until the next postal change, likely to be in mid-2008, under the new procedures established by the postal reform law signed by President Bush on Dec. 20.

In a June 4 letter to the Governors, the DMA asked them to approve the rate reduction without the deadline. In the letter, the DMA noted that the PRC “responded positively to the Governors’ and the mailers’ concerns regarding the excessive increases initially recommended for Standard Regular flats. Now it is the Governors’ responsibility to implement the revised rates, and the DMA urges the Governors to approve the commission’s recommendation and provide mailers just as soon as possible with the rate relief recommended by the commission.”

Mailers had until June 4 to supply comments to the Governors. At press time no date had been scheduled for a vote.

Some mailers have also been discussing the possibility of synching the timing of the change with the implementation of new periodical rates on July 15. Even though, generally, everyone would want them changed as soon as possible, some mailers said this approach would give everyone enough time to modify postage statements and software so manual calculations would not have to be done, which would be costly and time consuming.

The DMA also cautioned that the temporary discounts offered to flat mailers would only postpone substantial cuts in mailing volumes and a further decrease in revenue for the USPS.

The Mail Order Association of America, a trade group representing mail-order catalogers, agreed with the DMA.

The PRC suggested that lower rates be implemented in the form of rebates. However, the MOAA said “adjusting the rate schedules as appropriate would be a much simpler means of implementing the recommended decision.”

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Itella To Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions By 10 Per Cent By 2012

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

The national postal operators of Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway and Malta are committed to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions by 10 per cent in the next five years. Greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. carbon dioxide, represent 70 per cent of postal operators’ total environmental impact. Half of these CO2 emissions result from the use of road transport. PostEurop, the association of European public postal operators, coordinates the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programme. Itella, Finland’s largest transport company, plays a major role in the development of pro-environmental logistics. The key goal of Itella’s environmental strategy is to reduce vehicle carbon dioxide emissions caused by the use of fossil traffic fuels. Methods of reducing fuel consumption include efficient route planning, combining transports, and training in ecological driving methods. Alternative fuels tested in use include electricity, natural gas and biodiesel. Energy consumption, recycling and waste management will also be enhanced in buildings while new environment-friendly services are developed, for instance in electronic communications. Itella has had excellent experiences of using biodiesel in test vehicles. As the first Finnish transport company to do so, Itella began the related trials in January 2007. The share of biodiesel has been increased from 10 per cent to 80 percent. Starting next week Itella will experiment with 100 per cent biodiesel. According to research results the production and use of biodiesel causes up to 40 per cent less CO2 emissions than ordinary fuel. Itella’s fleet in Finland comprises over 5,500 vehicles, covering around 100 million kilometres per year. In 2006, Itella’s carbon dioxide emissions totalled 98,000 tonnes in Finland, i.e. some 0.2 per cent of the CO2 emissions of the entire country, resulting from the use of fossil fuels in vehicles and the production of power and heat purchased for use on premises. On average, the delivery of one letter from sender to recipient produces 36 grammes of carbon dioxide, whereas an ordinary passenger car emits the same amount on a 200-metre journey.

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U.S. Postal Service offers workshops, solutions and a

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

Workshops on ways eBay entrepreneurs can use the new rate structure to their advantage and how improvements are making shipping easier highlight this year’s eBay Live! conference for the U.S. Postal Service.

eBay Live!, the annual gathering of the eBay community, exhibitors, guest speakers and employees, is set for June 14 to 16 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The event is expected to draw thousands of eBay members from around the world. Attendees will network, discover new strategies and share new solutions to more effectively buy and sell on eBay.

Workshops to explain the rate structure that began last month are planned for all three conference days. Changes to domestic rates and international mail took effect last month. The Postal Service simplified its eight main international products into four: Global Express Guaranteed, Express Mail International, Priority Mail International and First-Class Mail International. New packaging will allow mailers to use the same Priority Mail and Express Mail packaging for shipping within the United States and to other countries.

And shipping domestically or internationally also has gotten easier for eBay sellers. The PayPal MultiOrder Shipping Solution now lets customers manage all eBay and PayPal shipments in one place, print multiple Postal Service domestic shipping labels with one click, and link shipments to the newly launched Shipment Confirmation Acceptance Notice (SCAN). SCAN forms contain Intelligent Mail barcodes that hold information on all shipping labels and packages in the same shipment.

Improvements also now allow customers to import shipping information for eBay and PayPal transactions, create shipping presets to ship similar items using the same service type, track packages in the shipping history section, and combine multiple items to be shipped together in one package.

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Technology keeps reshaping Postal Service

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

The competition starting heating up for the Postal Service in the 1990s, when the Internet and e-mail became a household feature and private package delivery services started becoming more popular, such as UPS, FedEx and DHL.

USPS has kept up with its competition by offering more convenient services like Click-and-Ship, where postage can be paid for and shipping labels printed from your home computer. The package can be picked up at your home with free delivery confirmation letting the sender track the package, says Antonio Ruiz, Sebastian Post Office Officer-in-Charge.

A reduction in business, especially its core product or single-piece first-class mail and a slowing in growth of all first-class mail, Breckenridge says, also made the USPS review its business strategies.

Reasons for dwindling Post Office business includes many new and convenient features that computers offer, such as:

• personal bill pay, i.e. a lot fewer bills traveling through “snail” mail;

• online banking and bank statements, i.e. a lot fewer bank statements and other banking correspondence in the mail;

• other statements being offered through e-mail, i.e. insurance;

• Internet shopping, i.e. merchandise comes directly from a store or manufacturer, eliminating the need to be sent via mail from person-to-person

• and e-mail, i.e. a lot fewer hand-written letters and cards.

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DX: New Postal Facility In Edinburgh

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

DX opened its new postal facility at Rutland Square in Edinburgh. The opening follows a GBP 0.25 million refurbishment of the postal facility, reinforcing DX’s commitment to continually improve services for its Scottish customer base.

Last year saw full deregulation of the postal market and, along with it, several new entrants into the arena. DX however is unique. With its own nationwide network, DX is the only major mail operator not to rely on Royal Mail for the delivery – which, with a potential postal strike looming, gives it a distinct advantage.

Hence, as well as investment in its postal facility, DX has introduced a number of service initiatives which, it believes, provide unparalleled cost and service benefits to the Scottish business community. These include:

– a same day post delivery service between Edinburgh and Glasgow
– guaranteed next-day delivery service nationwide (to business and residential addresses) costing just GBP 3.50
– UK-wide pre 9am delivery of mail to other DX customers for less than the cost of a 1st class stamp

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FedEx plans to add more India flights

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

FedEx will increase flights to India in response to growing demand as the country’s air express and cargo markets take off, a senior executive said.

The US integrator expects manufacturing industries such as cars, telecoms and pharmaceuticals to grow in India, foresees rising demand for consumer goods, and believes that improved transport infrastructure will boost the express sector, Michael Mühlberger, FedEx vice president operations Central and Eastern Europe, told the Air Cargo Europe conference at the Transport Logistic fair in Munich this week.

Mühlberger pointed out that poor road connections were playing a role in driving the domestic air express market, but even as road infrastructure improved, air express flights would remain necessary to the distances between the sub-continent’s economic centres.

Ram Menen, head of Emirates Cargo, told the conference that Dubai and Singapore would continue to act as air cargo gateways to India in the future with multiple services to Indian cities due to the poor condition and insufficient capacity of the country’s road and air infrastructure. The USD 14 billion Indian logistics market is growing at about 7% a year, and had excellent growth prospects due to the country’s strong economic growth and demographic structure, he added.

Tom Hoang, Boeing regional director, said that Europe, the Far East and the Middle East were the main air cargo import and export destinations for India. The Indian domestic air cargo market would grow at about 9% a year over the next 20 years, he predicted.

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