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Tesco appoints DHL Global Mail as preferred supplier for mail services

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

DHL Global Mail, Deutsche Post World Net’s one-stop shop for all mail services, has just been awarded a £12 million business contract as Tesco’s preferred downstream mail services supplier.
The contract will mean that around 75 million mail items for Tesco will be distributed through DHL’s Suresort sorted and unsorted services over the next year – representing a significant growth in DHL’s share of overall Tesco mail activity.

Tesco, which has over 1,500 stores and 250,000 employees in the UK, began working with DHL Global Mail in August 2005. Since then it has successfully managed the collection and distribution of a range of Tesco mailings including the large volume quarterly Tesco Clubcard mailing.

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Italian express company Bartolini launches Balkan service

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

Italian express company Bartolini has increased the number of countries it serves in Europe by launching a new service to the Balkans through European partner DPD.

Bartolini started shipping to Greece, Bulgaria and Romania last week, bringing the number of European countries it serves through DPD and the EuroExpress courier network to 25.

The company has also opened three new parcel sorting centres in Italy: a 5,000 sqm facility at L’Aquila, near Bazzano; a 1,100 m centre in Lucca; and a 1,000 sqm depot outside Forli.

These follow new centres in Vercelli and Savona at the start of the year. Bartolini now has 150 such facilities in Italy.
Bartolini provides the delivery of shipments and providing logistic support services for the handling and distribution of the goods.
Consolidated turnover: over 650 Million Euro

Employees: 9.200

Vehicles: over 5.500

Branches in Italy: 145

Branches in Europe: 1050

Total number of parcels transported in one year: more than 80 millions

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Postcomm forum illustrates strong feelings and diverse views on zonal pricing

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

Debate at Postcomm’s fourth annual industry forum over Royal Mail’s application to apply what it calls zonal pricing to some business mail products has illustrated the strong feelings and diverse views on the subject.

Royal Mail has applied to Postcomm to charge large mailers – using products which are not part of the Universal Service – different prices depending on where in the UK their mail is delivered. Today’s workshop was held as part of Postcomm’s consultation process for this application.

In advance of the workshop, a Royal Mail spokesperson said “the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service to the UK’s 27 million addresses is open to every customer and we have urged the regulator to agree that this service should be focused on stamped mail.”

For business customers, Royal Mail “believes where strong competition and customer choice is already well established, Postcomm should let the market decide on prices. That means allowing Royal Mail to introduce zonal pricing for bulk business mail – if business customers want it. Zonal pricing is already available and being used by Royal Mail’s access customers where prices can already vary if the mailing is for high or low density areas.”

Representatives from Postwatch, the customer watchdog, asked why Royal Mail “is proceeding with zonal pricing, an initiative that has received no customer support whatsoever”. Highlighting the potential impact on customers, and the wider postal market, Postwatch identified significant features, both positive and negative, within Royal Mail’s proposals concluding that the time was “not right to change to such a pricing structure”. Postwatch also urged customers to respond to Postcomm stating their opposition to the proposals to support “the fact that this change will be unreasonable for users of the service”.

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Postcomm annual report looks back on a year of significant change

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

Postcomm’s 2006/07 annual report published today covers the first full year during which two significant Postcomm policy initiatives took effect: Royal Mail’s long-standing monopoly of the mail market was removed completely at the start of 2006 and a new four year price and service quality control came into effect on 1 April 2006.

Royal Mail still has a virtual monopoly over the final mile with less than 1% of the mail now being delivered end-to-end by rival operators. However, ‘access’ competition has developed to a more significant extent. Currently nearly a quarter of bulk business mail is collected from the mailer by rival operators and handed over to Royal Mail for delivery ‘the final mile’. More than 70% of the total revenues in this access competition structure are retained by Royal Mail.

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New postal plant could speed up service for USPS

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

The U.S. Postal Service could alleviate problems with mail service in New Mexico by building a new postal plant on land it owns in Albuquerque. So says the American Postal Workers Union.

The Postal Service has been unable to keep up with growth in the Albuquerque and Rio Rancho areas — much less in the rest of the state — in the past few years.

Eugene Gabaldon is a spokesman for the union. He says a new plant on the 43 acres of Postal Service land in Albuquerque’s south valley could go a long way in fixing those problems.

U.S. Representative Tom Udall and U.S. Senator Pete Domenici say the proposal is worth considering, but a Postal Service spokesman — Paul Basile — says the existing Albuquerque plant can manage mail processing operations now and in the future.

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UPS and FedEx's modest quarterly earnings are offset by the growth of their international businesses

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

A slowing American economy, high fuel prices, too much capacity and slackening demand may collectively account for why UPS’s first quarter results and FedEx’s fiscal third-quarter earnings were relatively flat, particularly in the domestic business.

“The first quarter of 2007 has turned out to be a bust” for UPS and much of the air freight business, said Ned Laird, president of the Seattle-based Air Cargo Management Group. “There is no growth in the domestic market and virtually no growth in the to-and-from U.S. markets.”

But the reports also suggest UPS and FedEx are riding out what some believe are fundamental changes in their domestic businesses by spreading into other areas, including growing international air business, that is keeping them solidly profitable.

Atlanta-based UPS’ first quarter net profit dropped 13.5 percent to USD 843 million compared to USD 975 million the company earned in the first three months of 2006 and came on a 3.3 percent gain in revenue, to USD 11.9 billion.

FedEx revenue was up 7 percent to USD 8.6 billion for the quarter ended Feb. 28, but the USD 420 million net profit was down 2 percent from the year earlier period.

Overall domestic package volume dipped 1.6 percent. And International Priority volume dipped 1 percent.

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Speed Post charges cut for local letters

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

The Department of Posts on Monday reduced local Speed Post charges for letters weighing up to 50 gm from Rs. 20 to 12 (including service tax). The service will be available in 1,200 towns across the country.
However, it has increased tariffs for parcels. For a parcel weighing above 500 gm and delivered in destinations 201-1,000 km away, apart from the regular charge of Rs. 45, Rs.15 will be payable for every extra 500 gm. Earlier the rate was Rs.10.
For a 51-200 gm parcel, Rs.70 will be charged for distances between 1,001 and 2,000 km and Rs. 80 for distances beyond 2,000 km. Earlier, the charges were Rs.60. For every additional 500 gm, Rs. 30 will be charged as against Rs. 20 now for 1,001-2,000 km and Rs. 40 as against Rs. 25 now for distances beyond 2,000 km.
At all Speed Post centres, articles meant for the same town will be delivered the same day or on the next working day. The Department would soon buy two cargo aircraft to deliver postal articles in the northeastern States and metros.
Launched in 1986, Speed Post has a market share of 27 per cent, with monthly traffic exceeding 1.4 crore articles.

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New contract with Birds Eye

Posted by | Jun 12, 2007 | |

Christian Salvesen Foods has won a major new 10 -year contract with Birds Eye to provide pea processing and dedicated logistics services for Europe’s largest pea processing factory in Hull.

The GBP 10 million investment with Birds Eye will be operational by May 2008 and the project will see the current Christian Salvesen site in Salvesen Way, on the Brighton Street industrial estate, expanded with the addition of a new factory capable of handling more than 50,000 tonnes of processed peas each year.

This latest project strengthens the existing partnership between Salvesen and Birds Eye and provides cold storage, distribution and processing facilities at the factory to be built by Birds Eye. The company and Christian Salvesen Foods have a strong partnership that currently also provides processing and cold storage facilities in Lowestoft – an operation that has been working successfully for more than seven years.

Colin Miles, Managing Director of Christian Salvesen Foods, believes this new project further strengthens Salvesen’s position as a leading provider of value added services to the food processing sector. “Birds Eye expects quality and a high standard of logistical expertise and that is what we provide at Christian Salvesen. We already provide a number of high quality value-added logistics and processing services to Birds Eye and other major food retailers and this new contract demonstrates our commitment to this sector.”

Jon Strachan, European Supply Chain Director for the Birds Eye Iglo Group commented, “We are very pleased to have negotiated this long-term dedicated contract with Salvesens that enables us to use their capabilities in this primary processing area whilst retaining in-house our key areas of know-how in the agriculture, secondary processing and packing of our high quality peas. We have a long-standing working relationship with the Salvesens team and this together with these exciting plans gives us every confidence that this investment will create value for both businesses.”

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