Author: Archive

Pubs to run UK post offices

Posted by | Jun 3, 2007 | |

More than 500 pubs are being earmarked to run post offices inside them.

The move would offset the Royal Mail’s axing of 2,500 post offices over the next two years.

Industry Secretary Alistair Darling sees pubs as ideal locations for “outreach post offices” to be set up in remote communities.

Royal Mail chiefs have been involved in talks with campaigners to match pub sites with areas where closures are likely.

The Pub Is The Hub coordinator John Longdon said: “It’s great the Government has recognised the role pubs can play in the community.”

Hilary Scott, who runs a post office from her pub in Wistow, North Yorks, said: “The post office brings in new people – our pub has become a real focal point.”

The Communication Workers Union said they are confident a secret ballot of their 130,000 members will show a huge vote for strike action on Thursday.

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Siemens in U.S. Postal Service deal

Posted by | Jun 3, 2007 | |

Siemens AG said Wednesday it received a USD 218 million subcontract from Northrop Grumman Corp. for a project with the U.S. Postal Service.

Siemens will provide optical character recognition and video coding systems, among other items, to help the Postal Service further automate its processing stream for large envelopes, catalogs and magazines.

Siemens’ U.S.-listed shares lost USD 1.88 at USD 130.32 in morning trading, while Northrop Grumman fell 13 cents to USD 75.08.

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Post strike could cost Royal Mail GBP 300m

Posted by | Jun 3, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has privately warned that a national postal strike could cost up to GBP 300m in penalty payments and lost income, according to senior industry figures.

Royal Mail executives have made the claim to a group representing major business users, while indicating similar consequences to industry regulators.

As the Communication Workers Union prepares to announce on Thursday the results of a national strike ballot over pay, conditions and a potential restructuring of the business, Royal Mail has drawn up contingency plans that include drafting in up to 7,000 managers.

The CWU is confident that its 130,000 membership will vote in favour of the first national strike in 11 years, pointing to independent polls which indicate that 65 per cent will say yes to action.

Earlier this month Royal Mail asked Postcomm, its regulator, to make an exception in the case of industrial action to regulations governing penalty payments if service standards fall. At present a strike is not considered ‘force majeure’ under the regulations, and if there is a stoppage, Royal Mail can be penalised.

This can happen in several ways: a compensation scheme for businesses which reduces Royal Mail’s future revenues, a quality benchmark that it must meet or trigger penalties – known as the ‘C factor’ – and direct fines from Postcomm. Royal Mail believes the first two measures could cost it up to GBP 300m in the event of protracted strikes, and on 2 May asked the regulator to waive them for two years.

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Deutsche Post calls on partner companies to cut costs

Posted by | Jun 3, 2007 | |

Deutsche Post AG is calling on its partner companies to take part in a pilot savings scheme in a bid to cut costs by up to 15 pct, reported Thomson Financial News partner dpa-AFX.

One partner firm has since announced plans to end its contract with Deutsche Post, reported dpa-AFX.

The pilot scheme, which was agreed with trade union Ver.di, affects around one tenth of Deutsche Post’s delivery areas, added the report.

‘We have spoken to the companies and shown them where money could be saved,’ reported German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag, citing a company spokesman.

Deutsche Post hopes its partners will cut costs by either reducing wages for drivers, or by placing an increased number of packages for delivery into trucks, added Welt am Sonntag.

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E-post service gains momentum in Karnataka

Posted by | Jun 2, 2007 | |

The inception of e-post service has helped the Karnataka postal circle rake in revenues to the tune of Rs 5,34,440 till April 30, 2007.

According to Meera Datta, postmaster general, the Karnataka circle has handled 53009 messages since the e-post service was introduced in January 30, 2004.

Terming the response towards the service as “encouraging,” Datta said, “There are 27 identified e-post centers in Karnataka. These identified e-post centers are equipped with computers, Internet and flatbed scanners to receive and send e-posts.”

Department of Posts (DoP) introduced the e-post service to bridge the digital divide and to bring the benefits of the Internet technology to rural areas.

The customers are charged Rs 10 per page of A4 size. E-post messages can be sent to any postal address in India or e-mail ID anywhere in the world.

The e-post center scans the message and e-mails it to the destination Post Office. The destination Post Office prints the message and delivers it to the addressee, enclosed in an e-post cover.

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Later delivery plan for UK post

Posted by | Jun 2, 2007 | |

Postal deliveries could be pushed back to a 10.30am start time following a major overhaul of working practices by Royal Mail.

Residents and businesses across Lancashire could face later deliveries after Royal Mail announced they were looking at a more efficient way of working.

Unions chiefs have hit out at the change and said it could bring chaos to the delivery service.

The news follows initial moves at the Leyland sorting office where postmen were informed they could not leave for their rounds until after 10am.

Royal Mail said the move had been prompted by a desire to make postal workers spend more time in the sorting office before they start deliveries.

They said the change would allow more efficiency in sorting the next day’s post.

The changes are to be rolled out at sorting offices across Lancashire and the rest of the UK but Royal Mail claim it would not result in deliveries stretching in to late afternoon.

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La Poste chooses Orange Business Talk

Posted by | Jun 2, 2007 | |

Orange Business Services has deployed its Business Talk service for the French post office’s technical assistance staff. La Poste technicians and experts of the mail technical department now benefit from two-in-one service, with a single number for fixed and mobile, a unified voice message system and preferential rates for all business calls from a fixed or mobile handset. The post office technicians receive between 65 and 80 calls per day, often while outside the office, and were hard to contact before the change. Some 20 percent of technical support calls went unanswered immediately. Over 2,000 companies currently use Business Talk.

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US Post offices host passport fairs

Posted by | Jun 2, 2007 | |

It wasn’t long ago that all an American needed to skip over the border to Mexico or Canada was a driver’s license.

But with the passage of new laws governing travel in North America, venturing to those countries has become more complicated.

Congress crafted the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in late 2005 to tighten security on the Canadian and Mexican borders.

To help remedy the situation and make the process easier, the Mountain View and Millbrae post offices are hosting fairs Saturday that offer one-stop shopping for passport seekers.

There will be photographers on hand and post office employees will walk applicants through the process, U.S. Postal Service spokesman James Wigdel said.

Currently, those traveling by air must hold passports, while those going by sea or land won’t need the documents until January, said Roxanne Hercules of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.

Since the new rules took effect, the number of people seeking the navy blue books that allow Americans to travel abroad has doubled to roughly 17 million annually – extending the time it takes to obtain a passport to three months in some cases.

“It used to take four to six weeks” for a passport to be issued, Wigdel said. “Now it’s 10 to 12 weeks.”

Nationally, the U.S. Postal Service is expected to help process 14 million of about 17.7 million passport requests this year.

In the San Francisco region, which includes Silicon Valley, 3,500 passports are processed every week, officials said.

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