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Sri Lankan Postal Department desperate for structural reforms

Posted by | May 27, 2007 | |

The Postal Department faces an urgent need for structural reforms if it is to be commercially viable and improve the services it provides through a countrywide network of 4,000 post offices.“Public and private sector partnerships to improve postal services have been stalled due to union and political pressure but some improvements can be done even within a departmental framework,” Post Master General, K .A. Sherwin Senadeera told The Sunday Times FT. He said there was one post office for every 14 km and every 4,100 persons. The department has the highest distribution force in the country.

Most of the businesses send their local mail through the Postal Department and use courier services to send their foreign mail.

The Post Master General said that around 7,500 postmen are engaged in the delivery of mail throughout the country and their mode of transport is still the bicycle because most of them have to cover remote rural areas with poor road conditions. He noted that it was feasible to use bicycles even in some urban areas as they had to deliver mail to households situated in narrow by lanes where the road conditions were also poor in many parts of the country.

Asked about providing motorcycles to postmen serving in urban areas, he said this is not a viable option as the Postal Department is not in a position to bear the costs. The Department spends Rs.12 to Rs.13 to deliver a letter within the country but they charge only Rs.5. Postal charges need to be increased to cover these expenses, he said. “The Department charges Rs.5 for sending normal mail. Sri Lanka Post is operating as a non profit making institution like any other government department as its services are under priced,” he said. Senadeera said that the quality of postal services could be enhanced if charges are also adjusted.

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UPS expands operations in United Arab Emirates

Posted by | May 27, 2007 | |

In an expansion drive for 2007, UPS in UAE announced that it has extended its express operations by opening its largest-ever facility to accommodate the rise in demand for express delivery and logistics solutions in the Emirates.

The new facility has the capacity to meet the challenges of the UAE’s increasingly sophisticated business environment and increasing customer demands. The location of the new facility in Al Quoz is strategically situated to service the growing commercial and residential developments taking place in areas such asBusiness Bay, Old Town and Burj Dubai, as well as Dubai Healthcare City.

UPS also expects to introduce the DIAD IV -a new generation of wireless driver handheld computers – into its UAE express operations in the fourth quarter of 2007. This will enable UPS to dramatically reduce its fuel consumption by streamlining route planning, vehicle loading and package delivery.

Currently UPS has three operations facilities located in DAFZA, JAFZA and Abu Dhabi, as well as customer service facilities in Al Ain, Fujairah, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah to serve the needs of its clients in the UAE. The new express operations center will allow UPS to enhance its express services and achieve the company’s global vision of offering ‘synchronized commerce’ to its customers.

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Online sales to triple over next 5 years

Posted by | May 27, 2007 | |

Online sales in the UK will almost triple over the next five years, according to a study by Verdict Research. The company predicts that online spending will reach GBP 28.1bn by 2011 – equivalent to 8.9% of all retail spending. (Verdict’s figures exclude spending on services such as flights, tickets and insurance.)
Verdict believes that the online market in 2006 grew at its fastest rate since the busting of the dotcom bubble in 2001. A growth rate of 33.4% was recorded for the year resulting in a total of GBP 10.9bn being spent online. The analysts at Verdict see no reasons for an end to the online shopping boom.

Verdict cites the widespread use of low cost broadband services as a leading reason for the boom in online shopping. Of the 3,000 consumers surveyed for its report, two thirds of the online shopper population (which now numbers 18 million), said they have broadband access and shop online more frequently because of it.

By 2011 the typical spend of an online shopper will grow to GBP 1,056 per year (up from GBP 606 in 2006), with the clothing and footwear, DIY and gardening and food and grocery sectors achieving the fastest growth. This growth in spending will be driven by consumers shopping online more often, rather than as a result of further expansion of the online shopping population which Verdict Research expects to grow much more slowly over the forecast period.

Verdict Research also highlights retailer investment as proving pivotal in growing the market. Over the past 12 months a host of physical retailers including the Arcadia brand sites, Dunelm, IKEA, Oasis, Superdrug, Waterstone’s and Wickes have launched new transactional websites. In addition many existing retailers have greatly scaled up their offers including Asda, B&Q, M&S, Tesco and Woolworths.

However, a number of retailers are either still not convinced of the value of operating online, or have made a strategic decision not to move to e-commerce.

Verdict Research highlights three types of retailer who seem set to stay out of the race to build online sales: food retailers where the infrastructure cost associated with an online launch and the strength of competition act as deterrents, value retailers (such as Matalan, Primark and Peacocks) whose business model depends on driving high sales densities from their stores and many smaller specialists whose limited scale makes it challenging to finance major online infrastructure. “For these retailers the case for major investment in transactional websites is far from proven,” says Nick Gladding, author of the report.

Despite the scale of the online opportunity, Verdict Research urges retailers to take care not to jeopardise the trust of their customers. As shoppers spend increasing sums online they need greater assurance that their financial details are safe, particularly in light of the growing number of ‘phishing’ scams, where customers have in error divulged personal financial information to third parties.

The introduction of chip and PIN online should help to allay security concerns but Verdict research advises smaller retailers that lack the expertise to develop their own in-house payment and security systems to consider outsourcing this process to ensure consumer uptake.

More information on the GBP 1,850 UK e-Retail 2007 report is available on the Verdict website.

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‘Thanks a million’ – Post Office Financial Services welcomes millionth customer

Posted by | May 27, 2007 | |

Post Office Financial Services – a joint venture with Bank of Ireland – today confirmed its position as the fastest growing financial services provider in the UK as it welcomed its millionth customer, just over three years since launch.

Post Office Managing Director, Alan Cook said: “Post Office Financial Services entered the market with the aim of challenging what other financial services providers were offering, across all products: from car insurance to savings accounts and credit cards. Gaining one million customers in approximately 1,000 days confirms that we were right – people want easy to understand, good value products.”

The outstanding growth of Post Office Financial Services:

• Post Office sells one in 50 of all car insurance policies in the UK
• One in every 25 credit cards issued last year was from Post Office
• GBP 2 billion has been invested in the Post Office’s savings products
• One in every 200 homes in the UK is insured with the Post Office

This success builds on the Post Office’s position as the largest independent provider of travel insurance in the UK.

Post Office Financial Services was launched as a joint venture with Bank of Ireland in March 2004.

Alan Cook continued, “This is a real achievement for the business against the backdrop of the challenges we are facing. The Post Office’s entry into financial services is vital to the bigger picture of providing products and services that will help create a sustainable Post Office network.”

All of Post Office’s financial products are available by telephone and online. Information is available at all 14,000 UK Post Office branches – more than all of the UK banks and building societies put together.

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Mory Group keeps widening in Europe

Posted by | May 26, 2007 | |

Mory Group keeps widening in Europe and took a 50% participation in the capital of the Dutch Europa European Express Services company.

Based in Rotterdam, Europa European Express Services (E.E.E.S) is a specialist in the maritime routing coming from Asia, and reached an 11 million Euros turnover last year.
It also has activities in road transport and logistics activities, thanks to a 12,000 square meters warehouse (27,000 logistics orders managed per year, 9,000 pallet places racked, plus a 4,500 square meters cross-docking area).

Its teams are able to handle several hundreds of shipments per day in the Netherlands and in Europe: 42,000 international road transport shipments per year, 7,800 sea freight shipments, 22,500 courier shipments, and 16 owned delivery vehicles for the Netherlands.

E.E.E.S. strengthens in sea freight transport and opened, in December 2006, a subsidiary in Anvers, as a partnership with Mory Europa Belgium.

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Royal Mail delays drawing on funds for modernisation

Posted by | May 26, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has yet to draw on a Pounds 1.2bn loan made available to automate its operations under a new financing framework arran-ged more than a year ago.

The investment package announced last May by Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, was intended to help Royal Mail compete against the new breed of private-sector postal operators after it lost its monopoly at the start of 2006.

But although big business mail users are deserting Royal Mail in droves, Britain’s dominant postal operator has failed to take advantage of the new system. HSBC and Lloyds TSB are the latest to shift their bulk mailings to UK Mail, part of the Business Post Group.

News that TNT, one of Royal Mail’s biggest rivals, has been granted the right to launch a legal challenge over the state group’s exemption from VAT will come as another blow.

The fall in business customers and the growing competition from its rivals are not the only problems for Royal Mail. The number of items of mail fell last year for the first time in decades, with most in the industry expecting further declines in the future as email and other digital messaging systems replace “snail mail”.

In addition the government has been unable to find a high-profile business executive from the private sector to be deputy chairman and succeed Allan Leighton as chairman next year. And now the postal union is balloting members on a strike over this year’s pay offer, warning of more fights ahead over changes in working practices, staff cuts and the plan to close the pension scheme to new entrants.

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TNT to ferry shipments on own freighters

Posted by | May 26, 2007 | |

TNT India is looking forward to launching its own freighters on the India-Europe route in the coming months. The subsidiary’s move follows the near integration of Speedage Cargo Express, a semi-road express firm it acquired last September, with its own processes and service standards.

“In the last eight months, we have invested ample time and money in the transformation of Speedage, which has started getting the feel and look of TNT. We will now look at introducing TNT freighters on India-Europe route for better control,” said Abhik Mitra, managing director, TNT India.

TNT is close to completing the re-branding process of Speedage. Also, the transition of Speedage processes and service standards to TNT’s levels has helped improve the firm’s average yield for road express services by 10-12%, but it still remains below the market average.

According to Mitra, after launching the European service, TNT would look at the India-China route, and eventually turn attention to launching a domestic air express.

Currently, the company uses cargo space on commercial airlines for its international and domestic shipments.

TNT India has set its sights on becoming the leading express cargo firm in the country by 2010, and has already committed investments of Rs550 crore to achieve its aim

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