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DHL in online shipping deal with Germany's 1&1

Posted by | May 15, 2007 | |

DHL Express Germany has signed a cooperation deal with internet service company 1&1 Internet AG for online trading. Operators of 1&1-hosted “e-shops” can now use DHL for their shipping requirements.

With this new service, 1&1 is expanding its all-inclusive offer for small businesses and the self-employed. The entire e-shop, including order management and goods transportation, can now be handled through one single platform, DHL Express said in a statement.

“The cooperation with DHL enables us to offer a complete solution for the whole process chain”, said Andreas Gauger, CEO of 1&1 Internet AG.

E-shop operators can print out DHL parcel labels, track shipments online and offer customers the option of using a DHL Packstation as an alternative delivery address.

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Post Office still needs to deliver improved services;Analysis

Posted by | May 14, 2007 | |

The Post Office is said to be the best known brand in the UK after Coca-Cola. It is also the country’s biggest retail chain. But it is also an organisation that loses a million items of its customers’ business per week; delivers a service at midday – when most recipients have gone to work; does not take credit cards; offers bureaux de change without computer access to exchange rates; and one that many people only visit because they have to.

The Post Office has, by any measure, much to do to catch up with the rest of the world.

And there is little time in which to do it. Postcomm, the regulator, has insisted that competition should dawn, despite the efforts of the Post Office and the Government to resist the substantial reduction of the monopoly that is sought by the European Union.

Postcomm made clear this week that a cut of the monopoly is not the only route to competition. Rival businesses will soon be able to win licences for parts of the Post Office business. The power to grant those licences begins in March when the Post Office becomes a plc, albeit one entirely owned by the Government, and the postal consumers’ group gains greater powers.

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Hundreds of post offices to shut in Scotland

Posted by | May 14, 2007 | |

Hundreds of post offices across Scotland are set to be closed as part of government plans to be announced this week.

AlistairDarling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will reveal the response to a consultation on closures which campaigners believe will spell the end for as many as 800 branches in Scotland. Pensioners’ groups and rural communities have been outraged by the programme they fearwill cut off many people from vital services.

However, the government insists the network is losing millions of pounds every week and is impossible to sustain. Around 2500 post offices are understood to be closing out of a total of 14,000 in the UK but with a high proportion in Scotland. Between one-quarter and one-third of all closures are believed to be north of the border.

Figures from consumer group Postwatch show the number of post offices in Britain has fallen from 18,393 in 1999 to 14,376 in 2005.

Last June there were 1676 post offices in Scotland – 1117 in rural areas and 559 in urban areas.

Mr Darling has said many remote post offices which do not meet the criteria will be allowed to remain open but hundreds are still expected to close.

New criteria over how far away people should be expected to live from their nearest post office will change and the closures are expected by hit urban as well as rural areas.

Under the new rules, 95per cent of the urban population will be within one mile of a post office and in rural areas 95per cent should be within three miles and in remote areas 95per cent within six miles.

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Italy's post office aims for 2 mln mobile customers in Vodafone virtual link-up

Posted by | May 14, 2007 | |

Poste Italiana is aiming for 2 mln mobile telephone customers from its recent virtual mobile network deal with Vodafone Group PLC, said post CEO Massimo Sarmi.

In an interview with La Repubblica, Sarmi said studies predict that there will be 20 mln new mobile users in the next five years in Italy.

‘We plan to gain 10 pct of these new users. Let’s say we count on gaining 2 mln new users. With 2 mln users our mobile phone operation will be in profit. So it is sensible move,’ he said.

In April, Vodafone and Poste Italiana announced a virtual mobile operator deal, giving Poste Italiana access to Vodafone’s mobile network.

Sarmi said he hopes to launch the mobile service by Christmas.

Poste Italiana sees scope to link up its mobile customers with electronic payment cards, for which the post has 9 mln customers, allowing customers to make payments using their mobile phones, he said.

‘We are working a lot around the question of micro-payments with the mobile phone, with our mobile phone naturally,’ he said.

Mobile phones can be filled up with 200 or 500 euro of credit, which can then be spent in retail outlets, he said, citing Japanese experience.

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DHL completes system-wide sort automation

Posted by | May 14, 2007 | |

DHL has completed the sort automation of its major ground hub in Allentown, Pa. With the completion of the automation at the Allentown facility, the entire USD 160 million DHL network integration and automation initiative, which included key air and ground hubs in Wilmington, Ohio, and Riverside, Calif., is now complete.

The network system upgrades make DHL operations more efficient, increase letter-and-package processing capabilities and provide customers with increased track-and-trace package visibility. DHL projects to generate an approximate 13 percent improvement in network wide shipment capacity, in addition to improved operational efficiencies, as a result of the completion of the automation programs at all three hubs.

New state-of-the-art equipment at the Allentown facility includes shoe-sort and tilt-tray systems, loaders, unloaders, singulators, dimensional and image scanners, scan tunnels and video coding. Key customer benefits of the automation effort in Allentown include greater letter-and-package visibility through the auto sort system’s track-and-trace features as well as increased speed in the handling and processing of shipments. With the transition to auto sort functions in Allentown, letter-handling capabilities will improve by 67 percent and package throughput will increase by 85 percent.

In March 2007, automation programs were completed at DHL’s USD 70 million West Coast facility in Riverside, serving the western U.S. as well as an expanded DHL footprint for one-day ground services across California and Arizona. DHL’s principal air and ground hub in Wilmington fully completed its automation program in January 2007.

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FedEx President and CEO to retire. Virginia Albanese promoted

Posted by | May 14, 2007 | |

FedEx Custom Critical, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. announced that John G. (Jack) Pickard, president and CEO, will retire June 1. He will be succeeded by Virginia Albanese, vice president of operations and customer service for FedEx Custom Critical.

Pickard reports to Douglas G. Duncan, president and CEO of FedEx Freight. “We appreciate the dedication and leadership that Jack provided for more than 20 years,” Duncan said. “He built a solid management team, and we are pleased to be promoting one of its most experienced and talented members as his replacement.”

Jack Pickard joined Roberts Express in 1986 as a regional sales manager. (The company was purchased by FedEx as part of the Caliber System, Inc. acquisition in 1998 and renamed FedEx Custom Critical in 2000.) Pickard served as a vice president from 1989-2001, holding positions in sales, marketing and operations. He was appointed president and CEO of FedEx Custom Critical in 2001. Jack has played a key role in the company’s evolution in the changing expedited freight market segment.

Virginia Albanese also joined Roberts Express in 1986 as a member of the customer service team and became an operations manager in 1991. She was named director of safety, recruiting and contractor relations in 1995. In 1999, Virginia was promoted to managing director of service and safety at FedEx Custom Critical. She was named vice president of service in 2001. She received both her bachelor’s degree and an executive Master of Business Administration degree from Kent State University.

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DMA opposes cataloger coalition's stance on Standard flats rates

Posted by | May 14, 2007 | |

The differences between the Direct Marketing Association and the Coalition of Catalog Mailers became public Friday, just 48 hours from the inauguration of the new postal rate regime in place today.

Members of the DMA were told by president/CEO John A. Greco Jr. that it doesn’t support a Coalition of Catalog Mailers request to the Postal Regulatory Commission that gives catalogers time to adjust to the high rates rather than lowering them.

Mr. Greco explained that in its May 2006 rate case filing, the USPS requested rate increases in the 9 percent to 12 percent range for Standard Mail flats. However, the PRC sought increases in the 20 percent to 40 percent range.

The PRC’s recommendation would effectively have overturned a 17-year program to gradually increase the rate differential between letter-shaped and flat-shaped Standard Mail, and resulted in an additional USD 678 million in costs for Standard flats marketers.

In addition, the DMA sent a separate letter to the USPS Governors, asking that they reject the PRC’s Standard Mail flats recommendations. The association specifically pointed out that the mail volume the PRC had assumed would now be unrealistic, based on the doubling of the USPS’ requested increase.

The Governors on March 19 returned the Standard Mail flats increases to the PRC for reconsideration but asked the PRC to rebalance the rates in Standard Mail, including raising letter-shaped mail rates and lowering flat-shaped mail rates.

However, the Governors allowed the PRC-recommended rates to take effect “under protest,” which meant that the rates would go live today.

At this point, Mr. Greco explained that the DMA strategy was to push for quick PRC reconsideration so that any rate reduction stemming from its reconsideration could be put in place by today.

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