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Royal Mails Postal union demands 27% pay rise

Posted by | Mar 21, 2007 | |

Royal Mail is facing union demands for a 27 per cent pay rise that the post group claims will cost an extra GBP 1 billion a year, The Times has learnt.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has asked for the minimum payment of its members to be brought into line with average basic pay in the UK. The main postal union is also demanding that its members work a 35-hour week, rather than the existing 40 hours.

The CWU says that postal workers, who earn a minimum of GBP 311 per week, should be able to benefit from investment and improvements expected in the business over the next few years.

In a letter to Royal Mail, Dave Ward, the CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Given the proposed scale of change within the company, we require a pay settlement that achieves UK average basic pay for OPGs [outdoor postal grades]. This was set at GBP 395 per week in 2006 and we are undertaking research to establish whether the figure has subsequently increased.”

The CWU says that the rise could be phased in, although Royal Mail said that the union had called for the increase to be immediate.

The postal organisation, which has a pension deficit of GBP 6.6 billion and recently reported a plunge in its profits, says that it cannot afford such a rise. A spokesman said: “This pay claim will cost us GBP 1 billion at a time when we are facing full competition and the cost of servicing our pension deficit is pushing our profits down 86 per cent.” The group maintains that it already pays better rates than its competitors.

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Exel acquisition lifts Deutsche Post figures

Posted by | Mar 21, 2007 | |

Deutsche Post said it boosted the sea freight business of its subsidiary DHL last year, both through the acquisition of Exel and through organic growth, writes Katrin Berkenkopf in Cologne.

‘We notched significantly increased volumes from existing business and with new customers,’ the group said.

With a volume of 2.4m teu, DHL should be the number one sea freight forwarder globally in terms of transport volume, although competitor Kuehne+Nagel is considerably larger when it comes to turnover.

The 2.4m teu contrasts with only half of that volume seen a year earlier, which demonstrates the leap ahead that the acquisition of Exel meant for DHL’s Global Forwarding business.

The growth in revenue is clearly lagging behind the volume increase, however. Sea freight turnover grew by 41% to EUR2.66bn (USD3.5bn). Deutsche Post pointed out that a dip in freight rates on high-volume routes had a negative impact on finances.

Kuehne+Nagel last week reported a seaborne transport volume of 2.3m teu and turnover of SFr8.3bn (USD6.8bn). Overall, the logistics division of Deutsche Post which includes ocean and air freight, supply chain business and land-based freight business recorded a turnover of EUR22.9bn, up from EUR9.9bn.

Acquisitions, first of all that of Exel, account for EUR11.6bn of the increase. Earnings before interest and taxes grew from EUR346m to EUR762m. Deutsche Post chief executive Klaus Zumwinkel reiterated his forecast of operating profits in logistics reaching EUR1.2bn by 2009. For the current year, he expects a rise of 15%.

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Royal Mail reveals direct mail dip

Posted by | Mar 21, 2007 | |

The Royal Mail has released figures which show that direct mail volumes and expenditure are falling.

Volumes for 2006 were down to 5.03 billion items, a 2.1 per cent drop on last year’s figures. Total expenditure dropped from GBP2.37bn in 2005 to GBP2.32bn in 2006. Quarterly comparisons show volumes for October to December 2006 down 4.6 per cent on the corresponding quarter last year.

Royal Mail officials remain bullish, however, despite the results.

Leonora Corden, head of market development at Royal Mail argues: “This is the result of companies across all sectors improving their targeting to create even more relevant and personal offers for their customers and prospects.”

The company cites a growing reliance on direct mail by a number of industry sectors, including building societies, charities, government, health, media and insurance. Also noticeable is a rise in the volume of direct mail sent to the 55-64 year old age group.

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Lufthansa Cargo summer schedules: More frequencies and new destinations

Posted by | Mar 21, 2007 | |

Lufthansa Cargo is increasing its freighter frequencies to Dallas, Sao Paulo and Shanghai in the summer timetable. New destinations in the summer flight schedules are Lahore and a direct connection from Cologne through East Midlands (UK) to Wilmington (USA). Cargo customers will also benefit from changes bearing on airfreight in Lufthansa passenger services.

In the freighter timetable, Lufthansa Cargo is raising frequencies to Dallas from two to thrice weekly. Sao Paulo will be served by six flights weekly from Frankfurt. Frequencies to Shanghai will be increased from eight to nine weekly. Changes are also forthcoming in traffic days to Los Angeles. In the summer flight schedules, Los Angeles will be served twice weekly – on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Lufthansa Cargo is, moreover, operating scheduled flights in summer to and from Lahore in Pakistan. These services will be laid on ex Frankfurt, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in combination with Bangkok. New in the timetable is a direct connection from Cologne through East Midlands to Wilmington. This service will be operated within the framework of the existing intercontinental joint venture with DHL.

The summer timetable is valid from 25 March to 27 October 2007.

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RFID gives City Link customers real-time tracking

Posted by | Mar 20, 2007 | |

Delivery company City Link has installed 15,000 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on its parcel cages to improve efficiency and speed up its delivery services. The company now plans to work with clients to provide real-time tracking solutions.

The Wi-Fi based Active RFID solution was installed by AeroScout (a US company), and JDH Consultancy at City Link’s depots around the UK. The rugged tags manage the company’s dynamic inventory of ‘roll cages’, which house and protect its high-value parcels during transit.

At any moment in time, up to 300,000 parcels in 15,000 cages at 70 UK locations can be monitored and located in real-time from City Link’s National Distribution Centre in Wednesbury, West Midlands, over the City Link Cisco Wi-Fi network.

RFID technology has been available for a long time but the cost of the tags and implementation have made its use prohibitive for tracking small, low value items. The costs are reducing and its use in logistics and item tracking is continued to increase. Marks & Spencer can track individual items and a German bookstore is using the technology within boxes of books.

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GBP 2m investment keeps TNT Sameday in Pole Position in the UK

Posted by | Mar 20, 2007 | |

The instant-response arm of Britain’s leading business-to-business express delivery company has unveiled a multi-million pound investment programme to keep the business at the top of the ‘Premier League’ of the UK same day delivery market.

The GBP 2 million initiative will see an innovative deployment of TNT Sameday’s army of 1,700 drivers, a new web-based Storapart distribution service designed to enhance speedy despatch of parts to engineers plus the introduction of state-of-the-art ‘mobile worker’ units to each driver. Each element is viewed as a critical component in the TNT drive for customer service excellence in 2007.

At the touch of a key, the new Common Operating System will automatically calculate parcel delivery rates, recommend the closest driver available for a collection and allocate drivers’ payments.

The new warehouse stock management system of TNT’s Storapart service – called Storapart Distribution System (SDS) – creates a common approach across TNT the Storapart sites throughout the world, providing a consistently high level of customer service.

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RFID anywhere improves postal delivery service quality

Posted by | Mar 20, 2007 | |

Correos, the Spanish Postal Service — Correos handles over 5 billion postal deliveries each year and serves over 19 million homes and 2 million companies a day. The company has implemented an RFID system using RFID Anywhere to improve its delivery times and streamline operating procedures.

Correos has successfully implemented the largest RFID project in Europe. The state-controlled company has introduced a radio frequency control system, called Q-RFID, in its 15 Automated Processing Centres (APCs) throughout Spain. The company’s investment included specific software and its integration in the Correos computer systems, purchasing 5,000 passive electronic labels and installation of over 1,900 permanent antennas and over 330 readers for those 15 APCs.

The acquisition of this solution enables Correos to have cutting edge technology which complies with the standards set by the European Union (ETSI EN 302 208-1 and EPC GEN 2) and was approved at state level by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade. The technology ensures quality control and the traceability of postal deliveries (packets, correspondence and mailbags). Controlling the quality of the delivery time is fundamental for Correos, given the large area in which it operates and the dispersion of the delivery addresses.

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Germany's Deutsche Post wants Europe to open markets

Posted by | Mar 20, 2007 | |

Deutsche Post’s monopoly on letter delivery will end next year. Even as the company struggles to remain profitable, most other European Union countries are reluctant to liberalize their mail markets.

Deutsche Post stocks fell 6 percent Tuesday after the company announced its 2007 earnings will fall short of predictions.

Europe’s largest mail service provider has tried to diversify and take a more international approach in recent years.

At the same time, many other EU countries have dragged their feet on liberalizing their own mail monopolies. Deutsche Post said it’s worried this attitude will put them at a disadvantage.

Domestic postal services in EU countries are scheduled to be completely opened to competition by 2009. The bloc also wants to open the market for letters under 50 grams (1.8 ounces) to private carriers and thereby get rid of state postal monopolies.

Deutsche Post CEO Klaus Zumwinkel has used profits from the traditional mail service to transform the company into a major player in the global transport and logistics market.

Still, delivering letters remains a vital part of the Deutsche Post. Even with the company’s big push in recent years into international logistics, freight and express mail, normal mail delivery remains responsible for 25 percent of the company’s gross income, and more than 60 percent of its profit.

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