A road-air service connecting Turkey with destinations across Europe in two to three days represents just the begin of GeoPost’s ambitions in the region.
Launching a Joint Venture with Yurtiçi Kargo in Istanbul last week, Claud Béglé, CEO of GeoPost northern Europe, said a middle market was emerging between highpriced integrator services and traditional road parcel deliveries offered by companies such as DPD, the pan-European network 85% owned by GeoPost.
The postal regulator has reached a compromise with the courier industry over the “exorbitant” registration and licensing fees proposed for operators in draft postal service regulations.
The regulations have now been revised, and the postal regulator, Dupree Vilakazi, and his officials have been travelling around the country to get feedback from the industry on the latest draft.
It also emerged that government plans to open up the postal service market for private sector competition once the South African Post Office has fulfilled its universal service obligations.
Read MoreGeoPost, part of the French La Poste, has expressed its interest in the Polish courier company Masterlink. “We would like to have a 100% stake,” said GeoPost’s vice-president Claude Begle. Masterlink is active on both the domestic and foreign markets, and is well known for its focus on specialized services.
Read MoreUPS is trying to win parcel traffic away from the U.S. Postal Service and then give it right back.
The company is testing a new service called UPS Basic that will use the USPS’s own delivery network for the last leg of delivery in parts of United States, offering cost savings over regular postal and UPS Ground service in a bid to capture business from the USPS and consolidators.
The service marks a new step in the growing competition for ground delivery in the U.S. parcel market and FedEx says it is already talking with the Postal Service about a program of its own.
UPS and FedEx plan to exploit a provision in Postal Service operations that gives consolidators that deliver presorted parcels to postal facilities far cheaper rates than regular parcel shippers.
“This is a program that’s open to everyone,” Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan said. “And UPS has decided to take advantage of it. I don’t have an opinion. It’s neutral. It doesn’t matter. We’re delighted to have customers.”
Read MoreA major overhaul of Australia Post’s branch network is set to take place, with the country’s mail and parcel service provider planning to sell an estimated 150 franchises to private operators for as much as $1m. The private companies will run the post offices in the country’s major cities, using Australia Post’s price schedules, stock and uniforms. The mail provider will repurchase several licensed post offices across Australia and replace them with the new franchises, which will have a similar structure to its existing “Post Shops”.
Read MoreChilean technology services firm SONDA has won a three-year contract to provide helpdesk and technical support services for Chile’s state-owned postal service, Correos de Chile, Sonda said in a statement. Sonda will maintain the company’s personal computers and software needs for its nationwide network.
Read MoreSiemens Dematic announced today the United States Postal Service (USPS) has awarded the company an $89.9M contract to design, manufacture and install Ventilation and Filtration Systems (VFS) on their letter sorting machines. The deployment of the new system in 280 postal facilities nationwide is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2004.
Read MorePostcomm has set out five criteria that it proposes to use to measure the effectiveness of competition in mail services. As the criteria are met, Postcomm will look at whether it can reduce its regulation of the market in those areas.
The criteria are Barriers to entry, The scale and nature of competition, Behaviour of Royal Mail, Customer awareness and behaviour and Effectiveness of competition.
Read More
Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.
