Year: 2004

US Postal Service mailing kiosks now in every state

Posted by | Dec 30, 2004 | |

The Postal Service’s version of an ATM for Postal Service customers, the Automated Postal Center (APC), is now available in all 50 states. APCs provide a quick, easy and convenient way for customers to weigh, calculate and apply exact postage, and ship Express Mail and Priority Mail items, packages and First-Class letters right at the kiosks. They also provide easy access to postal products and services the same way ATMs provide access to banking services.

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US Postal Service scores big in customers’ delivery comparisons

Posted by | Dec 30, 2004 | |

The US Postal Service – no stranger to measuring itself for performance success and customer satisfaction – took the lead in four informal parcel delivery tests conducted by postal customers this holiday mailing season. The “New York Times,” “Grand Rapids Press” (MI), KSLTV (UT) and KTVI (MO), within days of one another, conducted mailing comparisons among the US Postal Service, DHL, FedEx and United Parcel Service, measuring delivery time, quality and cost, shipping identical items ranging from coffee mugs and holiday ornaments to pecans within each test and using comparable classes of mail.

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Budapest courier service market saturated

Posted by | Dec 29, 2004 | |

With about 100 courier services operating in Budapest and new ones constantly entering the market, fees are going down sharply in a business operating with a profit margin of less than 10pc as it is, a Budapest business paper wrote on Wednesday. Vilaggazdasag notes that only about 15-20 of the courier services operate with more than 1-5 people, and only the biggest two handle 800-1,000 deliveries/day. However, business for bicycle couriers, the backbone of the service, has been going up, a 10pc rise in deliveries in 2003 compared to 2003, and a 12pc increase in 2004 compared to 2003.

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FedEx, Datian split in China denied

Posted by | Dec 29, 2004 | |

FedEx Express and Tianjin Datian W Group have denied rumours that the two parties will soon suspend their co-operation in China’s international fast delivery market. Foreign express firms may not necessarily seek fully-owned subsidiaries right after the nation opens its express market, according to experts. “So far we are not prepared to make any changes in our business modes in China,” FedEx said in a media statement last week. FedEx, the world’s largest express transportation carrier, is rumoured to be on the brink of seeking a controlling stake in the joint venture with its Chinese partner Datian Group. That indicates FedEx will probably end its co-operation with Datian and later run express services through its subsidiaries as China fully opens its express market in the next year.

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UK SHOPPERS `SPENDING £17bn A YEAR ONLINE’

Posted by | Dec 29, 2004 | |

Online shopping is booming in the UK, a new report reveals today. Twenty billion UK shoppers are spending £17 billion a year using the internet as more and more people buy via the web. Shoppers are increasingly shunning companies still not geared up to e-commerce and by 2009 a quarter of all UK shopping is predicted to be conducted via the internet in a market worth £80 billion.
Internet sales doubled between 2002 and 2003 – and some popular online retailers have seen sales triple in the last few months. The figures come in a report charting the rise across Europe of all forms of “distance selling” – from catalogues and mail shots to telephone, sales, television and, increasingly, the internet.

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French postal unions call for strike

Posted by | Dec 29, 2004 | |

The French trade unions FO, CGT and SUD have decided to protest against the proposed incorporation into French law of European directives on the liberalisation of the postal services market by urging employees of the French post office, La Poste, to stop work for 24hrs when the legislation comes before the French parliament on January 18. The bill in question also gives La Poste the right to set up a credit institution.”

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DHL strikes at Brussels airport continue to disrupt mail network

Posted by | Dec 28, 2004 | |

Strikes at DHL’s mail sorting office at Brussels airport continue to disrupt the express mail courier’s delivery network in Europe, according to a report in local daily Le Soir, citing union officials and the company. Stoppages by the 150 workers began last Thursday and Friday over the refusal of the German company, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post AG, to guarantee jobs at the centre. ‘It’s chaos in DHL’s European network,’ Hendrik Vermeersch, a SETCA union representative told Le Soir. ‘All the other sorting offices are overwhelmed. They (DHL) can’t wait much longer (to strike a deal).’ According to Vermeersch, 90 pct of workers in Brussels supported the action last Thursday and Friday, with further stoppages over the weekend by 10-15 pct of personnel.
Unions and the company hope to break the deadlock in a meeting with a mediator on Jan 4 at the earliest.

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Deutsche Post joint venture lands major order in Holland

Posted by | Dec 28, 2004 | |

Selekt Mail, a joint venture between Deutsche Post and the Dutch company Wegener, has won a major contract put out by Holland´s largest mail order group, the Neckermann Group Netherlands. Starting immediately, Selekt Mail has been named Neckermann´s exclusive partner for the delivery of catalogs and direct mail in Holland.

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