Year: 2005

Irish An Post to pump EUR 15 million into security

Posted by | May 8, 2005 | |

An Post is expected to spend an additional EUR15 million improving security on its cash-in-transit service to post offices throughout Ireland.

The move is being taken as a result of the recent spate of robberies and pressure from Minister for Justice Michael McDowell for security arrangements to be upgraded.

The postal service disburses EUR6.5 billion each year in its post offices for the Department of Social and Family Affairs. It is also the largest bill processing agent in the state.

A spokesman for An Post confirmed to The Sunday Business Post that it was conducting a full review of its security arrangements.

The company, which hands out an estimated EUR115 million in social welfare payments each week, has had only two of its cash delivery teams held up in the last two years.

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Pounds 530m surprise profit in the post for UK Royal Mail

Posted by | May 8, 2005 | |

Bumper profits of about Pounds 530 million will be unveiled by the UK Post Office next week, boosted by sharp rises in stamp prices over the past three years. The surprise surplus, more than double the Pounds 220 million of last year, will trigger Pounds 1,000 bonuses for the 195,000 workforce. At the same time, chairman Allan Leighton will announce a dramatic improvement in delivery standards, though Royal Mail is expected to miss its most important target that 93 per cent of firstclass mail should arrive the following day. The surge in profits was given a cautious welcome by the Government funded watchdog, Postwatch. A spokesman said: ‘It is good to see the Royal Mail heading in the right direction, but we should not get too excited. Much of this increase is down to us the consumer who is having to pay more for stamps.

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Deutsche Post reignites German lay-offs row

Posted by | May 8, 2005 | |

Plans by Deutsche Post, Germany’s postal company, to lay off thousands of staff will this week reignite the row over sackings. German ministers have demanded that consumers boycott the products and services of profitable firms that axe their workforces. The sackings will embarrass and anger Chancellor Gerhard Schroder’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD), because the company is state-controlled. According to Deutsche Post chairman, Klaus Zumwinkel, declining income in the letter-carrying sector could force the group to cut as many as 6,000 jobs. Leading members of the SPD, including vice-chairwoman Ute Vogt, recently called for a boycott of profitable companies that lay off workers as unemployment rose to 5m, almost 11% of the working population. If they were to do the same with Deutsche Post, the SPD would be telling Germans to stop patronising a company in which it has a 56% stake.

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Daily Yamazake, AM/PM to start Yu-pack service in Tokyo in June

Posted by | May 6, 2005 | |

Japan Post announced Monday that Daily Yamazaki Co. and am/pm Japan Co. will begin handling Yu-Pack parcels at all of their Tokyo branches on June 1. The two convenience store chain operators, which already handle parcels delivered through Nippon Express Co, have accepted Yu-Pack parcels on a trial basis at a portion of their outlets since June 2004. Having determined that they could expect steady demand, both decided to enter full-fledged arrangements.

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TNT Logistics and Italian RCS Libri extend contract

Posted by | May 6, 2005 | |

TNT Logistics, a unit of Dutch mail, express and logistics company TNT NV, has renewed its contract for the outsourcing of logistics activities with Italian publisher RCS Libri for six years. Under the terms of the contract, TNT Logistics will provide RCS Libri with storage and distribution services for books, ensuring the launch of new initiatives across the country, guaranteeing the distribution of stocks to bookshops and secondary warehouses, and taking responsibility for the collection and management of returned unsold copies of general and scholastic books published by RCS Libri.

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Deutsche Post might cut up to 6,000 jobs

Posted by | May 6, 2005 | |

German post operator Deutsche Post might have to cut up to 6,000 jobs due to the legally forced co-operation with rivals, group CEO Klaus Zumwinkel said in an interview to German daily Die Welt on May 6, 2005. The consolidation of the private mailing firms will result in some 200 mln euro (USD259 mln) less turnover for Deutsche Post, he said. That means that the group will have to cut more than 6,000 jobs over the years to offset the falling sales, Zumwinkel added. Deutsche Post does not expect any significant drops in turnover after 2008 when its monopoly on the mailing market will be revoked. Zumwinkel referred to countries such as Sweden, in which the deregulation on the market brought no considerable changes.

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French National Assembly vote on postal regulation

Posted by | May 6, 2005 | |

The French National Assembly has passed, by 349 votes to 157, a bill for postal services regulation. The legislation will open the postal services market to competition by 2009. The bill is expected to be passed definitively in the French parliament on May 12, after a joint committee meeting between deputies and senators.

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Opinion: Postal metering can overcome VAT hurdles

Posted by | May 5, 2005 | |

With the election being centre stage right now, the new VAT proposals for postal services may have slipped under many people’s radar, but they are set to have a huge impact on 1m European businesses.

Amid the excitement of impending deregulation, emerging private postal operators are lobbying the European Commission, postal regulators and national governments with a view to removing the VAT exemption currently available to the universal service providers. The private postal operators believe that they currently do not operate on a level playing field with Europe’s postal incumbents, as private companies must charge VAT on all products and services.

With an estimated £6.95bn (EUR10bn) of European postal revenue collected through the meter channel and more than 1m mailers using franking machines across Europe, the technical issues associated with collecting VAT through the meter channel must be seriously addressed by policy makers.

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