Palletways has begun operating a pallet hub in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, covering the Benelux countries, Western Germany and Northern parts of France. These areas are served by 13 member companies, but Palletways has a three-year recruitment programme to have 61 members feeding into the hub by the end of 2008.
Read MoreThe Pallet Network says it is to focus on developing its European operations this year and next, but that it will not attempt to keep up with its rivals’ increasingly complex information technology. Managing director Adam Leonard, speaking at the new hub at Rugby to which the company relocated in January, said the network is in talks with potential partners based in Germany, France and Switzerland. It recently launched TPN Ireland and already has a service to Benelux. Leonard said the network moves around 3,500 pallets a night. “Growth will be controlled by the members but we would like to achieve 4,500 pallets by the end of the year,” he says.
Read MoreLast night the United States Postal Service along with a number of prominent companies won excellence awards for their deployment of interactive self-service applications. The USPS won three first place awards for the Automated Postal Center. Janet Webster, Manager Retail Service Network and Access Management for the United States Postal Service was named Deployer Leader of the Year and was recognized for the strategic role she has played in driving the Postal Services kiosk deployment.
Read MoreDHL Global Mail is further expanding its domestic mail activities in the United Kingdom, thereby strengthening Deutsche Post World Net’s international mail network. The goal is to offer business customers in all important United Kingdom trade centers domestic and international mail services, possible until now only in Greater London. Additionally, Global Mail’s British network will be expanded by additional regional distribution centers by year-end. The first new center, where operations have just started up, is located in Manchester and serves Northwest England.
Read MoreThe US Postal Service is looking for input on its next Strategic Transformation Plan for 2006 through 2010, according to a notice published Monday in the Federal Register. The current strategic plan covers 2002-06. It was created in 2002 in response to calls from Congress and the comptroller general for a transformation plan addressing the challenges confronting the USPS. The update will extend the ongoing transformation of the postal service, the USPS said. Publication of the update is expected by Sept. 30.
Read MoreDeutsche Post World Net AG is not contradicting market expectations that the company’s full year dividend payment on 2005 earnings will rise to 0.65-0.70 eur per share from the 0.50 proposed for 2004. In an interview with Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, Chief Financial Officer Edgar Ernst said: ‘We cannot say now what dividend we could offer … for 2005. But … if we perform better, then shareholders should profit more. ‘The financial markets expect a stable dividend payment quota of 35 pct. Based on our earnings forecast, this calculation means 65 to 70 cents … and we have not contradicted that.’
Read MoreDHL has announced the launch of two new direct overnight express services, one between Shanghai and the United States and the other between Beijing and Hong Kong. The daily Shanghai-US flight, which will directly connect Shanghai with Anchorage in the US and then onward to DHL’s hubs in Cincinnati and Los Angeles, will be operated by Northwest Airlines, DHL said in a statement. The four times weekly Beijing-Hong Kong service will utilize a Cathay Pacific aircraft from DHL’s central Asia Hub in Hong Kong, DHL said. China is expected to overtake Japan as DHL’s top revenue contributor in the Asia-Pacific region in coming years, Jerry Hsu, DHL president for Greater China and Korea told reporters.
Read MoreMarketing Direct presents the first ever annual guide to the movers and shakers in direct marketing.
Power 100 in Direct Marketing
1. JOE & JOSEPHINE PUBLIC – Consumers
Everyone listed in this Power 100 ultimately owes his or her livelihood to the acceptance of direct marketing by consumers. The past few years have seen a growing response by Joe and Josephine Public to direct marketing but an increasing awareness of their power to block it.
Telemarketing malpractice has resulted in registrations to the Telephone Preference Service rising to an all-time high of more than six million individuals this year; carpet-bombing by financial services companies could have a similar effect on the Mailing Preference Service. Yet consumer power has an overwhelmingly positive influence on DM too: although they may not know it, Joe and Josephine Public keep the DM wheels turning by consuming goods worth billions of pounds a year as a result of DM activity.
One thing is certain: the fate of the industry is not only in the hands of the DM practitioners and clients in the Power 100, but also in those of the great British buying public. We ignore their influence at our peril.
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