Bristol delivery company Amtrak Express Parcels has won a £3 million contract to deliver home computers for Tiny.com. The company will offer a next-day service for PCs and multimedia systems from the online retailer, sister company of Time Computers and The Computer Shop. It will deliver from Tiny’s manufacturing plant in Burnley, offering evening and Saturday deliveries.
Read MoreFrench postal group La Poste seeks to expand its logistics services network in Poland as the logistics market growth in central and eastern Europe is very strong and the return on investments in the region is much faster than in western Europe, the company said on March 22, 2005. La Poste will invest in the near future between 25 mln euro (USD32.9 mln) and 30 mln euro (USD39.5 mln) in the markets of eastern and central Europe, while largest investment will be made in Poland, where the company is already present. La Poste has in Poland, through its subsidiary GeoPost, a courier services provider Masterlink Express and forwarding services provider Air Cargo Poland. The company plans to set up a new logistics services company in the country, which will operate within the network managed by its subsidiary and will offer parcel delivery services DPD.
Read MoreThe Infrastructure Ministry finally commenced work on transforming Poczta Polska (the Polish Post) into a joint-stock company. Currently, the Post is a public utility company, which makes management and investment decisions very difficult. This is a huge problem, as the postal services market is becoming more liberal, and in 2009 it should become completely so. The Post’s management presented a set of documents in favor of transforming it into a joint stock company to the Ministry in January. The Ministry started work on the legislative changes, enabling the commercialisation of Post, several days ago.
Read MoreDeutsche Post World Net AG is at present not keen to participate in postal privatisations in Japan, Austria, Belgium and Italy, CEO Klaus Zumwinkel said at the company’s annual results news conference. He said the group will only be interested in acquiring stakes in companies that fulfill several conditions, such as providing premium quality services and products. The legal framework in countries where the potential acquisitions are located must also be ‘reliable’, he added. But Zumwinkel did not completely rule out participating in the postal privatisations, specifically in Japan and Italy.
Read MoreIn 2003/04 Royal Mail famously failed every one of its 15 minimum performance targets. These targets were set by Postcomm on advice from Postwatch and included in Royal Mail’s licence. Yet despite this worst ever performance the Regulator has decided after 12 months of deliberation not to fine Royal Mail. Postwatch believes the regulator has rolled over. Customers have suffered; Royal Mail has got off scot-free. The regulator is hiding behind GBP60 million of compensation, which customers were separately entitled to. In May 2004 Postcomm predicted that compensation to bulk mailers alone could reach GBP80 million. In practice, only GBP43 million has been paid due to ‘loopholes’ in the scheme written by Postcomm. Customers have been short changed by more than GBP30 million. Peter Carr, commenting on Postcomm’s announcement of no action said: “This is a bad day for customers and a missed opportunity.”
Read MoreRoyal Mail today welcomed the decision of the postal regulator Postcomm not to fine the company for a dip in quality of service during the autumn and winter of 2003/2004, or to impose compensation payments beyond those historically agreed. A report issued today by Postcomm says the main factors adversely affecting service were industrial action at the end of 2003 and a serious fire at a mail centre a year ago – and that Royal Mail “did all it reasonably could” to reduce the impact of those events on customers. It applauds the “extensive and effective action” by Royal Mail to restore service quality – currently running at the best levels in a decade, acknowledges the operational changes made by Royal Mail were right – both for the business and its customers and confirms that no further compensation payments are due to customers beyond those previously agreed.
Read MoreThe consolidation between Express Mail Service (EMS) and CNPL has become the main issue in the Chinese postal industry. Liu Andong, director general of the State Postal Bureau of China, said at a working conference at the end of 2004 that to regroup express and logistics businesses was one of the six key tasks in 2005, and it was a signal of the consolidation. The postal industry is generally optimistic about the consolidation. EMS run by China Courier Service Corporation, a state-owned express company under the bureau, plans to reach a more than 10% rise year-on-year in operating revenue in 2005. The company expects to largely extend EMS service to the nation’s large and midsize cities and gradually capture market shares in metropolises.
Read MoreThe US Postal Service is recommending to its Board of Governors that it file a rate case with the Postal Rate Commission for an across-the-board increase of 5 percent to 6 percent. The news was part of Postmaster General John E. Potter’s keynote address yesterday at the National Postal Forum in Nashville. If the governors approve management’s proposal, “our formal filing with the Postal Rate Commission will follow shortly,” he said.
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