Year: 2005

State control of Japanese postal holding firm to be limited

Posted by | Feb 21, 2005 | |

The Japanese government has unveiled its outline of bills for privatizing the country’s postal operations, which will oblige the state to sell two-thirds of its stake in a proposed postal services holding company by the end of March 2017. The outline, compiled by the government’s preparatory office for postal business privatization scheduled for April 2007, was shown to the ministries and agencies concerned on Friday. To realize a smooth transition to the privatization takeoff day, the office proposed that Japan Post–the existing postal services public corporation–be transformed into the government’s wholly owned company during the transition period to 2007.

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Postmasters fear Canada Post may be planning more rural post office closures

Posted by | Feb 21, 2005 | |

Canada Post may be planning to close more rural post offices, says a Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association official. Darwin Hoimyr, president of the association’s Saskatchewan branch, said a letter from Canada Post written last summer says supporting small rural post offices is a heavy burden on the corporation’s bottom line. To prevent such closures the association has begun lobbying MPs and civic leaders about the importance of post offices to rural communities.

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Deutsche Post spends tens of millions of euros on free package mailing promotion

Posted by | Feb 20, 2005 | |

Deutsche Post World Net AG is launching a sales promotion costing a ‘high double-digit million euro’ amount, a spokesman for the company said. The company is to offer its customers the chance to send a parcel for free to mark its 10 year anniversary as a limited company. DHL, the group’s parcel delivery subsidiary, is to provide all 35 million households in Germany with a stamp enabling them to send a parcel weighing up to 20 kilograms free of charge on Feb 25 only. Households will receive the stamps within the next couple of days.

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Business leaders issue warning about UK postal competition

Posted by | Feb 19, 2005 | |

Birmingham’s business leaders are demanding protection for small businesses following the announcement that UK postal services will be privatised earlier than expected.

The industry regulator Postcomm decided to open postal services to full competition from next January, 15 months earlier than planned. Debbie Walsh, head of policy at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said she believed small to medium-sized enterprises would be the first to suffer.

She said: ‘Around 80 per cent of the daily postbag of 83 million letters and packets is sent by companies and we expect this lucrative end of the market to become the battleground between Royal Mail and private delivery companies.

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DHL Lithuania plans to build new parcel terminal

Posted by | Feb 18, 2005 | |

DHL Lietuva is planning to build a new parcel distribution terminal in Lithuania by the end of 2006, the business daily Verslo Zinios reported on Friday. The initial plan is to build a terminal and warehouse complex with an area of 6,000 to 8,000 square meters and later expand it to 10,000 square meters. However, the company has not decided yet if its new terminal will be located in Vilnius or in Kaunas. It currently has one parcel terminal in the capital city.

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European Commission takes a closer look at the Polish Post

Posted by | Feb 18, 2005 | |

The European Commission has a problem with Poczta Polska – it wonders whether the special privileges that the Postal Service enjoys are not a disguised form of state aid. Poczta Polska is a public utility enterprise, founded on a legal basis – this special legal status gives its a privileged position over potential competitors. Entities created by force of law are not subject to bankruptcy legislation – put simply, the Polish Post cannot go bankrupt. If it wants to obtain credit from a bank, such credit would be guaranteed by the state. This status was OK for many years, and the EC focused on it only after it received letters from the Polish government, asking it to approve aid programs for the Postal Service. The Commission has not decided yet if the situation of the Polish Post raises any concerns about fairness of competition -currently the Postal Service does not obtain any benefits from its status.

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USPS Parcel Post volume losses continue, Express and Priority Mail see growth.

Posted by | Feb 18, 2005 | |

The US Postal Service released F1Q:05 (quarter ending December 31) results which include a look at preliminary Priority Mail, Express Mail, and Parcel Post statistics. Generally Parcel Post and to some degree Priority Mail
competes with UPS, FDX, and DHL’s ground parcel products. Express Mail competes with UPS, FDX, and DHL’s overnight air products. For the seventh quarter in a row, a y-o-y volume decline occurred within the USPS’ Parcel Post product which recorded a decline of 1.2% during F1Q:05. Comparably, UPS and FDX domestic ground products have grown y-o-y volume in the most recent quarters by 1.5% and 16.4%, respectively. Priority Mail volumes increased for the second quarter in a row by 2.4% year-over-year in F1Q:05. Similarly, Express Mail volumes were also positive, posting 0.6% year-over-year growth in the current quarter. This is the first time Express Mail volumes have improved on a year-over-year basis in the last fifteen consecutive quarters.

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Triangle welcomes the UK mail market’s early liberalisation but..

Posted by | Feb 18, 2005 | |

The Postcomm announcement to bring forward the total liberalisation of the UK mail market, opening the Royal Mail to full competition earlier than previously announced, is brave but it does not necessarily mean that Royal Mail will immediately lose significant volumes of mail. Evidence in other markets, such as New Zealand and Sweden, where similar action has been taken, has led to little effective competition. If anything, the general public (who represent a minority of the market by volume) has ended up paying more and big business less as the incumbent gives discounts to volume senders and compensates for this by charging more for the standard letter. Notwithstanding this, our first class mail service is still one of the cheapest in Europe. Triangle feels that for the market to really open up there will need to be further stimulus to develop real competition, encourage new business models and ensure innovation. It can be done. A good example is the airline industry where deregulation has led to innovation such as the budget airlines and much cheaper and more widespread travel.

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