Year: 2005

UK Royal Mail forced to retrain staff

Posted by | Jan 21, 2005 | |

Royal Mail is being forced to train its sales staff in European competition law after its regulator decided two of its promotion schemes were anti-competitive.

The mail organisation had offered discounts on mailings to some of its customers to tempt them to send more catalogues. Postcomm, the mail regulator, issued an enforcement order, requiring Royal Mail to refrain from departing from its published tariffs without notifying it.

Yesterday, Postcomm said Royal Mail had breached two of its licence conditions designed to help competition in the mail market. “We have extensive powers to deal with anti-competitive behaviour, which we will not hesitate to use in any future case,” said Nigel Stapleton, mail regulator chairman, who has pledged to be tough on the incumbent monopoly.

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Pan-Baltic arrangement needed for co-operation with Dutch mail company

Posted by | Jan 21, 2005 | |

The Dutch mail company TPG Post International is not interested in cooperation only with the Latvian state-owned postal company Latvijas Pasts therefore the latter will urge other Baltic mail services to join in, said Latvijas Pasts director general Gints Skodovs. “The Dutch mail company is not interested in Latvia alone, it is interested in the entire Baltic region,” said Skodovs, who had met with TPG Post International management this week during the Latvian president’s visit to the Netherlands. He told BNS it had been agreed that Latvijas Pasts will arrange a meeting in Riga with participation of Estonian and Lithuanian mail companies in the coming months. Skodovs said Latvijas Pasts already was cooperating with one of TPG Post International subsidiaries, TNT Latvia, but on a small scale and this cooperation should be expanded in future.

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Japan PM vows to mend fences with China and reform postal service

Posted by | Jan 21, 2005 | |

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised Friday to mend fences with China while renewing his controversial pledge to privatise Japan’s mammoth post office.

He vowed to split Japan’s vast postal service into four private entities despite the risk of dividing his ruling party which is concerned the move could offend Japan Post’s 270,000 workers and their families.

The government would begin enacting bills in April 2007 to divide the postal giant regardless of the million votes its workers were reputed to be capable of mobilising, he said.

The law change would allow for private carriers and financial institutions to compete in the huge markets presently dominated by Japan Post.

The post office manages some 355 trillion yen (3.5 trillion dollars) in savings and insurance funds, making it the world’s largest financial institution in terms of assets.

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Heated debate in French Parliament on Postal Reform Bill

Posted by | Jan 21, 2005 | |

The French national assembly was preparing to sit late into the night on Friday (January 22) so that MPs could finish their debate on the French government’s controversial bill to reform the nation’s postal services. Three days had been allocated for examination of the bill, which aims to incorporate into French law the 1997 and 2002 European Union directives on opening up the postal services market to competition. The debate has been held up, in particular, by the tabling of numerous amendments.

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New Operations Director for UK Post Office Ltd

Posted by | Jan 21, 2005 | |

Post Office Ltd today announced the appointment of Ric Francis as the company’s new Operations Director. Ric Francis has more than 25 years’ experience in the IT and operations sectors, and was most recently Chief Information Officer at Safeway Stores plc, where he was responsible for the company’s IT function.
His post as Operations Director for Post Office Ltd. is a newly-created role, combining IT and Network Support Services to optimise the company’s performance as the UK’s largest retail network. Mr Francis will sit on the Board of Post Office Ltd. and also the company’s Executive Committee.

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UK Royal Mail warned on poaching business

Posted by | Jan 21, 2005 | |

Postcomm, the postal regulator, has threatened to fine Royal Mail if it continues to use anti-competitive practices to keep rivals out of the UK postal market. Royal Mail yesterday agreed to rein in its marketing activities staff after Postcomm found discounts offered to magazine and catalogue companies had contravened competition rules. At the end of 2003, AMP, a rival postal company, complained that Royal Mail was trying to poach business customers through the use of special offers. AMP, which specialises in delivering magazines and catalogues, alleged that Royal Mail had offered discounts to companies in these sectors in an effort to drive it out of business. Following a long investigation, Postcomm said that Royal Mail had contravened two conditions in its licence designed to facilitate competition, as any discounts should be offered equally to all customers. Royal Mail said it had not realised at the time the discounts were anti-competitive, and that they were no longer on offer.

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Palletline extends hub

Posted by | Jan 20, 2005 | |

Palletline is to extend its Birmingham central hub by 2,500 sqm. It says the expansion will help it increase volumes towards 20,000 pallets a day. The work is due to begin in February and should be completed by the end of June.

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Depot numbers

Posted by | Jan 19, 2005 | |

Initial City Link told us last week that they had 13 owned depots and 52 franchised giving a total of 65.

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