Year: 2006

Pims acquisition creates more direct mail capacity

Posted by | Jan 10, 2006 | |

Corporate Mailing Matters (CMM) has completed the acquisition of the business and assets of direct mail company Pims National. Pims will now trade as CMM National (a division of Corporate Mailing Matters), in a move which brings CMM’s annual turnover close to GBP30m. CMM said that the acquisition of such a profitable, well managed business with an experienced and capable management team, is designed to extend CMM’s production and management capacity to support the company’s growth objectives.

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New US domestic prices effective January 8, 2006

Posted by | Jan 9, 2006 | |

The Governors of the US Postal Service voted November 14 to accept the Postal Rate Commission’s recommendation to increase most rates and fees by approximately 5.4 percent. This price increase – the first since 2002 – is needed to fulfill a federal law passed in 2003 that requires the Postal Service to place USD.1 billion in an escrow account by October 1, 2006. Without this federal mandate, it would not have been necessary to raise prices in 2006. Among the adjustments, the 1 ounce single-piece rate for First-Class Mail will increase from 37 cents to 39 cents, and the postcard rate will increase by one cent, to 24 cents. The Board of Governors set Sunday, January 8, 2006, as the effective date for the new rates and fees.

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Kalitta Air seals USPS Deal

Posted by | Jan 9, 2006 | |

The US Postal Service is changing the way it moves mail to soldiers and others in the Middle East by signing a large contract with Kalitta Air. Kalitta Air beat out four other bidders for the contract requiring it to deliver all the mail to the Middle Easter each day, which will necessitate the use of subcontracted carriers as well. Five-year-old Kalitta, which is headed by industry veteran Conrad “Connie” Kalitta, had already been carrying a substantial portion of the mail to the region, but the new contract gives them more responsibility beyond just moving the mail. The Postal Service moves, literally, tons of packages and letters to Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries in the region each day. The agency says it moves 200,000 pounds of military mail daily to the Persian Gulf region. “You name it, they get it,” Postal Service Vice President of Network Operations Paul Vogel said in an interview.

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Competition might mean the end of the Royal Mail's monopoly, but the 350-year-old organisation could still deliver surprises

Posted by | Jan 8, 2006 | |

THESE are testing times for Adam Crozier. The Royal Mail’s Falkirk-born chief executive has been facing the prospect of open competition for his pounds-6 billion-plus monopoly since January 1. Foreign players, including TNT and DHL, owned respectively by the Dutch and German national post offices, as well as Birmingham-based UK Mail, part of Business Post, are all eyeing up a slice of the action. Most of the 14 players who have been awarded UK operating licences by regulator Postcomm are hoping to cherrypick the most profitable parts of Royal Mail business.

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Red letter day for UK postal services

Posted by | Jan 8, 2006 | |

You shouldn’t expect rival posties scrapping on your doorstep, a choice of different companies’ stamps or new post boxes springing up next to the Royal Mail’s signature red pillar boxes. But on new years’ day, the UK brought the last great government-owned monopoly, that on post, to an end, liberalising a market worth GBP6.5bn (USD11.4bn, E9.14bn). Any company can collect, sort and deliver letters of any size.

It’s hard to understand why it took so long. As far back as 1970, before Margaret Thatcher had put it on the political radar, the Institute of Economic Affairs published a monograph – The Postal Service: Competition or Monopoly – arguing that the Royal Mail’s then 320-year monopoly be scrapped. But the writer, Ian Senior, a postal economist who runs Triangle Management Services, has had to wait his whole career for it to happen.

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Royal Mail in race to appeal GBP50m ruling

Posted by | Jan 6, 2006 | |

Royal Mail has three weeks to appeal against a High Court judgment which found it be in breach of its own compensation scheme, or it will be forced to pay more than GBP50m to disgruntled bulk mailers. Industry watchdog Postwatch brought a judicial review against industry regulator Postcomm when Royal Mail withheld around GBP40m-worth of compensation from companies after failing all 15 of its minimum service targets in 2003 and 2004. Bulk mail customers should have automatically received compensation totalling GBP80m, but Royal Mail used late invoice payments as a reason to withhold 50 per cent of that. A Royal Mail spokesman says: “We will be carefully studying the full written judgment. But we expect to ask for leave to appeal against the ruling. It is too early to say what impact the ruling will have on our business with bulk mail customers.”

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