Year: 2007

USPS won’t stop mailing animal-fighting paraphernalia

The Humane Society of the United States filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia in June challenging the US Postal Service’s refusal to implement portions of a new federal law that prohibits the mailing of animal- fighting paraphernalia, including trade magazines that advertise fighting animals, knives and other implements used in illegal dogfights and cockfights.

The lawsuit is being filed as a companion case to an action the HSUS filed earlier this year against Internet retailer Amazon.com and other parties for shipping the same animal-fighting trade publications in violation of the federal animal-fighting law.

In May 2007, President Bush signed the federal Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, which strengthened the federal law against dog fighting and cockfighting. One provision of the law makes it a felony to send any “commercial speech for purposes of promoting or in any other manner furthering an animal- fighting venture” through the mail.

The lawsuit alleges that the USPS is violating the law by knowingly accepting animal-fighting materials for mailing, and by issuing discount, bulk mail permits to two animal-fighting trade publications — The Feathered Warrior and The Gamecock, both published in Arkansas.

The HSUS alerted USPS officials to the new animal-fighting law the same day it was enacted, and asked them to halt the mailing of two trade magazines that are essentially mail-order catalogs for illegal cockfighting weapons and fighting birds.

The society said Congress was explicit in its intent to halt mailing of these magazines, including by noting in the Congressional Record that the new law “prohibits the Web sites and the magazines where fighting animals are advertised for sale.”

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Distribution company celebrates first anniversary in Bristol

Local distribution company John T Evans Haulage Ltd is celebrating its first anniversary in Bristol since it opened a new GBP 1m (25,000 sq) warehouse facility in Avonmouth last year.

The 25-year old company is a member of Palletways, Europe’s leading palletized freight network. John T Evans opened its Bristol operation last May with 18 employees and has since grown to over 25 members of staff with a fleet of 14 vehicles. Its location in Bristol is an important part of the company’s business development plans to increase its current turnover of GBP 6m to some GBP 10m over the next three years.

As one of the largest members in the Palletways network, John T Evans manages over 250 incoming pallets a day and delivers 150 outgoing pallets for over 50 customers in Bristol and the surrounding areas. Through the Palletways network, the company offers its customers next day and economy distribution services for one to six pallet consignments across the UK & Ireland, as well as to mainland Europe, including the Benelux countries, Denmark, Germany and France.

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Dunne: Royal Mail pricing proposals set to hit rural areas the hardest

Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, today criticized Royal Mail’s plans to charge large postal customers higher prices for delivering bulk mail in rural areas.

It has been calculated that 80 pct of households and 90 pct of postcode sectors in the Ludlow constituency are in the area Royal Mail considers the most rural. These areas will attract the biggest surcharges.

Royal Mail’s proposals are to increase prices by over 10.2 pct for bulk mail deliveries in rural areas while prices in urban areas rise by only pct%.

The rural surcharge proposals for large mailings raise damaging implications for rural postal services and rural communities:

– Mail volumes going to rural areas will decrease and the unit costs of deliveries will increase;
– This in turn will put pressure on Royal Mail to reduce services in rural areas in the future;
– Rural post offices involved with mail delivery will see a declining volume of mail handled placing them in even greater jeopardy and;
– Significant additional costs will be placed on rural business and organizations.

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Bulgarian private postal operator T-Post opens first office

T-Post, Bulgaria’s first private postal operator has opened its first customer center half a year after securing a license to provide a universal postal service.

The business launch was slightly delayed because the telecom regulator approved the T-Post price tariffs only a month ago, said Lachezar Kaparashev, board chairman of express delivery company Tip Top Courier which owns the T-Post trademark.

T-Post invested 0.5 mln levs in the new office which opened in Sofia’s Mladost residential district.

Another postal station will open in the capital’s Nadezhda borough within the next two months.

Some 20 rollouts are planned for 2007 with locations in Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad and Sliven.

Kaparashev said the first phase of the company’s development should conclude in late 2008 when it should have a network of offices in 48 population centers.

T-Post handles mail and parcel shipments of up to 2 kg, catalogues and money wires.
The newly minted postal operators like T-Post are allowed to handle mail consignments weighing less than 51 g but are unable to offer prices cheaper than 1.37 levs per letter.

That will happen after the state-owned Bulgarian Posts loses its monopoly in January 2009.

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Swiss Post acquired Highnes Holding AG

Swiss Post has bought a night express delivery company to strengthen its position in the fast-growing night logistics market segment.

The Swiss postal group acquired Highnes Holding AG, parent of night express firm NES and Tesmo Immobilien SA e EDS SA, with effect from July 1, 2007. NES, based near Berne, is specialized in same-day and in-night express deliveries as well as repair logistics within Switzerland. NES will be integrated into PostLogistics, the logistics division of Swiss Post, which already provides night logistics services.

PostLogistics, with 5,100 staff, aims to offer a broad range of parcel and express delivery services, freight forwarding and warehouse logistics. It made an operating profit of CHF 87 million (GBP 35.24 million) on revenues of CHF 1.4 billion (GBP 0.56 billion) in 2006.

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FedEx Ground coming to West Frankfort (Kentucky)

A new FedEx Ground Distribution Center could be under construction in West Frankfort later this year.

FedEx Ground officials have signed a contract with a development company to construct Presley said he received word about the contract Tuesday afternoon.

A new facility is necessary because the company has outgrown the current center located in Marion. The new facility would bring an additional 40 to 60 jobs.

“We have chosen a developer and hope to have a signed, executed lease in the next 30 days,” company spokesman David Westrick said. “I would compare where we are now to someone who has their heart set on a house but they have to make sure it passes inspection and do all the nitty-gritty work to make sure the house is suitable for their needs.”

If all goes well, Westrick said, the facility is on track for a September groundbreaking.

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Florida East Coast Railway named Rail Carrier of the Year by UPS

Florida East Coast Railway, L.L.C. (“FECR”), the transportation subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries, Inc. (“FECI”), has been recognized by UPS as one of two Rail Carriers of the Year for 2006. The award recognizes FECR’s continuing commitment to UPS for daily on-time delivery. UPS, which is the Railway’s largest domestic intermodal customer, has a long-standing partnership spanning well over a decade.

Senior executives of the Railway and UPS are scheduled to meet with FECR and UPS employees from Jacksonville to Miami over a three-day period starting today to commemorate and celebrate this system-wide achievement.

In addition to working directly with National Accounts in the retail market within the Southeast, FECR’s Intermodal Division builds relationships with Intermodal Marketing Companies (IMCs), Parcel carriers, Less-Than- Truckload Companies (LTLs), Truckload carriers, Ocean carriers and railroads.

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DHL expands infrastructure in Sri Lanka with new Express Centre in Nugegoda.

DHL Keells (Pvt) Ltd inaugurated its newest Express Centre in the bustling town of Nugegoda. It will cater to the increasing demands of DHL’s retail customers in areas south of Colombo and beyond.

The Nugegoda Express Centre adds to DHL’s expanding network which includes Colombo, Kollupitiya, Ja-Ela, Mt.Lavinia, Biyagama, Kandy and Kurunegala. The Nugegoda Express Centre offers a range of products and services including Jumbo Box and Express Pallet targeted at retail customers.

During the last four years, DHL Keells (Pvt) Ltd. has made significant investments towards the development of infrastructure and facilities in Sri Lanka. Among them is the purpose-built Euro 2 million (LKR 260 million), 40,000-square-feet facility at Vauxhall Street in Colombo which houses 130 staff for both the administration and operations arms of DHL Express in Sri Lanka, as well as a 24/7 call centre.

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