Year: 2007

Glos says Germany will stick to plans to end Deutsche Post mail monopoly

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

Economy Minister Michael Glos said Germany is sticking to its plans to end Deutsche Post AG’s monopoly on mail delivery operations by the end of this year.

Glos’ comments came amidst calls by Social Democratic politicians and trade unions to allow Deutsche Post to keep its monopoly on the grounds that other European countries have not yet made any significant moves to liberalise their own postal services.

Deutsche Post still enjoys the monopoly of delivering mails weighing less than 50 grams.

‘We need open postal markets. That is an advantage for consumers,’ he said in a speech at an international cartel conference.

Glos said the oft-touted scenario of ‘an invasion of foreign postal firms in the German market is not a realistic threat’.

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Portuguese and Brazilian Posts Partner

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

Portuguese public postal operator, CTT Correios, has signed a deal with its Brazilian counterpart ECT to launch joint mail, express and financial products later this year.

CTT has taken the lead in setting up a working group to study the international mail, express and money transfer markets with a view to launching new products and services, possibly with the same branding, in both countries in September.

“The agreement is indicative of the importance of commercial relations and growing migration between the two countries,” CTT said in a statement after the signing of the accord in Lisbon last week.

“The dynamism of these markets implies new products, services and brands in the target segments, a revision of costs and the negotiation of new margins between the operators with a view to introducing more competitive prices,” they added. The agreement, based on a common and jointly-managed “action plan”, is renewable annually for five years.

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Intelligent Mail® barcodes available for flat mail May 1, 2007

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

In September 2006, the use of Intelligent Mail Barcodes for automation discounts became available for letter mail. Today, Charlie Bravo, the United States Postal Service’s senior vice president of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality announced that automation discounts for use of Intelligent Mail barcode — formerly called 4-State Customer Barcode — will be available for Flat Mail beginning May 1, 2007.

OneCode Services™ available with Intelligent Mail include OneCode Confirm™ for First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, and Periodicals and OneCode ACS™ for First-Class Mail flats and Periodicals. OneCode ACS will be available for Standard Mail this fall. “The Intelligent Mail process is fully automated,” said Bravo. “We’re looking forward to having everyone on board by 2009.”

Bravo’s announcement was made at the National Postal Forum in Washington, DC. About 7,000 industry professionals are attending the four-day conference at the Washington Convention Center through March 28. The Forum offers 150 workshops, three, day-long symposiums, special sessions and 13 professional certificate programs. This year the Forum sets out to transform the world of mail, with four days of powerful business and career opportunities. The National Postal Forum provides insight and perspective on a future filled with opportunities for the mailing industry.

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UPS changes the delivery game with new intercept service

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

UPS announced the launch of UPS Delivery Intercept, an automated service that gives customers ultimate flexibility and control by enabling shippers to intercept and reroute packages before they’re delivered.

UPS Delivery Intercept is the industry’s only Web-enabled package interception service. With UPS Delivery Intercept, a shipper simply uses a UPS package application such as UPS WorldShip®, UPS CampusShip® or UPS Internet Shipping®, clicks on the 1Z tracking number and requests a reroute. Interception requests also can be made through a shipper’s myups.com account as well as via UPS Signature Tracking®.

Shippers can access the service 24/7 to request UPS to intercept packages being shipped from and to anywhere in the United States and Puerto Rico.

UPS Delivery Intercept is powered by a UPS innovation known as Package Flow Technology, which enables UPS not only to map more efficient routes for drivers but also to flag packages for special handling while they are in the UPS network. In fact, an interception can even be executed after a package is on board one of UPS’s familiar brown delivery vehicles.

UPS Delivery Intercept is available for all small package deliveries, excluding packages using UPS SonicAir® service. UPS Delivery Intercept costs USD 10 per interception and because of the reliability of the new system, is charged only on completion of the intercept.

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Postcomm guidance on Royal Mail participation in competitive tendering

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

Postcomm has today published guidance on Royal Mail’s participation in competitive tendering, following a consultation on the subject last year.

Competitive tendering – which was non-existent in the former mail monopoly market – has become accepted practice now the market is fully competitive.

Postcomm does not wish to preclude Royal Mail from winning or retaining business awarded by competitive tenders, but it is important that the market has confidence that it is not acting anti-competitively or taking unfair advantage of its size and dominance of the market to gain business.

Royal Mail’s licence requires it to:

* publish its prices after it has won a contract
* refrain from anti-competitive practices
* offer prices which are within the limits of its 2006/10 price control.

The guidance sets out the detail of these arrangements so that other operators in the market can ensure Royal Mail is complying with its licence.

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DHL establishes new international gateway in Southern California

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

DHL opened its new international gateway in Southern California to enhance service quality and meet the growing needs of DHL customers shipping to and from Asia-Pacific and the Western United States.

To establish the new International Gateway operation, DHL has invested nearly USD 3 million at its West Coast Distribution Facility in Riverside, Calif., adding on-site offices specifically for providing customs-processing and clearance functions related to DHL international shipments upon arrival. The newly expanded operation will come fully online with the arrival on Tuesday, March 27 of a flight from DHL’s Central Asia SuperHub in Hong Kong into the facility.

DHL’s Riverside ground and air hub personnel will process letters and packages as they are off loaded from the Asia-Pacific flight and channeled directly into the DHL West Coast distribution network, making for faster door-to-door delivery of DHL customer shipments from Asia-Pacific to the Western U.S.

The opening of DHL’s sixth U.S. International Gateway will be the company’s third in California. In addition to the new international gateway operation in Riverside, DHL maintains five other U.S. gateways operations in Wilmington, Ohio; Miami; New York; Los Angeles and San Francisco.

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Postal employees plan strike from April 24

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

The Joint Action Council (JAC) of recognised postal employees organisations has decided to call for an indefinite strike from April 24 to press its demands.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, K. Raghavendran, national working president of the All-India Postal Employees Union P3 and V. Parthiban, Tamil Nadu circle secretary, said the demands included the constitution of a judicial committee to go into the working conditions and demands of the Gramin Dak Sevaks or rural postal employees and dropping of the move to close down post offices and privatise and out-source services.

Mr. Raghavendran said the Centre had announced the closure of 40 out of the 48 Railway Mail Service offices in Tamil Nadu. Only three in Chennai and five in the rest of the State would be retained. Under a new norm, those RMS offices handling less than 10,000 letters a day were to be closed down. This move, he claimed, would render many employees surplus, besides imposing a heavy workload on the staff members. Furthermore, the Centre had issued orders for opening 100 private post offices on a franchisee basis.

The JAC also opposed the Planning Commission’s announcement that no subsidy would be given to the Postal Department in the main budget from April 1, 2008.

Mr. Raghavendran alleged that the Centre was trying to project the department as loss-making on the grounds that the pension, amounting to Rs.1, 200 crore, was being paid from the department’s earnings, and that the department was, therefore, justified in closing down post offices to cut the expenditure.

While the pension for all other Central Government employees, including railway employees, was being paid from the Government’s Consolidated Fund, it was only in the case of the Postal Department that the pension was being drawn from the department fund. If the postal pensioners were also paid from the Consolidated Fund, the department could save Rs.1, 200 crore every year.

While on the one hand, the Government was saying that the Postal Department should stand on its own, on the other it was opening private post offices.

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CEVA Newsfast wins Logistics contract with John West Foods Ltd

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

John West Foods Ltd has awarded CEVA Newsfast (formerly TNT Newsfast/Network Logistics) a euro 8.8 million per annum (GBP 6 million) logistics contract.
The long term contract, commencing April 1st, will be based at CEVA’s 755,000 sq ft multi-user centre in Mendlesham, Suffolk, UK with product being delivered through CEVA’s established shared user distribution network to a wide range of wholesalers, supermarket regional distribution centres (RDCs) and food retailers.
John West, the leading brand of canned tuna and fish in the UK, was acquired by Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking along with other leading European seafood brands Petit Navire (France) and Mareblu (Italy) from HJ Heinz in a deal worth euro 425 million, completed in March 2006.
The products, primarily from John West’s own canning factories in the Seychelles, Ghana and Portugal, come into the UK via the Port of Felixstowe where Newsfast already operates an import centre. About 3,500 sea containers a year, an average of fourteen a day, will be handled through Newsfast’s Mendlesham site with the company’s port operation providing additional support during peak periods of activity.

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