Year: 2007

Fed ex-chairman supports investment in France

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

On his departure from Davos, Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx Corp. accepted an invitation by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to participate in the Strategic Council on France Attractiveness.

Mr. Smith shared his views with French government officials on how France can become even more attractive in the global marketplace. Recognizing the advantages of the French market offers, in 1999 FedEx Express chose France to be the site of FedEx Express European hub, located at Roissy Charles de Gaulle. Together with Aéroports de Paris, 220 million euros were invested in the hub, which has made Roissy Charles de Gaulle the largest cargo platform in Europe. About 1,000 tons of freight move through the hub every day.

As a founding member of the Roissy Carex Group, FedEx is working with the government and other partners to establish an integrated transport policy in Europe and to raise the attractiveness of CDG as a European intermodal hub. Mr. Smith stated, “One of the key remaining issues for France is to develop an integrated regional transport infrastructure using high-speed trains to deliver air cargo throughout Europe. This would greatly benefit the local economy and the environment.”

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Jamaica Post advances 'business mail' concept

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

Jamaica Post’s new approach to its business mail service – the Corporate Mailroom – is specifically targeted to volume-oriented business mail. In particular, the MegaMail service is proving to be quite useful to the target customer-business operators based on the sustained increase in business mail customers.

MegaMail provides customers with a hassle-free facility for distributing large amounts of mail that have the same size and weight in one mailing without having to purchase stamps for each item.

Additionally, the organisation is freed from having to use cash, as the process is facilitated by credit cards or a manager’s cheque payable to the postmaster general since the total postage cost can be obtained by phone (once the common weight of items is established).

To access the MegaMail service, customers will need to send at least 1,500 pieces at one time. Therefore, if you have large numbers of customer care letters, invitations, receipts or such mail items to distribute, use MegaMail.

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USPS extends use of CombineNet's advanced sourcing technology

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

CombineNet announced that the United States Postal Service has extended its license to use CombineNet’s advanced sourcing technologies for two more years. In the three years that the Postal Service has used CombineNet’s Advanced Sourcing Application Platform (ASAP), they have implemented the technology across multiple spend categories, sourcing roughly USD1 billion and realizing more than 35x Return on Investment. CombineNet ASAP enables the Postal Service to strategically source materials and services across multiple categories, including transportation (airfreight, ocean freight and holiday season truckload shipping), services (trash and recycling removal, vehicle wash), mail equipment materials (mail containers and pallet boxes), as well as the supply of fuel for its fleet vehicles.

Under its former and current Transformation Plans, the Postal Service set a goal to achieve a cost savings over a defined period. One of the things the agency did to reach this goal was to implement a broad sourcing strategy, including the creation of category management centers and the establishment of commodity sourcing strategies for each spend category. Implemented across multiple categories, CombineNet’s Advanced Sourcing Application Platform (ASAP) was one of the many strategic steps the organization took that resulted in savings of approximately USD2.1 billion over a 5-year period.

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Couriers Slow Down E-Commerce

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

The boom in the e-commerce sector continues. Last year the market was worth ZL4.5-5 billion. Together with the increase in sales via the Internet, the number of packages to be sent is growing alongside competition between e-shops. The delivery of the purchased goods, its price, speed and quality, is becoming the most important element of the transaction. However, many e-shops’ owners believe that courier companies do not catch up with the development of the sector. “Our clients very often inform us about problems with the delivery, such as inconvenient hours or impolite couriers,” said Krzysztof Jerzyk from Merlin.pl. In the survey conducted by Sklepy24.pl in December 2006, the majority of 380 respondents said that both Poczta Polska and courier companies provide a low quality service. 62 percent of them complained about the high price of courier companies, which they believed to be second most important obstacle to the development of e-commerce. Some courier companies do not provide credit card terminals and are impunctual. 42 percent believed that real competition between courier companies would influence the growth of e-commerce in the future.

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Palletline's pounds 1m profit

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

The group, which operates the UK’s longest established pallet distribution network, recorded a strong trading performance in its 2005/2006 financial year.

Against an increasingly competitive market, the company generated audited pre-tax profits of pounds 1,147,000.

Managing director Glyn Jones said: “We are delighted to see such strong profits, particularly given the highly competitive market in which our members operate, as well as the current business climate.

“The figures reflect the growth in pallet throughput from our existing members, the addition of new members and the ongoing commitment of all members to maintaining the very highest service levels.

“From both a service quality and a financial point of view, Palletline is in a strong position to meet the challenges of 2007.”

Founded in 1992, Palletline was the UK’s first national network dedicated to pallet distribution.

Operating from a main hub in Birmingham with regional hubs in London and Preston, the company employs around 110 staff.

Major clients include blue chip organisations such as Parcelforce and Sainsbury’s.

As well as the UK, Palletline offers deliveries to mainland Europe, Scandinavia and the Irish Republic.

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Portuguese express market ''to grow 8% this year''

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

The Portuguese courier and express market is to grow 8% this year, building upon similar annual growth over the past three years, according to new research.

Revenues, which grossed some EUR 506 million in 2005, should grow to around EUR 590 million at the end of 2007 if the forecast is correct.

International express deliveries in and from the country accounted for a quarter of all business in 2005, compared to 23% in 2004, said the study by DBK, the Iberian subsidiary of Italian business information group Databank.

Growth was being driven by “increasing externalisation of transport and logistics services in the B2B sector, the development of greater added-value services and the dynamic of electronic commerce,” DBK said.

But margins narrowed among express companies in Portugal, last year and the year before, the report said. This was due to high fuel costs which the carriers were not able to pass on to clients because of the sector’s intense competition.

There are some 200 express companies operating in Portugal, most of them small with less than 10 employees. Over half of business is done by foreign-owned carriers. Two-fifths of carriers are based in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley (Vale do Tejo) area, 30% in the north and 23% in the centre of the country,

A growing demand for quality and new services from clients would lead companies operating in Portugal to offer more global logistics in future, DBK said. Express carriers were also increasingly tailoring their services to specific sectors in order to respond better to customers’ needs.

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Mex opens new branches in Spain

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

Spanish courier Mex has opened 14 new branches in the last two months as part of a major expansion drive across Spain, taking its total number of outlets to over 200.

The carrier, fifth in the Spanish express market behind DHL, Seur, MRW and TNT, according to the journal “Logística, Paquetería y Almacenaje”, opened five new agencies in Barcelona, four in Valencia and one each in Madrid, Seville, Zamora, Vizcaya and Tarragona. It now has 32 and 28 outlets, respectively, in the Barcelona and Madrid regions.

Mex totalled revenues of EUR 171 million in 2005, 16% up on the previous year and said it increased its number of new clients by 20%. It founded in 1982 as Mundiexpress, changing its name in 1996 to Grupo Mex as it launched franchises throughout the country.

The carrier has 1,650 employees, over 1,000 vehicles and small aircraft, and in December signed up for international deliveries with Sky Net, which in Spain ships out of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

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UK road haulage market update

Posted by | Jan 29, 2007 | |

The road haulage industry is a vital part of the UK’s freight-transportation system, although it is a mature market and one that has little real growth potential. This is demonstrated by the fact that, in 2005, the volume of goods lifted by road by GB-registered goods vehicles weighing over 3.5 tonnes in Great Britain increased by 0.1% to 1.75 billion tonnes, while the volume of goods moved by road increased by 0.3%, to 152.7 billion tonne kilometres.

Advances in vehicle technology, such as improvements to fuel efficiency and the better reliability of new trucks, have contributed significantly to the developments made in the operational efficiency of the haulage companies. Also important has been the trend by the operators to develop strategies to improve the efficiency of their assets by, for example, improving vehicle utilisation through better planning of journeys.

Leading companies within the road haulage industry are under pressure from their customers to establish and develop global logistics networks. This demand has led to a spate of acquisitions and mergers among the leading companies, such as the acquisition of Exel PLC, the UK’s leading freight-distribution company, by Germany-based Deutsche Post, and the merger between haulier ACR Logistics and Kuehne + Nagel, another Germany-based logistics operator.

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