Year: 2007

Blow to Royal Mail as BT and British Gas defect

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

Royal Mail suffered a twin blow yesterday after UK companies BT and British Gas switched postal contracts worth around GBP150m to its rival operator, TNT.

BT is the largest bulk mailer in the country, and the contract won yesterday by TNT, part of the Dutch post office, is the biggest since deregulation of the UK postal market in 2004. The BT contract is worth GBP90m over three years, and will involve TNT handling 170 million items a year – mainly bills and statements. No announcement has been made of the British Gas deal, but the contract is thought to worth GBP60m. TNT declined to comment.

The loss of the two huge utilities is a further setback for Royal Mail following the decision by the Department for Work and Pensions to switch a GBP12m contract to another of its privately owned rivals, Business Post, two weeks ago.

The BT contract involves a so-called access agreement, whereby TNT collects the post and trunks it to Royal Mail sorting offices for final delivery. However, TNT is planning to launch its own end-to-end postal service, and is in the final stages of selecting a number of UK cities to conduct trials. It has already signed up a host of blue-chip clients including Virgin Mobile, Sky, Next, Sainsbury’s. HBOS, Lloyds TSB, npow-er and Thames Water.

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post UK, said he aimed to win more business from BT.

Business Post’s letters division, UK Mail, has also picked up contracts from Royal Bank of Scotland, Vodafone and Powergen while DHL, owned by Deustche Post, counts Tesco, John Lewis and Debenhams among its customers.

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Are smaller stamps going to save the planet?

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

France’s La Poste proudly announces what they consider a major step in environmental friendliness: the “Eco-carnet“.

Up to now, a carnet contained 10 stamps; the new version contains 12 stamps of a smaller size, using the same amount of paper.

La Poste claims a saving of 13% on paper, which is the equivalent of 192 trees per year.

That means that by the time La Poste has saved 192 trees, they have delivered 1.8 billion letters across the country.

Most French post travels by train or aeroplane between major regional distribution centers, from where it travels by lorry to local post offices, before it is delivered by your friendly postman on his moped (in cities) or mini-van (in country towns).

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New era dawns for telecom ventures in vietnam

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

Foreign investors are looking to have more control in telecommunications now that Vietnam is a member of the WTO, said Tran Duc Lai, Deputy Minister of Post and Telematics.

Investors want to participate in joint ventures, where they can own and operate telecommunications businesses with Vietnamese partners, instead of signing a business co-operation contract (BCC), he said.

Agreeing to a BCC was the only way foreigners could invest in telecommunications companies before Vietnam officially became the 150th member of the WTO on January 11. But it’s still up to companies whether they want to use a BCC or choose to form a joint-venture or joint-stock partnership, according to Lai.

“If both Vietnamese and foreign partners want to establish a joint venture, they can negotiate to stop the BCC and implement the procedures for a future joint venture,” he said. Market experts predict foreign companies that have already signed a BCC will be looking to establish joint ventures with local posts and telecommunication companies rapidly in the near future.

One example is the recent announcement of a joint venture between DHL, the world’s leading express and logistics company, and the VNPT. There are seven telecommunications business co-operatives that have been formed so far this year.

Three BCC contracts have expired, with four still valid. The companies still under a BCC are: France Telecom and the VNPT, the NTT of Japan and the VNPT; the South Korean SK Telecom Co and the Sai Gon Postel; and the Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong and the Hanoi Telecom.

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TNT Post confirms Centrica contract win

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

TNT Post confirms earlier reports that it has been awarded a contract to handle around 170 million items mail for Centrica, the leading supplier of energy in the United Kingdom. The 2 year contract estimated to be worth over euro 35 million (GBP23 million) annually is another significant milestone for the postal industry.
TNT Post will be handling around 120 million transactional mail items a year and around 50 million direct marketing items. Centrica’s transactional mail is generated at their print and mail centres in Northampton and Manchester. Centrica will predominantly be benefiting from TNT Post’s Premier Service, a two day time definite service for pre-sorted mail with Royal Mail continuing to carry out the final mile delivery to customers’ homes nationwide. The service offers valuable benefits to both Centrica and its customers such as: flexible pick up times, use of tracking systems that enable improved visibility and management and fast and reliable 2 day service.

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Royal Mail close to GBP 3bn funding deal

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

A multi-billion-pound funding package for the cash-strapped Royal Mail is likely to be paid out next month – eight months after it was agreed with ministers. The trigger for the payment of the GBP3bn deal has been the agreement in principle of a share plan for employees of Royal Mail. The new plan is a compromise between the Royal Mail’s plan for actual shares to be given to staff and a more straightforward profit-sharing scheme advocated by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU).
Under the deal, Royal Mail workers are likely to be issued with “phantom shares” which will track the value of the business and allow staff to share in its value. The hope is that approximately 200,000 Royal Mail workers could be left with phantom shares worth GBP5,000 after five years.
The compromise emerged after months of negotiations between Allan Leighton, Royal Mail’s chairman, and Alastair Darling, the DTI Secretary. Sources close to the talks insisted that no deal was agreed. One said: “There is a lot still to do to agree, but it is a way forward.” Other sources said that Royal Mail would be happy with a deal which gives staff about GBP5,000 worth of shares in the company.

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DHL to employ latest generation wi-fi systems throughout US network

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

DHL announced it is adopting the latest “new generation” scanning technology, deploying a single system across the entire DHL US network to provide enhanced shipment visibility for DHL customers. The new scanning devices, used to capture shipment information by couriers and other operations personnel and utilizing a Wi-Fi (wireless local area network connectivity) communications system, will be deployed nationwide by third quarter 2007.

Unlike many systems used throughout the transportation industry, the DHL wireless scanners leverage the latest GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technologies, which will enable DHL to transmit customer shipment information automatically – from pickup to final delivery – without the need to wait and place a device within a transmission cradle. The information will be immediately fed into DHL back-end systems, providing instant visibility to customers looking for shipment status through calls to customer service, the DHL web site, or DHL shipping systems.

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Royal Mail close to pounds 3bn funding plan

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

A multi-billion-pound funding package for the cash-strapped Royal Mail is likely to be paid out next month – eight months after it was agreed with ministers.

The trigger for the payment of the pounds 3bn deal has been the agreement in principle of a share plan for employees of Royal Mail.

The new plan is a compromise between the Royal Mail’s plan for actual shares to be given to staff and a more straightforward profit-sharing scheme advocated by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU).

Under the deal, Royal Mail workers are likely to be issued with “phantom shares” which will track the value of the business and allow staff to share in its value.

The hope is that approximately 200,000 Royal Mail workers could be left with phantom shares worth pounds 5,000 after five years.

Royal Mail had wanted the Government to agree to give a fifth of its shares to its employees.

However, a straight share transfer was strongly opposed by the postal workers union, the CWU, and Left-wing Labour MPs who feared it might be a back-door privatisation of the business.

The postal service, which has a deficit of pounds 5.5bn in its pension scheme, will plough the money into its pension fund, as well as modernising sorting equipment.

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Empost launches new bulk shipment service in the middle of this month

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

As part of its ongoing expansion programme, Empost, the UAE’s national courier company, has announced the introduction of a new “Bulk Shipment Service” starting January 15, 2007. Empost is following its strategy in introducing new services to adapt with the fast moving world; the service will allow customers to deliver bulk shipments all over the UAE at the cost of AED 7 up to five kg package.

Sultan Al Midfa, CEO, Empost said: “Empost is happy to announce the new bulk shipment service. This latest offering forms part of Empost’s efforts to continuously provide new courier platforms, utilise new technologies and implement new processes to achieve its goal of offering innovative, efficient and world-class services to its widening base of resident and corporate clients.”

“As one of the leading courier service providers in the region, Empost is committed to meet the evolving business needs of UAE customers. Our new service caters to the growing demand for a speedy, reliable and cost-effective means of making bulk shipments and marks a significant addition to Empost’s expanding suite of value-added services,” he added.

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