Market Flash: Direct Mail Review
Market Flash: Direct Mail Review
Read MoreYear: 2008
Little known Canada Post program to prevent junk mail from arriving finally gets promoted
When you get home, do you pick up the stack of junk mail in your mail box and throw it right into the recycling bin?
Most of us do. And many of us wish they wouldn’t send us this stuff.
But very few of us knew that Canada Post has had a program in place for the past 10 years that allows Canadians to notify the post office that they do not want junk mail delivered to them. The Straight’s Sindy Zelezen heard about the program on the CBC.
A Vancouver businesswoman is now promoting it out of her own company’s funds and has started the Red Dot Campaign Web site.
Whether you’re irritated at having to deal with junk mail, or you want to save the environment, or both, just follow the simple instructions and you can stop the endless flow of junk mail.
Talk about stopping the insanity!
Read MoreAustrian Post Acquires Remaining 49pct of Scanpoint Europe
Specialist for document digitalisation is now a 100pct Group subsidiary
Following its acquisition of a 51pct shareholding in Scanpoint Europe Holding GmbH in January of 2007, Austrian Post has purchased the remaining 49pctstake, effective retroactively in economic terms to January 1, 2008.
The core business of the Scanpoint Group is the data protected digitalisation of documents (i.e. files, policies, response collection, incoming mail, etc.), as well as the delivery of business-relevant information within the context of a customer’s in-house workflow. This acquisition enables Austrian Post to expand its portfolio of services by incorporating key stages of the document life cycle, for example, the intelligent digitalisation and classification of incoming mail directly in the letter mail sorting centres, and the electronic delivery of this mail to the responsible employees using some form of storage media, email or as a web archive file.
Read MoreQuality of Service (QoS) Targets to be achieved by Maltapost Plc Decision Notice and Response to Consultation
Quality of Service (QoS) Targets to be achieved by Maltapost Plc
Decision Notice and Response to Consultation
Royal Mail raises prices for B2B and commercial (UK)
Financial constraints on printers will increase in 2008 as Royal Mail has announced price hikes for its business-to-business mailing.
However, according to postal price comparison website Post-Switch, the price increases are more likely to affect upstream mailing providers such as TNT and DHL.
From 7 April, Royal Mail will be increasing its Mailsort tariff rates. Mailsort two is going up by 1.5p per unit and Mailsort three is up 0.8p.
Commercial mail prices will also increase, with a first class mailer costing 36p, up from 34p, and the second class price increasing from 24p to 27p.
Jonathan DeCarteret, Senior Postal Analyst at Post-Switch, said: “What we are witnessing here is an attempt by Royal Mail to reduce the margin between its retail rates and the downstream access rates it charges competitors to access the final mile.
“Mail operators wishing to maintain a price advantage over Royal Mail are going to have to reduce their profits.”
Although a number of private operators have entered the UK postal market since it was opened up to full competition in February 2006, Royal Mail continues to dominate final mile delivery. Only 12 pct of the UK direct mail volume has switched from Royal Mail to downstream access, according to Post-Switch.
Read MoreMalta: CEPT reforms discussed
Competitiveness and Communications Minister Censu Galea yesterday inaugurated a crucial Task Force meeting of the CEPT (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations) which is currently discussing reforms within this organisation.
The CEPT is a body of policy-makers and regulators comprising 48 members from almost the entire geographical area of Europe. The scope of this meeting is to provide a platform for CEPT members, observers and other interested parties to discuss initiatives aimed at developing a strategic plan for the development of this organisation. Two other Task Force meetings were held in Berlin and Copenhagen.
The task force will then present its findings on how CEPT can remain relevant and successful by maintaining its strengths, by meeting the external challenges and by overcoming the weaknesses identified.
Among the strengths to be maintained are the quality of CEPT’s technical work, including the preparation of European common positions for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU), and its work on the mandate of the European Union. This strength is based on the excellent technical expertise of the members and on CEPT’s methods of organising international cooperation of its broad membership from the whole European Region.
The meeting was chaired by Anthony Debono, who is the current president of the CEPT. Mr Debono will then present the final conclusions of this task force at the next CEPT general assembly scheduled for 5 and 6 June in Malta.
Read MoreEU bans postal monopolies from 2011
National monopolies for mail delivery in the European Union will be dismantled by 2011, with postal companies free to operate in any of the EU’s 27 countries – meaning the Royal Mail could face threats by European competitors on British soil.
Nine new EU countries plus Greece and Luxembourg will get the option of an additional two years to prepare for a full opening of the delivery of letters under 50 grams (1.75 ounces) – the last category where national postal companies face no rivals.
The plan was approved by the European Parliament last Thursday 31st January.
A universal public service ensuring every European gets at least one delivery and collection a day, five days a week will still be guaranteed and can be subsidized by governments if it loses money.
Postal services in the European Union handle an estimated 135 billion items a year, with an estimated turnover of 88 billion Euros (GBP 65billion) – around 1 per cent of the union’s gross domestic product. The sector employs more than 5 million people.
Full liberalization should lead to cheaper and more reliable mail deliveries, according to EU officials.
It could also force the Royal Mail to scramble to remain competitive against European services moving to Britain – and raises the possibility of a Royal Mail service operating on the continent.
An organization representing customers and competitors of the public postal operators across the EU called on the national regulators to prevent national monopolies from unfair tactics.
Read MorePostal services: Commission welcomes the adoption of the EU Postal Directive
The European Parliament adopted the new Postal Directive last Thursday 31st January, giving its final political approval to EU postal reform. The vote confirms the broad political consensus on the way forward for opening EU postal markets to full competition. The Commission will assist Member States in implementing the new Directive and will take an active role in monitoring closely market developments to make sure that EU citizens and businesses obtain the benefits from high quality postal services foreseen by the Directive.
The Commission had adopted its proposal only 15 month ago. The text voted today by the European Parliament reflects the overall political agreement between the institutions and maintains the key elements of the Commission’s initial proposal, in particular: the accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services via the abolition of the reserved area in all Member States; the confirmation of the scope and standard of universal service; reinforcement of consumers’ rights and upgrading of the role of national regulatory authorities; the offering of a list of measures Member States may take to safeguard and finance, where necessary, the universal service.
The final date for achieving full market opening is 31 December 2010, with the possibility for some Member States to postpone full market opening by two more years as a maximum and the inclusion of a temporary reciprocity clause applying to those Member States that make use of the latter transitional period. The new Directive is the final step in a long reform process that has already seen large areas of EU postal markets opened to competition, with very positive results.
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