Year: 2008

Wincor Nixdorf and DigitalPersona Partner for retail POS systems

Posted by | Jan 14, 2008 | |

Wincor Nixdorf has formed a partnership with globally-recognized biometric authentication solutions provider DigitalPersona to set new standards for POS technology.

Through this alliance, Wincor Nixdorf and DigitalPersona are able to provide advanced POS solutions to their respective clients by incorporating DigitalPersona’s biometric fingerprint solution into Wincor Nixdorf’s TP.net POS software platform. With this integrated solution in place, retail employees can log in and out of each shift, sign on to casher’s stations and log into back office terminals by simply scanning their finger, eliminating the need for employee badges, sign-on cards and all hardware associated with these items. The technology also enables retailers to more accurately monitor employee behavior, decrease payroll fraud and maintain timekeeping integrity in their stores.
Wincor said additional benefits to retailers incorporating this integrated solution include:

Providing a more secure network by using fingerprint authentication rather than static numerical pass codes or key entry for various managerial tasks.
• Significantly increasing the speed of each transaction throughout a retail chain, ultimately delivering a strong ROI.
• Eliminating “buddy punching”
• Reducing shrink opportunities
• Improving overall profitability/return on investment
• Achieving regulatory compliance (PCI, SOX)
• Gaining credible evidence for lawsuits
“By adding fingerprint authentication to Wincor Nixdorf’s TP.net solution, retailers improve their profitability, gain greater accountability and simplify compliance efforts,” said Jim Fulton, vice president of marketing at DigitalPersona. “In addition, employees enjoy the ease and convenience of not having to carry keys or swipe cards.”

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Deutsche Post World Net launches Mail 24/7 service

Posted by | Jan 13, 2008 | |

In Berlin, the first so-called Mail 24/7 was put into operation today. This service island combines self-service options in a modern and compact design. At Berlin Südkreuz station, an easy-to-reach location with high volumes of foot traffic, the largest of the three versions available has been set up. It consists of a cash dispensor, a printer for bank statements, a Packstation, a stamp machine and mail boxes.

A total of thirty service islands are currently installed in Berlin with a further fifteen in Bonn and fifteen in Dortmund. There are three versions of Mail 24/7: ranging from a basic solution with a parcels box, stamp machine and mail box to the premium model with all existing self-service machines. All models are characterised by their user-friendly applications and uniform design. To make the services easier to use around the clock, the units are also lit up at night time.

With what are soon to be more than 13,500 retail outlets throughout Germany, some 900 PACKSTATIONS and shortly 1,000 PARCEL BOXES, Deutsche Post World Net is miles ahead of the competition in terms of accessibility and comfort. With Mail 24/7 the largest logistics company in the world is once again expanding its range of services and so reinforcing its position as the only full-fledged universal services provider in Germany.

If the service is received positively by customers during the trial phase, Deutsche Post will also set up 24/7 service islands in other cities.

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FedEx to stay with contractors (US)

Posted by | Jan 13, 2008 | |

Top managers of FedEx Corp. said last week they have no plans for major changes in the company’s reliance on contract drivers for its ground delivery division.

“We’re continuing to operate with our independent contractors, so you have to go from that premise,” said Dave Rebholz, Chief Executive of FedEx Ground.

Rebholz joined FedEx Chief Executive Frederick W. Smith on a conference call with market analysts to underline the company’s confidence in defending the independent-contractor model against a challenge by the IRS

The IRS issued a preliminary decision last month challenging FedEx Ground’s use of contract drivers instead of making its drivers employees. The decision, which FedEx vows to fight, assessed tax penalties and interest of USD million. The IRS decision is the latest in a series of attacks, primarily through lawsuits, on FedEx Ground’s independent-driver business model.

But Smith said most FedEx Ground drivers like running their own businesses as private contractors. “There are millions of people in this country who have chosen to work for themselves,” Smith said. “I personally believe that’s what freedom is all about.”

While declining specifics on the company’s arguments, general counsel Chris Richards said FedEx will begin meeting in the spring with the IRS over its decision.

Following a legal challenge to the contractor model in California, FedEx is offering financial incentives to single-route drivers there to encourage them to give up their routes or take on multiple routes.

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UPS to open Shanghai cargo hub in November

Posted by | Jan 13, 2008 | |

United Parcel Service Inc. in November plans to touch down on a new 1 million-square-foot air cargo hub in Shanghai. It will be the first U.S. cargo carrier to open a hub in the burgeoning China market.

UPS remained tight-lipped on the cost of the facility at Pudong International Airport, but said it has invested about USD 600 million in China in the past five years.

The new hub, plans for which were announced last spring, is expected to employ more than 1,000 by 2010 and serve cities in China as well as the United States, Europe and other parts of Asia.

UPS now operates from leased space at the Shanghai airport, which it shares with other freight carriers. The hub, which will include office and warehouse space, will give UPS greater control over operations — allowing the carrier to employ its own workers and schedule flights as needed.

While UPS may be the first U.S. carrier to open an air hub in China, it won’t be the only one for long.

FedEx Corp. is building an air hub in Guangzhou, China, scheduled to be completed by December.

UPS declined to disclose how much of its revenue comes from China, but said its export volume from the country was up more than 25 percent in the first nine months of 2007 compared with the prior year.

UPS, which became the first wholly owned foreign express carrier in China, serves more than 330 Chinese cities representing 85 percent of the country’s international trade activity.

The company has grown its China workforce to more than 4,500 employees while developing logistics infrastructure that includes more than 60 distribution centers.

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India Department of Posts to mechanise sorting system

Posted by | Jan 11, 2008 | |

As part of modernisation drive, the Department of Posts (DoP) will mechanise its sorting system in metros and other cities, set up national mail grid and take four aircraft on lease to deliver mails in the quickest possible time.

“Currently, Chennai and Mumbai Circles have machines that are 10 years old and have not reached their full capacity. Besides, they do not have higher capacity. With manual intervention around 2,000 mails are being sorted out in seven and a half hours daily, whereas the sorting machines in Italy and the U.S. have capacities to sort out around 40,000 to 50,000 mails a day,” Postal Services Board Member (Operation and Marketing) K. Noorjehan told The Hindu on Wednesday.

Apart from China, Postal Services departments in major countries use both bar-coding and optical character recognition (OCR) method to sort out mails. India will use both technologies, since it has several languages and character recognition is complicated in certain cases.

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Labour news from UNI global union

Posted by | Jan 11, 2008 | |

An extraordinary meeting of UNI Post & Logistics global union has given the go ahead to step up campaigning across the sector. A key target is DHL.

A global alliance of DHL trade unions is being launched to build union membership and to win a global agreement that recognises labour rights wherever DHL operates around the world.

UNI – which already has DHL organising projects in Hong Kong and Latin America – will direct the campaign and help develop the research on which specific activities will be based. Verdi, which is the home union for Deutsche Post, will also play a key role.
It was agreed to set up a Steering Group to oversee the campaign that will also lay the foundations for future campaigns in other post and logistic multinationals.

The meeting agreed to step up cooperation with the International Transport Workers Federation as boundaries between postal operators and transport/logistics giants become increasingly blurred with de-regulation of postal services well underway in Europe and Japan.

Meeting advisor Paul Goulter with Post & Logistics President Rolf Büttner

UNI Post & Logistics is to set up a UNI Regulation Watch to assist affiliates in challenging the increasingly political decisions of postal regulators.

Many of their decisions determine how effective protection will be for the universal postal service, on which communities and jobs depend. Unions will have to become increasingly nimble as new and often-small private operators increasingly employ workers in the sector.

Unions are to be encouraged to help develop new services in the traditional postal operators – like delivering remittance money across the world for migrant workers to support families back home. The aim is to challenge the growing trend by governments under a political agenda to cut back the activities of traditional operators and allow outside private companies to cherry pick their services.

In Europe protection for traditional postal operators will disappear from 2011/13 as a result of a decision by the European Union while Japan Post is already in a ten-year process of division and privatisation.

“Europe has come up with a rotten piece of legislation,” UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings told the meeting in Nyon, Switzerland. “The EU has washed its hands of protecting the postal service and we have to help national trade unions defend this key service to the public.”

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Correos adds the first electric cars to its fleet (Spain)

Posted by | Jan 11, 2008 | |

Correos will start using electric vans and bicycles for postal deliveries. For the start up of these pilot projects, the postal company approved at the end of 2007 the purchase of the first commercial vehicles (five) and bicycles (nine) adapted for carrying small loads, which will make the postal carriers’ jobs easier in the pedestrian-only areas, where they are currently required to deliver large volumes of post on foot, manually.

This initiative is in addition to others promoted by Correos to stay ahead of the anti-pollution guidelines and regulations adopted by the European Union. In fact, the Spanish public operator, which has also ratified its commitment as a socially responsible company, already purchased 28 “Euro-4” lorries in 2006, ahead of the EU mandate.

These types of vehicles are more expensive than conventional vehicles, but their useful life is longer and they are less expensive to use and maintain. This advantage is added to the environmental benefits, since they don’t use oil-based fuel, the contaminating effects are drastically reduced. Furthermore, they do not generate any noise.

With the addition of ecological vans and bicycles to Correo’s fleet, which comprises over 13,000 vehicles including lorries, vans and motorbikes, and in which it has invested an average of EUR 14 million in the last three years, the public postal operator strengthens its contribution to environmental protection.

The van model chosen has a useful load capacity of over 400 kg and its side doors and rear door are very practical to handle, even with the bulkiest parcels.

Once these vehicles and bicycles have been tested and adapted for mail deliveries in the respective pilot projects, Correos will gradually add more ecological units.

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