Tag: Courier/Express/Parcels

Empost wins Department of Economic Development trade license print and delivery contract

Posted by | Jun 18, 2007 | |

Empost, the UAE’s leading integrated courier, cargo and logistics company, has signed an agreement with the Government of Dubai’s Department of Economic Development (DED) to print and deliver all trade licenses for the Emirate.

The agreement was signed by Sultan Al Midfa, CEO of Empost, and Ali Ibrahim, Deputy Director General for Executive Affairs at DED, during an official meeting held at the DED office in the presence of senior officials from both organisations.

Under the new agreement, all online registrations for trade licenses, once processed and approved by the DED, will be printed, packed and delivered by Empost to individual customers and organisations at their choice of location for a nominal fee.

The agreement comes in the wake of a recent contract bagged by Empost from the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) to deliver identity cards to all members who have registered in the Population Register and ID Cards Programs.

Empost, since its inception a decade ago, has been delivering a number of products and services to a cross-section of clients. Today the company has grown from a local courier services operator to an international courier, freight forwarding and logistics solutions provider.

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Hermes works on European B2C network

Posted by | Jun 18, 2007 | |

German B2C parcel delivery company Hermes Logistik is working on creating a European network to grow its international business, a senior manager told CEP-Research. It will enter the Austrian market on July 1.

Hermes, with turnover of EUR 1,016 million in 2006, is a subsidiary of Europe’s largest mail-order firm Otto Group, which also owns the parent firms of UK home delivery company Parcelnet and France’s Mondial Relay. Parcelnet recently bought the Redcats courier network while Mondial has announced plans to start operations in Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal.

The company, which claims a German B2C market share of about 37%, is again developing well this year, with Parcel Shop volumes up by 25% year-on-year as of the end of May, Martin Kreiter, vice president marketing, said in an interview at the Transport Logistic fair in Munich. “We are growing well this year, and are winning new third-party customers,” he commented.

On plans for Austria, he added: “We are ready to start. We have the 1,200 Parcel Shops.” Hermes will initially have about 20% of the Austrian B2C market by delivering Otto Group parcels in the country.

Asked about Hermes’ European expansion plans, Kreiter noted that the Otto Group subsidiaries combined are already Europe’s largest home delivery organisation with 22,000 Parcel Shops. The creation of a European B2C network is “one of the challenges for the next few months,” he said. Although it was not yet clear how this would be structured, “we will need one face to the customer in future”, he stressed.

Kreiter confirmed that Hermes Logistik planned to enter the German mail market once the small letters segment was liberalised as of January 2008. “We know we are losing business because customers take letters and parcels to the post office. If we offer both, then we will win more business.”

Hermes would offer letter services through its network of 13,000 Parcel Shops. Consumers would be able to post letters in blue letterboxes outside the parcel shops. Hermes would definitely not have any delivery staff itself but would provide delivery through partners, he said. TNT Post Germany, in which it has a minority holding, was one possible delivery partner.

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DHL named International Express Operator of the Year 2007

Posted by | Jun 18, 2007 | |

DHL was named “International Express Operator of the Year 2007” at this year’s Air Cargo Europe transport logistic industry trade fair, held from June 12 – 15, 2007 at the new Trade Fair Center in Munich. Honoring excellence in the air cargo industry, the first-ever World Air Cargo Awards was sponsored by the Air Cargo Weekly newspaper, a forum for international airfreight professionals.

Voting was administered online via the Air Cargo Weekly website, where readers could nominate industry leaders in a range of award categories, including Cargo Airline of the Year, Airport of the Year and Airfreight Forwarder of the Year. DHL came out on top in the International Express Operator category, as voters were impressed by DHL’s ability to meet performance targets, its level of investment in new products and services, and DHL’s flexibility, innovation and overall “personal touch” when it comes to customer needs and customer service.

The conference is the world’s largest gathering of the international air cargo community, bringing together over 21,000 executives from airlines, airports, freight forwarders, shippers, suppliers and service providers. After this year’s premiere, Air Cargo Weekly plans to sponsor the World Air Cargo Awards annually.

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Postal department to collect Speed Post from homes

Posted by | Jun 17, 2007 | |

Sending Speed Post packets will be easier soon with the Department of Posts planning to start the service of collecting parcels from homes at no extra cost.

“We will set up toll-free call centres in eight cities this year where customers can call and get their packets picked up from their homes,” DoP general manager John Samuel said.

The postman would collect packets from homes and deliver it without taking any extra charges, he said. The call centres would be set up in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad.

DoP would also introduce a system of alerts which will inform customers about the receipt and delivery of Speed Post packets through SMS or e-mail.

Speed Post, which currently has a market share of 27%, expects revenues to go up to Rs550 crore in 2007-08 from Rs449 crore at present, Samuel said.

The monthly traffic from Speed Post exceeded Rs1.4 crore in March 2007.

“With our new measures, the volumes and revenues will definitely go up in future. We are expecting 40-50% increase in our monthly traffic,” Samuel said.

To make Speed Post competitive in the express industry, the government last week reduced the rates for local services by 40% to Rs12 from Rs20 earlier for up to 50 grams, but increased the rates in weight slabs above 50 grams.

Samuel said the Department would also expand its reach to 1,500 cities by the end of this year. It currently has about 5,000 booking offices across 1,200 cities.

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Royal Mail flogs 75,000 'lost in the post' items

Posted by | Jun 17, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has admitted selling off thousands of items that got ‘lost in the post’ to help meet its running costs. The troubled company sells the contents of about 75,000 undelivered packages every year, at the risk of enraging hordes of customers already frustrated that their post has gone astray.

Even customers who paid over the odds for premium ‘secure’ services to cover valuable items have been shocked to find their goods put up for auction, in an operation that could be netting the postal giant millions of pounds a year.
The scandal was exposed by retired teacher John Beattie after he discovered that a set of antique bagpipes, which Royal Mail had lost, were for sale on internet auction site eBay.
Royal Mail spokeswoman admitted: “About 500,000 undeliverable parcels are sent to Royal Mail’s return letter centre every year.
“They are kept for up to six months, after which a proportion – about 15 per cent – is sent to auction, with the proceeds making a contribution to the centre’s annual GBP 10million running costs.”
She said some of the money was given to charity, but would not disclose how much.

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