Tag: Courier/Express/Parcels

U.S. New homeowners decry cluster boxes

Posted by | Jun 17, 2007 | |

Across the nation, the U.S. Postal Service increasingly is delivering mail to communal cluster boxes as a way to keep pace with booming residential growth while controlling labor costs. The new strategy, aimed at new developments in fast-growing areas such as Clarksburg, Leesburg and Waldorf, saves the postal service time and money.

“Instead of going from door to door, from lawn to lawn, from driveway to driveway, we have a central location,” said Luvenia Hyson, a postal service regional spokeswoman.

But many residents and developers say cluster boxes, traditionally reserved for apartments and townhouses, not single-family homes, are impersonal, inconvenient and downright ugly.

The communal delivery system’s detractors include the National Association of Home Builders, which is lobbying against it. A.J. Holliday, a lawyer for the Washington-based interest group, called the new postal strategy “discrimination” against people buying new homes.

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Ciblex France doubles its capacity in the East of France

Posted by | Jun 16, 2007 | |

Ciblex, opened its new office near Strasbourg in Illkirch Graffenstaden in the Bas Rhin on 15 June 2007.

This new venture strengthens the CIBLEX network and corresponds to its strategy of expanding its network with a view to consolidating its unique offer of next day delivery right across France early in the morning – before 8am, before 9am, before 10am and before 12 noon.

Ciblex has been present in the East of France for over 20 years and has built up very strong partner relationships with players such as DUTSCHER, VENTANA, Clinique de l’Instrument and AKE.

This new modernly designed office ensures the collection and delivery of parcels and documents in the 67 (Bas Rhin), 68 (Haut Rhin), 70 (Haute Saône) and 90 (Territoire de Belfort) departments. It carries out transit operations in the main North East European route and particularly to and from Germany. It also accommodates the sales team who are consolidating their position in these sectors in order to strengthen the client relationship based on regional proximity.

This office deals with up to 10,000 parcels per day throughout France and internationally. This doubled capacity will allow Ciblex to take on the steady growth of national and international volume while improving the time taken to process letters and parcels.

The site accommodates 1300 m2 of warehousing and 200 m2 of offices. 15 docks have been equipped to receive the light vehicles and lorries dedicated to transporting the goods. Since the proportion of light vehicles is greater than that of lorries, this gives CIBLEX the flexibility to deliver early in the morning while respecting the new 90 km/h regulation.

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Marketers can seal the deal with new high-tech envelopes

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

According to the Intelligent Document Task Force, created by the Envelope Manufacturers Association Foundation and the U.S. Postal Service, high-speed inkjet technology could allow for more information to be encoded onto mail pieces. This may allow envelopes to one day become an extension of a Web site, communicating information through a bar code, read by a bar code reader for the home. The bar code could direct a consumer to a Web site, making it easier to shop online or return merchandise.

Recently, the USPS expanded its Intelligent Mail bar code system to include flat mail. The system provides the ability to use a single bar code to store more information on individual pieces of mail. This allows for better tracking of mail pieces, which facilitates better sequencing of marketing efforts. For example, if a marketer knows consumers in a particular city or region will receive a direct marketing piece on a certain day, it could buy advertising time in the local television market timed to correspond to the “mail moment” closely.

An exciting area of research and development is intelligent stamps. There are many potential uses for stamps featuring wireless technology. Perhaps one day a stamp will communicate with a cell phone and call up a Web site about a product or service or issue a missing child alert. This technology could also be used on the envelope itself.

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Technology keeps reshaping Postal Service

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

The competition starting heating up for the Postal Service in the 1990s, when the Internet and e-mail became a household feature and private package delivery services started becoming more popular, such as UPS, FedEx and DHL.

USPS has kept up with its competition by offering more convenient services like Click-and-Ship, where postage can be paid for and shipping labels printed from your home computer. The package can be picked up at your home with free delivery confirmation letting the sender track the package, says Antonio Ruiz, Sebastian Post Office Officer-in-Charge.

A reduction in business, especially its core product or single-piece first-class mail and a slowing in growth of all first-class mail, Breckenridge says, also made the USPS review its business strategies.

Reasons for dwindling Post Office business includes many new and convenient features that computers offer, such as:

• personal bill pay, i.e. a lot fewer bills traveling through “snail” mail;

• online banking and bank statements, i.e. a lot fewer bank statements and other banking correspondence in the mail;

• other statements being offered through e-mail, i.e. insurance;

• Internet shopping, i.e. merchandise comes directly from a store or manufacturer, eliminating the need to be sent via mail from person-to-person

• and e-mail, i.e. a lot fewer hand-written letters and cards.

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DX: New Postal Facility In Edinburgh

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

DX opened its new postal facility at Rutland Square in Edinburgh. The opening follows a GBP 0.25 million refurbishment of the postal facility, reinforcing DX’s commitment to continually improve services for its Scottish customer base.

Last year saw full deregulation of the postal market and, along with it, several new entrants into the arena. DX however is unique. With its own nationwide network, DX is the only major mail operator not to rely on Royal Mail for the delivery – which, with a potential postal strike looming, gives it a distinct advantage.

Hence, as well as investment in its postal facility, DX has introduced a number of service initiatives which, it believes, provide unparalleled cost and service benefits to the Scottish business community. These include:

– a same day post delivery service between Edinburgh and Glasgow
– guaranteed next-day delivery service nationwide (to business and residential addresses) costing just GBP 3.50
– UK-wide pre 9am delivery of mail to other DX customers for less than the cost of a 1st class stamp

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