New Amtrak owner averts court action
New Amtrak owner averts court action
Read MoreTag: Courier/Express/Parcels
DHL completes system-wide sort automation
DHL has completed the sort automation of its major ground hub in Allentown, Pa. With the completion of the automation at the Allentown facility, the entire USD 160 million DHL network integration and automation initiative, which included key air and ground hubs in Wilmington, Ohio, and Riverside, Calif., is now complete.
The network system upgrades make DHL operations more efficient, increase letter-and-package processing capabilities and provide customers with increased track-and-trace package visibility. DHL projects to generate an approximate 13 percent improvement in network wide shipment capacity, in addition to improved operational efficiencies, as a result of the completion of the automation programs at all three hubs.
New state-of-the-art equipment at the Allentown facility includes shoe-sort and tilt-tray systems, loaders, unloaders, singulators, dimensional and image scanners, scan tunnels and video coding. Key customer benefits of the automation effort in Allentown include greater letter-and-package visibility through the auto sort system’s track-and-trace features as well as increased speed in the handling and processing of shipments. With the transition to auto sort functions in Allentown, letter-handling capabilities will improve by 67 percent and package throughput will increase by 85 percent.
In March 2007, automation programs were completed at DHL’s USD 70 million West Coast facility in Riverside, serving the western U.S. as well as an expanded DHL footprint for one-day ground services across California and Arizona. DHL’s principal air and ground hub in Wilmington fully completed its automation program in January 2007.
Read MoreFedEx President and CEO to retire. Virginia Albanese promoted
FedEx Custom Critical, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. announced that John G. (Jack) Pickard, president and CEO, will retire June 1. He will be succeeded by Virginia Albanese, vice president of operations and customer service for FedEx Custom Critical.
Pickard reports to Douglas G. Duncan, president and CEO of FedEx Freight. “We appreciate the dedication and leadership that Jack provided for more than 20 years,” Duncan said. “He built a solid management team, and we are pleased to be promoting one of its most experienced and talented members as his replacement.”
Jack Pickard joined Roberts Express in 1986 as a regional sales manager. (The company was purchased by FedEx as part of the Caliber System, Inc. acquisition in 1998 and renamed FedEx Custom Critical in 2000.) Pickard served as a vice president from 1989-2001, holding positions in sales, marketing and operations. He was appointed president and CEO of FedEx Custom Critical in 2001. Jack has played a key role in the company’s evolution in the changing expedited freight market segment.
Virginia Albanese also joined Roberts Express in 1986 as a member of the customer service team and became an operations manager in 1991. She was named director of safety, recruiting and contractor relations in 1995. In 1999, Virginia was promoted to managing director of service and safety at FedEx Custom Critical. She was named vice president of service in 2001. She received both her bachelor’s degree and an executive Master of Business Administration degree from Kent State University.
Read MoreParcelforce Worldwide extends its parcel redelivery service using advanced self-service technologies from Eckoh
Parcelforce Worldwide has significantly extended the scope of its contract with BT and Eckoh, one of Europe’s leading providers of outsourced automated solutions, with a series of innovative enhancements to its parcel redelivery service.
The new and enhanced service builds upon the automated speech recognition solution for redeliveries developed by Eckoh and BT and implemented by Parcelforce Worldwide earlier this year.
The extended redeliveries service will see Eckoh take responsibility for Parcelforce Worldwide’s entire end-to-end redeliveries support service, which includes management of the front end web interface, as well as co-ordinating customer instructions with Parcelforce Worldwide’s delivery depots and customer contact centres. With further developments planned for later this year, customers will soon have the convenience of making payments for additional service options, such as requesting a redelivery on a Saturday or to a different address, using a fully automated telephone based payment system.
The fully hosted service will provide a high level of consistency across all contact channels, whether web or telephone based. The overall solution utilises Eckoh’s extensive speech recognition expertise and self-service technology platform, but also leverages Eckoh’s substantial web design and deployment heritage, which now forms an integral part of the enhanced solution.
Eckoh expects to manage in excess of 1 million calls on behalf of Parcelforce Worldwide during 2007.
Read MoreMRS Distribution joins PalletFORCE
The West Lothian depot of transport company MRS Distribution Ltd has joined PalletFORCE, one of the country’s fastest growing palletised distribution networks, in the long-term interests of the company and its customers.
This is the first time that MRS has been part of a network, a decision driven by business development needs. “Sustainable business from Scotland is hard to find,” explains Commercial Director Ian Wilson, “and we needed a route to get our customers’ smaller consignments into England. Joining a network was the obvious answer.”
MRS Distribution was founded in 1975 and became a limited company in 1983. The company has 350 employees based at 13 locations across the UK.
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