Tag: Domestic

PRC releases final ratemaking regulations

Posted by | Oct 31, 2007 | |

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has released its final ratemaking regulations nearly eight months ahead of the deadline set by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act passed in December 2006.

These rules relate to rate adjustments for market dominant products of the US Postal Service, competitive products and the establishment of a Mail Classification Schedule, which categorizes products as either market dominant or competitive.

One of the biggest impacts the new rules will have on postal legislation is the Consumer Price Index cap it places on future rate increases. Next spring is the last time that the USPS can file a rate increase under the old law with no price cap; however, many are hoping to avoid such an increase, including PRC chairman Dan G. Blair.

“[The PRC and the USPS] have a full agenda before us as we implement the requirements of the PAEA,” Blair said in a statement. “Having the new ratemaking system in place sooner, rather than later, allows us to focus on the tasks ahead and hopefully avoid an old cost-of-service rate case.”

Blair also praised the public input on the rulemaking process. The PRC issued two Advance Notices of Rulemaking, held three field hearings, and invited comments and reply comments on the proposed regulations.

Changes made to proposed rules, issued on August 15, came as a result of reply comments and included reaffirming the use of the rate cap for market dominant products; adopting a transition rule for the calculation of rate cap in the event of a transitional rate filing; reaffirming that each negotiated service agreement (NSA) is a separate product, but that functionally equivalent NSAs may, with supporting evidence, be grouped as one product; and adopting initial lists of market dominant and competitive products.

Read More

Final Three Post Offices in San Diego County Reopen This Week

Posted by | Oct 31, 2007 | |

Mail delivery will resume this week at the final three Post Offices that were relocated to safe areas during the wildfires in San Diego County.

Mail delivery at the Dulzura Post Office will resume today. Retail service will open once sufficient power is restored to the building.

Post Offices in Tecate and Palomar Mountain will reopen as early as tomorrow, Nov. 1. Dulzura and Tecate residents have been picking up their mail at the El Cajon Post Office since last week. Palomar Mountain residents were picking up their mail at Santa Ysabel.

A generator will be hooked up today at the Palomar Mountain Post Office so that office can reopen. Power lines are still down in the area.

Postmasters encourage residents to check the status of their local Post Office before traveling to El Cajon or Santa Ysabel to pick-up their mail. “We want to save them a trip, if possible,” said Tecate postmaster Sandra Glad.”

Read More

TNT Post has become the preferred postal provider for councils in the North West

Posted by | Oct 31, 2007 | |

TNT Post’s North team has been appointed as the preferred postal provider by the North West Centre of Excellence, the regional, procurement efficiency and improvement partner to councils in the North West.

The contract is worth up to GBP 3.5 million and will save taxpayers an anticipated GBP 1 million. This appointment covers 17 councils in Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside and could see TNT Post handling over 18 million items of mail each year. The contract award is a result of a successful competitive tender process, which included the submission of successful case histories from other public sector organisations in and around the region.

The councils, during the one year contract, will have access to TNT Post’s ‘PremierSort Flex’ and ‘AllSort’ services, which offer valuable benefits such as:

The ability to handle 100 per cent of mail, including unsorted and non machine readable
– Value for money
– Flexible pick up times
– Collaborative approach to doing business
– Locally skilled account management teams with a local focus
– Fast and reliable day definite service
– Innovative solutions to enable on-going cost reductions
– Projected GBP 1million savings in the first year of the contract

TNT Post’s team in the North has to date secured a number of significant customer wins during the first 18 months of trading and now has more than 500 customers in the area, including Liverpool FC, National Union of Teachers and a number of regional public sector bodies including Leeds University, Stockport College, Sheffield City Council and Congleton Council.

Read More

Royal Mail embarks on modernisation

Posted by | Oct 31, 2007 | |

Royal Mail Group today announced profits, in line with expectations, of GBP 233m for the 2006-07 financial year – a fall of a third from the previous year, principally as a result of a sharp rise in pension fund costs by £193m to £722m. Underlying profits, omitting the benefit of GBP 75m from the Government’s Social Network Payment to support the loss making Post Office network showed a steeper decline, at £158m, less than half the prior year’s result.

Royal Mail said that pressures on its performance from rising pension costs, falling mail volumes and increased competition underlined the urgency with which it now needs to put the next stages of its modernisation plan into action. The Group now has in place the key elements on which that programme is built:

• Around £4bn commercial funding package from the Government to enable us to modernise the business and incentivise our people through our new ColleagueShare scheme
• Agreement with the unions on the flexibility and changes in working practices that are vital to modernise successfully
• Support from the unions for the pension reform needed to allow the Group to become competitive and to protect a Defined Benefit pension scheme for our existing employees

During the first five trading months of the current year, 2007-08, the pressures of falling mail volumes and competitor activity in the wider communications market have become significantly more pronounced, with revenue in the Royal Mail Letters business down £78m compared to the same five months in 2006-07.

Key issues for the company as we move forward are the continuing high cost of funding the pension scheme, the continuing decline in volumes as customers move to other forms of communication and the beginning of the huge investment we will now make in the modernisation of the company. All these factors combined mean that this year and next we expect to be operating at around breakeven.

The full results for the year and a current trading update are set out in the attached statement from the Chairman and Chief Executive.

Read More

UPS board ok's USD 2 billion stock buyback

Posted by | Oct 30, 2007 | |

United Parcel Service Inc., the world’s largest shipping carrier, said Tuesday in a regulatory filing its board authorized the company to buy back up to $2 billion in stock.
The authorization replaces the about USD 50 million that remains available under the February share repurchase authorization of USD 2 billion, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

UPSsaid it will purchase stock from time to time on the open market or in private transactions. The program has no time limit.

The Atlanta company has about 1.06 billion shares outstanding.

Shares of UPS have traded between USD 68.66 and USD 79.72 over the past 52 weeks and closed down 35 cents at USD 74.75.

Read More

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

P&P Poll

Loading

What's the future of the postal USO?

Thank you for voting
You have already voted on this poll!
Please select an option!



View ResultsHide Results

Post & Parcel Magazine


Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.

Subscribe to the Magazine

 

Pin It on Pinterest