Tag: Domestic

Good performance for Swiss Post

Posted by | Oct 30, 2007 | |

In the first three quarters of 2007, Swiss Post generated Group profit of 699 million Swiss francs. This is an increase of 98 million francs year-on-year. Almost all units contributed to the good result, albeit to varying degrees.
In the first nine months of 2007, Swiss Post beat the previous year’s result by 16.3 pct. As at 30 September 2007 Group profit came to CHF 699 million (2006: CHF 601 million). Almost all segments at Swiss Post contributed to the profit, albeit to varying degrees.
Compared with 2006, operating income rose by CHF 675 million (11.9%) to CHF 6,334 million. PostFinance, PostLogistics, Swiss Post International and New Business (MailSource and GHP Group) contributed to the growth in earnings. The share of New Business in the operating income rose from 3.1% to 7%. The effect of acquisitions on operating income amounted to 249 million francs. At CHF 415 million, investments, which mainly went into the new letter centres, were generally above the previous year’s level (CHF 318 million) and were completely financed by Swiss Post’s own funds.

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Developing Countries' Postal Service Needs to be accommodated

Posted by | Oct 30, 2007 | |

Indonesia suggested that members of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) accommodate the service that is applied in developing countries in order to simplify postal shipment among countries. The suggestion was conveyed during the postal regulator meeting conference, which is now ongoing in Switzerland.

Director General of Post and Telecommunication at the Information and Communication Department, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, said that standard postal service among UPU country members is not equal. “This condition cause difficulties in postal shipment to the destination,” said Basuki in Jakarta last week.

The matter of shipment and standards must be made more comprehensive. Creating these standards became an important issue in the meeting. Acting as the UPU Administrative Council member, Indonesia conveyed the suggestion. “We hope that the conference listens to the voice of a developing country,” said Basuki.

Basuki explained, the standard comprises three types of shipments: physical dimensions (letter and goods shipment), electronic dimensions (shipment via e-mail), and financial dimension (money transfer by electronic transaction).

According to Post & Telecommunication Directorate General’s spokesperson, Gatot S. Dewa Broto, although there has not been any standard applied, the postal condition in Indonesia still has many things to repair. Post in Indonesia is still manual as it hasn’t postal equipment used in other countries.

In addition, shipment service in Indonesia still has many impediments. Thus, PT Pos Indonesia must be aggressive and innovative in their activities. “The impediment level is still high in the link or network between terminals. If we want to develop, we should be able to reduce the delay level,” said Gatot.

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New postal union finding its feet / JPU merger with Zenyusei creates nation's largest corporate labor union

Posted by | Oct 30, 2007 | |

The Japan Postal Union (JPU) and All Japan Postal Office Labor Union (Zenyusei)–two of now privatized Japan Post’s biggest unions–merged on Oct. 22 to form the nation’s largest corporate labor union.

With 220,000 members, Japan Post Group Union (JP Union) eclipses NTT’s 180,000-member labor union. Zenyusei Chairman Yoshikazu Yamaguchi became the first chairman of the merged union, while JPU Secretary General Shozo Namba landed the post of secretary general.

JPU, with a membership of 137,000, had indicated a strong interest in a merger, while Zenyusei, with 83,000 members, was hesitant about a tie-up over concerns it would be overwhelmed in the JPU, observers said.

However, the merger plan was pushed through more quickly as the administration of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pressed on with privatization.

JPU and Zenyusei had agreed to oppose postal privatization, and although the agreement was only a formality, it proved successful in allowing the two to coordinate their efforts in opposing the changes.

But as the country’s largest union, JP Union will now have to bear the heavy responsibility of tackling a number of thorny issues.

First and foremost is the question of what it will do in the annual wage negotiations in the spring. The union of NTT Corp., which was privatized in 1985, has been taking part in the joint annual spring wage negotiations as a private corporate union since NTT was privatized.

Akira Yamagishi, the first chairman of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), came from the NTT union. In contrast, none of the JPU leaders were chosen for leadership positions in the defunct General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (Sohyo) and Rengo.

Although one of the chairmen of the defunct Japan Socialist Party was a member of JPU, the union did not have a strong voice in the labor movement because internal differences meant its leadership lineup was changed repeatedly.

Zenyusei, for its part, failed to make its presence felt among government and public workers unions.

Next year’s spring labor campaign will therefore provide a useful insight into the JP Union’s future direction.

In addition, there are questions over how much distance the JP Union will keep from the management of the privatized entities. Corporate downsizing is unavoidable at a private firm whose business has deteriorated. Restructuring efforts might include personnel cuts through transfers, secondments and early retirement as well as a review of operations.

One JP Union official commented: “It’s very hard to increase earnings while maintaining regional services. So labor and management will need to work together in finding a new business model.”

The mail delivery business has already been affected by a sharp increase in the number of nonregular workers. Labor and management have signed an agreement on a system opening the door to nonregular workers to become regular workers. Improving working conditions for nonregular workers will be essential to facilitate any expansion of the JP Union.

This may run counter to the needs of a private firm that is seeking to increase efficiency. But if the JP Union seeks only compromises with management, it will have less of an impact than it might otherwise have, despite its size.

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Competition in UK starting to benefit smaller businesses

Posted by | Oct 30, 2007 | |

Research commissioned by Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, has found the benefits that large mailers have been experiencing since the market was opened have now started to slowly spread to smaller businesses. However, much more progress is needed and the challenge posed by growing alternatives to mail confirms the need for mail operators to continue to pursue greater innovation.

The market research, which forms part of Postcomm’s latest annual Business Customer Survey, revealed:
Although Royal Mail remains the dominant operator, one in five small and medium mailers and more than a third of large mailers are using more than one mail provider;
one in five respondents have explored alternatives to mail and have moved some of their mail to other media in the past 12 months which confirms the need for all postal operators to place more emphasis on customer service and innovation; and more than half of respondents agreed that competition has improved choice and more than a third believe competition has improved Royal Mail’s quality of service.

Also published today is Postcomm’s annual Competitive Market Review (CMR), which looks at factors affecting competition in the postal sector. Key findings of the CMR included:
– mail volumes were 2 per cent down on last year but there are indications that direct mail is growing in sectors such as building societies, charity, and health;
– end-to-end competition has declined by four million items and stands at less than one per cent of total mail volume, but mail volumes collected by ‘access’ operators and delivered by Royal Mail have more than doubled and now represent 19 per cent of revenue-derived mail volumes.

Both documents were launched at the UK Mail Show.

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Minister responsible for Canada Post tables an amendment to the Canada Post Corporation act

Posted by | Oct 29, 2007 | |

The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today tabled a key amendment to the Canada Post Corporation Act that would permit letter exporters to collect letters in Canada for transmittal and delivery outside Canada. Until now, Canada Post was the only corporation legally entitled to this privilege.

“The Government of Canada is committed to fair, transparent and accountable governance,” said Minister Cannon. “This amendment is intended to facilitate more competitiveness for companies within the mail industry worldwide and further facilitate the growth of the outbound international mail market in Canada.”

The proposed amendment to the Canada Post Corporation Act adds an exception to Canada Post’s exclusive privilege under Section 15 for letters intended for delivery to an addressee outside Canada.

The Canada Post Corporation is a Crown corporation and one of the largest employers in Canada. It serves approximately 33 million Canadians, and more than one million businesses and public institutions. In 2006, Canada Post employees delivered 11.6 billion pieces of mail to more than 14 million addresses in Canada.

The Canada Post Corporation Act, which came into effect in 1981, regulates mail services in Canada.

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