Bybox delivers safer post
Bybox delivers safer post
Read MoreTag: Domestic
Ottawa seeks to end Canada Post's foreign monopoly
The Canadian government on last Monday 29th proposed stripping state-owned Canada Post of its monopoly to collect letters for delivery abroad but there is no guarantee the move would succeed.
The proposal would have to be approved by Parliament, where the ruling Conservatives only control a minority of seats. Debate on the matter is due to start later this week.
Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, who is responsible for Canada Post, said the proposal was “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”.
A spokeswoman for Cannon said she was not aware if there were any problems with Canada Post’s performance. No one from Canada Post was immediately available for comment.
Read MoreRural mailboxes axed because of road safety: Canada Post
Canada Post is planning to cancel home delivery to nearly half of its customers along some rural routes in Quebec’s Eastern Townships because of road safety concerns.
The postal agency is evaluating the safety of mail routes across Canada, after three carriers died and 37 were injured while making deliveries since 2005.
Nearly 40 per cent of the routes examined in the Eastern Townships have failed the safety evaluation, because they present a hazard to carriers forced to stop on winding roads with high speed limits.
“Sometimes, because the shoulder is very narrow, [the carrier] has to stop on the road,” and that’s risky, said Canada Post spokeswoman Line Brien.
Community postboxes will replace individual deliveries on routes that failed to make the grade, Brien said.
The decision has angered many residents in the area.
Canada Post estimates it will cost about USD 500 million over the next three years to inspect all rural mailboxes in Canada.
About 843,000 Canadian residential addresses are served by rural mailboxes, Canada Post says on its website. Of the 14 million places where Canada Post delivers across the country, rural mailboxes represent about six per cent.
Read MoreNorway Post: Strong growth in revenue – increased costs
Norway Post presented accounts today which show a strong growth in revenue during the first three quarters of the year. At the same time the Group’s costs have increased, contributing to a weakening of the earnings compared with the same period last year.
Norway Post’s operating revenue as at 30 September 2007 was NOK 19.8 billion, compared with NOK 17 billion for the same period in 2006. The 16.4 per cent growth in revenue is mainly due to acquisitions and an increase in the volume of A (priority) and B (economy) mail as well as an increase in sales for the Group’s logistics products.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) as at 30 September 2007 were NOK 1 035 million, compared with NOK 839 million as at 30 September 2006. Earnings were positively affected by a gain on the sale of property (Norway Post’s letter centre in Oslo) of NOK 625 million in the first quarter.
After adjusting for non-recurring items, the Group achieved earnings of NOK 411 million as at 30 September 2007, compared with NOK 872 million for the same period last year.
The start-up of CityMail in Denmark has also negatively affected the Group’s results.
The extraordinary measures that were implemented after the delivery problems last winter have resulted in good delivery quality levels. An independent report on delivery times shows that Norway Post meets all the six licence requirements by a good margin. In the third quarter, 88.1 per cent of all A (priority) letters were delivered overnight. The licence requirement is 85 per cent.
The Group’s long-term goal is to achieve a market-leading position as an integrated postal and logistics group in Norway and the Nordic region. The EU recommendation to liberalise the remainder of the postal markets in Europe by 2011 will mean a restructuring and consolidation of the industry.
Read MoreConnect Africa Summit: postal networks must be a partner of choice
A UPU paper published for the Connect Africa Summit, which opened today in
Kigali (Rwanda), states that a postal network linked to other providers of infrastructure and network services would contribute to economic development and bring relief to poor and unconnected people.
More than 80 pct of post offices in Sub-Saharan Africa located in small- and medium-sized cities and rural areas, where 80 pct of the population lives. In his paper called Connecting the “unconnected” in Sub-Saharan Africa: postal networks can leverage access to infrastructure services, economist José Anson says that digital connectivity alone is not enough to trigger local, national or global trade. Physical connectivity is also essential in order to seize the opportunities brought by greater access to information through digital communication technologies.
“If digital and physical connectivity is to reduce poverty, then partnerships between networks must be closely examined so that the resources needed to provide infrastructure services in many small and medium-sized cities as well as rural areas are better shared, and the unit costs of delivering these services considerably reduced. Connecting networks such as the post, water, power, telecommunication and other utilities in peripheral regions is very likely to trigger unexpected economic efficiency gains.”
In Brazil, letter carriers read electricity meters, and prepare bills and collect payments on behalf of electricity companies. The Brazilian postal network has also facilitated access to basic financial services by teaming up with a private bank to create subsidiaries in isolated communities without any access to banking services.
The UPU has made Africa a priority. The continent was the first to benefit from a Regional Development Plan, a new tool developed by the UPU International Bureau as part of its efforts to regionalize activities to take advantage of the globalization of exchanges and contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Goals for Development.
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