Tag: Domestic

TNT launches new division in UK multi-media market

Posted by | Jul 13, 2007 | |

TNT has announced the launch of a new division with the aim of taking the largest market share in the growing multi media and entertainments sector in the UK. The newly formed TNT Media & Entertainment Division already has a number of contracts, including partnerships with customers such as Universal and Pinnacle Arvato.

TNT co-ordinates daily deliveries of CDs and DVDs to more than 2000 UK retail outlets, and is expanding into providing tailored services for film, music and computer gaming distributors.

Danny Geach, the newly-appointed General Manager of TNT Media & Entertainment, said: “This is an attractive new vertical market for us with customers who distribute high volumes of items to the High Street which is an area where we can obviously excel”.

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ACMA In defense of the catalog

Posted by | Jul 13, 2007 | |

Catalog mailing costs are hitting new highs, especially for the business-to-business mailers who lack the criteria necessary for the best discounts.

Panelist C. Hamilton Davison, executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association, explored how we got here and what we need to do to promote a favorable change.

The United States Postal Service handles 98 billion pieces of First Class Mail a year, accounting for USD 5 billion for last year; 103 billion pieces of Standard Mail accounting for USD 20 billion; .9 billion pieces of priority mail, accounting for USD 5 billion; 9 billion periodicals, accounting for USD 2 billion; 1.2 billion pieces of package services, accounting for USD 2.3 billion; and 2 billion other pieces accounting for 2.5 billion.

Overall the USPS handled 53.2 billion pieces of mail last year, accounting for USD 16.7 billion.

Standard Mail has seen a great increase and mail volume and delivery points are also increasing.

The growth of the US economy and mail volume coincides and mail is not going away, because it helps consumers thrive. It connects consumers to the market.

Most catalogers spend less than 10 percent of their time worrying about postal issues. This is ironic considering the USPS controls access to the consumer.

He talked about how catalogers are good for the USPS and for consumers.

Converting customers, for example, is good for the USPS as well because it results in multiple mail pieces.

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Package-laden FedEx truck burns

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

Hundreds of packages shipped via FedEx were damaged in a truck fire on the Gulf Freeway near Reveille early Wednesday morning.

Whether any customers lost irreplaceable items was unknown, but FedEx’s package-tracking system allows the company to notify every shipper of the incident, said David Westrick, a spokesman for the ground transportation division of FedEx. That process began Wednesday morning, he said.

The trailer burned about 2:30 a.m. when traveling from a Dallas FedEx ground hub to Houston, Westrick said. How many of the 800 packages on board were damaged or destroyed was unknown Wednesday, Westrick said.

FedEx plans to expedite loss claims related to the fire, Westrick said. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

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Postal users left with mixed feelings by delay in postal liberalisation

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

The Postal Users Group (PUG) expressed disappointment about the further delay in the liberalisation of the postal market following the vote in the Plenary of the European Parliament yesterday in Strasbourg. MEPs rejected the Commission’s proposal of 2009 as the deadline for removing the remaining “reserved area” (i.e. monopoly by the national postal operator, which is now for letters of 50 grams or less) and opted for market opening by 31 December 2010, with an exemption for the new Member States and Member States with a “difficult topography” who can liberalise their markets by 31 December 2012.

The European Parliament’s Plenary has also adopted some amendments that confirm a more user oriented focus for the European postal sector. The Postal Users Group is particularly happy with the proposal for a reimbursement scheme for stolen, damaged or lost postal items by the Member States and the guarantee of affordable postal services, as well as the increased transparency and efficiency of the European postal sector, which will be of benefit to the users of postal services in Europe – both consumers and businesses.

Throughout PUG has stressed the need for the Public Postal Operators (PPOs) to focus on user needs – such as small and large publishers, e-commerce providers and direct marketers – to achieve the full potential of the sector. This is a message that PPOs working in liberalised – or soon to be liberalised – markets have take to heart, and are working with users to launch innovative new products and services that help grow mail as a viable communication with a healthy and sustainable future.

Per Mortensen, Chairman of the PUG, expressed mixed feelings about the outcome of the vote: “It’s a shame that the deadline for liberalisation has been postponed. However, I am happy that there is now a fixed date and that we, the users, can prepare for the further development of a healthy business relationship between the Posts and its customers. Users will enjoy the full potential of a liberalised postal sector and the efficiency and innovation that comes with it”.

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Malta: Competition in postal services sector uncertain

Posted by | Jul 10, 2007 | |

As the European Parliament prepares to vote on a draft directive for the full market opening of postal services this month, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) told MaltaMedia that “It is still early to tell if anyone would be interested in setting up shop following liberalization” in Malta.

Recently that Transport Committee said that the deadline for remaining postal service monopolies in European Union (EU) member states, such as Maltapost in Malta, should expire by 31st December 2010, two years later than the 1st January 2009 deadline proposed by the European Commission.

The two-year postponement was a compromise to get the proposal through.

Some Members of the European Parliament had argued that in parts of the EU, more time is needed to create a stable regulatory framework for ensuring that post continues to be delivered EU-wide at an affordable cost, and to enable postal operators to adapt to new market conditions.

Full market opening should mean that national operators will no longer have a monopoly on mail below the maximum weight of 50 grams, known as the reserved area.

In this light, a spokesperson for the MCA told MaltaMedia that Malta is not “among the ‘laggards’, having rationalised its postal operation some time back.” While noting that “it is debatable whether an additional two year ‘closed-shop’ will bring about added efficiency” to post services operations, the spokesperson added that in the other sector that it regulates, it was the actual market opening that served to spur the relative operators to adapt to open market conditions.

In fact, a new operator recently entered the market providing full territorial coverage within the universal service area, specifically seeing to the delivery of summons in line with the Local Tribunals Regulations. This service already falls outside the area currently reserved for Maltapost.

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