Tag: Domestic

UPS South Africa introduce 'Diad' service

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

UPS South Africa has introduced the Delivery Information Acquisition Device (Diad), which allows customers, through the Internet or a UPS call centre, to track their parcels’ position within the global UPS network chain.
Diad III is a hand-held computer scanner used by courier drivers to simultaneously capture and transmit real-time delivery information. It represents one of the fastest package-tracking systems in the world and will assist in the 3,5-million package queries received daily from UPS customers.
In the traditional supply services chain, the information on labels on packages has to be manually filled out. UPS industrial engineering manager for East and sub-Saharan Africa Christian Helleputte says UPS uses ‘smart’ package load data labels which have coded information on them, including a bar code that records a scanning, and a postal bar code which is linked to vehicle loading information.
Manual labels require employees to physically fill out information, with data being captured by an employee within an organisation. With the Diad system, Helleputte notes, UPS installs software in customers’ facilities, or on a computer, and the customers will duly load this information onto their own computer systems.

The mainframe technology of Diad can display all logistical information, including the time of departure of a parcel, the time of delivery, and how many stops are made during the day, which allows a customer to track the whereabouts of a parcel through the delivery chain. Further, it can also work out the best, most direct routes for package delivery.

UPS also has plans to launch GSS, a wireless scanner that is placed on a driver’s finger, in the third quarter of this year.

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Royal Mail misses delivery target

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

Royal Mail has said it missed its key target for delivering first-class post on time in the 2007-8 financial year because of industrial action.

About 85 pct of letters arrived the next day, missing the 93 pct target.

The watchdog Postwatch said the strikes had “blown Royal Mail off course”, but it complained the service had not recovered quickly enough.

It argued that poor service should affect executives’ bonuses. Last year, the chief executive was paid GBP 3m.

The delivery of second-class letters was more reliable, according to the figures released by Royal Mail, but also fell short of the required level.

More than 95 pct of the second-class post arrived on time, compared with a target of 99 pct.

Only standard parcels beat their target for the year, with 90.4 pct arriving on time.

The company said it was working hard to improve its service and “restore the record levels seen before last year’s dispute”.
In a postcode-based list published by Postwatch, nine out of 10 letters were delivered on time last year in Twickenham, Kingston upon Thames, Luton, St Albans, north-west London and Canterbury.
While in Stoke-on-Trent, Colchester, south-west London, Oxford, Chelmsford and Dundee, only around four out of five first class letters were delivered on time.

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Royal Mail failed 75 per cent of its service targets

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

Official figures published last night reveal that the organisation missed nine of the 12 minimum service levels.
The reliability of the first-class delivery service fell to 85.2per cent. This was below the organisation’s target which requires that at least 93per cent of first class mail is delivered by the following day.
Royal Mail also missed delivery targets for second class post, special delivery and standard parcels, the cornerstones of the service.
However, it is clear that the business missed the crucial targets, a failure condemned by the official consumer body PostWatch.
A series of strikes over pay, pensions and working hours caused huge disruption to services during last summer.
PostWatch said Royal Mail, under Mr Crozier, had been slow to put in place a recovery plan once the dispute was settled.
Many had to find other ways to communicate. This will have reduced postal volumes, which will in turn damage Royal Mail’s financial stability for years to come.
Average daily volumes are down from 84 million items to about 80 million.
Thousands of post offices have already been closed with more to go.
The second delivery has been scrapped, while the first delivery of the day has been moved back to the afternoon for millions of homes and businesses.
At the same time collections from post boxes have been cut and Sunday collections have been scrapped.

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ABX Air says DHL plan would cost 6,000 ABX jobs

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

The president of ABX Air said a plan by DHL to hire United Parcel Service Inc. as its air cargo carrier in the United States is expected to cost 6,000 ABX workers their jobs at a freight hub in this southwest Ohio city.

ABX Air President John Graber told the Wilmington News Journal for a story Thursday that ABX Air’s night sort operations would be eliminated under the plan.

Graber and other ABX Air executives have been meeting with employees to tell them about the effects of the DHL plan if DHL succeeds in reaching a contract agreement with UPS.

The night airfreight operations would no longer be needed because UPS has its own system, he said.

DHL is the struggling U.S.-based express shipping unit of German postal service Deutsche Post AG. DHL contracts with ABX Air to operate the hub.

Messages were left at DHL Thursday and at ABX Air, a unit of Air Transport Services Group Inc., seeking comment from Graber. ABX Air spokeswoman Beth Huber said he was unavailable.

Huber said DHL told ABX Air officials Tuesday that it was going to reduce the aircraft it would need from the ABX Air fleet by 39 jets over a period of 12 to 18 months. She also said DHL said it was in negotiations with UPS, but that a deal had not been completed and ABX Air couldn’t speculate on it.

Graber told the News Journal that he projects ABX Air would have a work force of about 900 to 1,000 in Wilmington if the restructuring is implemented. ABX Air currently has about 7,000 employees at the DHL Air Park in Wilmington.

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Postcomm chief slams union greed (UK)

Posted by | May 29, 2008 | |

Postcomm Chairman Nigel Stapleton has hit back at union claims that the regulator is incompetent, arguing that the Communications Workers Union is “undeservedly” reaping all the cost savings Royal Mail has made.

Stapleton counters: “The CWU has been extremely competent in making sure that all the savings Royal Mail has made – through single daily delivery – has gone to its members and not Royal Mail’s customers.

“Second delivery was 4 per cent of Royal Mail’s volume and 20 per cent of its costs. Everyone thought that the savings would be passed on to the customer but in fact they went on higher wages, a five day week instead of six and higher pensions – the customer hasn’t got anything.”

The move follows CWU general secretary Billy Hayes’ public broadside last week that Postcomm was ‘draconian’ and ‘incompetent’ and was to blame for Royal Mail’s demise.

He also claimed Postcomm was stifling Royal Mail and creating a financial crisis for the UK’s biggest mail carrier.

But Stapleton argues that both the CWU and Royal Mail have their heads stuck in the sand, claiming that neither has reacted swiftly enough to the rise of digital marketing.

Stapleton also blames Royal Mail’s lack of new product development.
even test marketed anything since last August.

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