Tag: Europe

Blair deals blow to post offices

Posted by | Oct 19, 2006 | |

Tony Blair has ruled out providing further subsidies for post offices despite receiving a massive petition from campaigners.
However, the PM has pledged to “consider all options” in response to calls for greater protection for the network. John Peberdy, from Loughborough, the chairman of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, presented Mr Blair with a petition signed by four million people, including 330,000 from Leicestershire.
Campaigners say the move to pay pensions and benefits directly into bank accounts instead of through the Post Office card account will devastate post offices, especially rural branches. They are calling for the plan to be scrapped.
The Government says the 800 smallest post offices are used by an average of 16 people a week and the rural network is supported by an annual subsidy of GBP150 million.

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DHL's new European hub 'progressing well'

Posted by | Oct 19, 2006 | |

DHL has released a statement confirming that construction work at its European hub, which began at the start of 2006, is progressing well and is on schedule.

“The Leipzig/Halle hub will be a vital element within our company. Along with Hong Kong in Asia und Wilmington in the United States, it will be one of the three most important transfer locations in DHL’s global network,” Zumwinkel said. DHL plans to create 3,500 jobs by 2012.

A total of 400 DHL employees are already working at the evolving hub, where structural work is almost finished. The hub will consist of a 48,000 square-metre distribution centre and an approximately 23,000 square-metre hangar. Installation of the operational equipment is scheduled to begin soon. Costing more than *70 million, the Dutch company Vanderlande will install sorting technology in the next few months.

DHL is also expanding its flight operations at the Leipzig/Halle airport. The current air routes to and from Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Warsaw, Kattowitz, Danzig, Nuremberg, Ostrau, Prague in the Czech Republic and East Midlands in England have been expanded to include Kiev. Copenhagen and Bergamo, in northern Italy, will be added as shipping airports on October 30, 2006. Following this, a total of 12 DHL planes will use the central German airport Monday through Friday.

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Direct Marketing – Unwanted nuisance or useful service?

Posted by | Oct 19, 2006 | |

As Royal Mail lifts the cap, Philip Chadwick finds out if we will be flooded with wasteful junk.

Judging by the current barrage of negative press, the direct mail industry should be feeling more beleaguered than England football coach Steve McLaren.

And just when it thought things couldn’t get any worse, last Monday the Local Government Association (LGA) waded into the furore, which began when Royal Mail announced plans to scrap the cap on unaddressed mail (PrintWeek, 3 August). Reports suggest that the LGA’s chair, Lord Bruce-Lockhart, had written to the Royal Mail arguing that such a move could leave council tax payers facing larger bills.

The LGA indicated it had ‘grave concerns’ about the plans, which would cause ‘unnecessary rubbish’. It claims 78,000 tonnes of ‘junk mail’ reach landfill sites each year and the cost of disposing waste has risen in the past year by pounds 205m.

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PalletFORCE reputation brings E.M. Rogers to network

Posted by | Oct 18, 2006 | |

Northampton-based transport company E.M. Rogers has joined the PalletFORCE palletised distribution network in order to enhance the range of services it can offer to its customers.

E.M. Rogers has not been involved with a network before, as its primary focus is in international haulage. The decision to join PalletFORCE was made after the company decided to diversify and extend its UK operation.

PalletFORCE came highly recommended, as Ed Rogers explains. “As part of the Transport Association, we asked fellow members who are part of PalletFORCE what they thought of the Network. The overriding feeling was that PalletFORCE has revolutionised the way they do business, and has really helped them to develop.”

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Sernam takes the train to bypass French motorway speed limits

Posted by | Oct 17, 2006 | |

Sernam has switched the bulk of its long-distance traffic from road to rail in order to avoid being hit by tighter motorway speed limits for light trucks from next January. It has also bought a small regional trucking company.

With effect from January 1, 2007, the maximum speed limit in France for goods vehicles weighing 3.5 tonnes or more will be reduced from 110 km/h to 90 km/h. This speed limit currently applies to vehicles of 12 tonnes or more. The 18% reduction in speed, along with obligatory rest times for drivers, means, for example, that the Paris-Niort truck journey will in future take 5 hours, 45 minutes on average, compared to 4 hours, 20 minutes at present, Sernam pointed out.

In response to this operational restriction, Sernam said that it has re-designed its nationwide transportation network in order to ensure it can maintain the present transit times for its customers. The company provides next-day afternoon deliveries across virtually of all France.

With effect from mid-October, Sernam is now carrying the bulk of its long-distance volumes on the night-time Train Blocs Express (TBE), freight TGV operating at speeds of up to 200 km/h on key North-South routes. The operator’s network is based on nine hubs, including new multimodal platforms at Toulouse and Bordeaux. A new Paris hub will open at Valenton at end-2007.

Meanwhile, Sernam also announced that it has acquired a small trucking company, Coulonge, based at Limoges in south-west France, which had revenues of €4.5 million in 2005.

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