Italian postal operator Poste Italiane has announced a partnership with US software group Microsoft to create innovative postal and payment services, including the introduction of electronic registered letters, which are to be launched in the next few months. Future services will include an online payment and services card.
Read MoreDutch mail, express and logistics company TPG NV’s unit TNT Logistics expects a further turnover growth in North America in the next few years, Jeff Hurley, managing director of TNT North America, said on November 19, 2004. The company targets a double-digit turnover growth. TNT North America generated a turnover of 630 mln euro (USD816.8 mln) in 2003. Hurley expects that the number of contracts with clients will increase in the next few years. Currently TNT North America has 181 clients. The value of the contracts with these clients vary from USD2.0 mln (1.54 mln euro) to USD50 mln (38.56 mln euro) per year. The company ecpects further USD300 mln (231.4 mln euro) to USD400 mln (308.5 mln euro) of additional turnover in North America from contracts with potential clients. TNT North America has some 6,000 employees.
Read MoreDutch mail, express and logistics company TPG NV expects an improvement of its logistics activities in France in the next few years, the managing director of TNT Logistics, TPG’s logistics unit, David Kulik, said on November 19, 2004.
TNT Logistics activities in France will be loss-making in 2004 and 2005, however 2004 will be a better year than 2003, and 2005 will be better than 2004, Kulik said. This will be mainly a result of a cost reduction. Kulik did not say when a break-even result will be achieved in France.
The French post office, La Poste, yesterday responded to accusations from the French consumer protection association UFC Que Choisir that its banking charges are excessive by saying that it is the least expensive of all the major banks in France, particularly for those on modest incomes.
Read MoreRoyal Mail faces the prospect of having to pay Pounds 800m a year to fill the hole in its pension fund that was revealed last year, the group announced yesterday. There was a contributions holiday at Royal Mail’s pension fund, the fifth biggest in the UK, from 1990 until 2003, when an actuarial report uncovered a Pounds 2.5bn deficit. The group said yesterday that current contributions of Pounds 310m a year would soon increase to Pounds 450m a year.
The trustees of the fund argue that even more than this should be contributed to clear the deficit within 12 years rather than a planned 40 years, and to reduce the reliance on equities.
The fund’s 80 per cent holdings in shares is too risky, it has said, and more cash should be invested in debt. These changes would push up the cost of covering the deficit, said Royal Mail, to about Pounds 800m a year for the next 12 years.
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