Responsible for 100 million shipments a year and with an annual turnover in excess of five billion euros, DHL is a major player in the international express delivery market. The company has recently completed a £35 million investrnent in a new Air Express Hub at East Midlands Airport. One of 35 such hubs around the world, and the biggest in the UK, the new facility is designed for throughputs of up to 24,000 parcels and 18,000 docunients (‘flyers’) every hour.
Read MoreValuable items once tended to be carried in small numbers but through the advent of microtechnology. small, high value items are far more common. Mobile phones are a classic example and a lorry load presents a prized target for a heist. However, there would appear to be little reliable information worldwide concerning stolen cargo. The last worldwide survey conducted by the Fecher al Bureau of
Investigation in (FBI) and die National ( argo Security Council in I 99M estimated the value upwards of $50bn. However, as Ken Matthews, director of security at TNT express points out: “Both businesses arid express operato rs have recognised a signifi(alit increase since 1998 and between 1999 and 2000 recorded incidents in Europe rose to 55% .”
The price of a first class stamp could rise to as much as 40p if plans to introduce competition to the postal service go ahead, Consignia warned today.
Fierce competition to secure contracts for bulk business mail could hit Consignia’s profits and its ability to deliver personal mail across the country at fixed prices, the company said.
As well as the possible increase in the price of first class stamps from 27p, second class stamps could rise by as much as 11p soaring from 19p to 30p, a spokeswoman said.
THE Post Office has scrapped its Good Friday delivery service for the first time in 162 years.
It means that over the four-day Easter break homes and businesses in England and Wales can expect just one delivery of letters and parcels – on the Saturday.
Good Friday is traditionally treated like any other working day but this year 50 million letters and 300,000 parcels will remain in Post Office storage.
Postwatch, the postal service watchdog, condemned the move, claiming it breaks a promise to improve services.
The single biggest factor holding back the e-commerce revolution, said the experts, was the inconvenience of having to stay at home to wait for deliveries.
So the new breed of e-fulfilment companies, allowing retailers to deliver goods whether or not customers are at home, should have been laughing all the way to the bank.
However, 18 months down the line, those who haven’t run out of cash concede it is taking somewhat longer than they thought to spread the e-fulfilment gospel.
Retailers agreeing to act as pick-up points for goods ordered over the net have seen at best a disappointing trickle of parcels going through their stores, and at worst, none at all.
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