Tag: Europe

Czech Post office seeks to deliver new image

Posted by | Oct 13, 2008 | |

The Ministry of Interior appointed Petr Sedlqcek as new general manager to lead the restructuring of a profitable, yet old-fashioned postal service provider Ceska Posta. Yet, many challenges lie ahead, and at this point not even the new boss can say how ÈP will look in 2013 when the European postal service market will be fully liberalized.

ÈP has four years to transform from an image-dented, state-controlled colossus with a branch network similar to the one shared under the Austro-Hungarian Empire into a modern, flexible and competitive joint-stock company that will be able to survive in a fully liberalized market. “There is a huge amount of work in front of us,” Sedláèek said.

This imperative seems to be ÈP’s current motto. According to ÈP spokesman Ivo Mravinac, ÈP must restructure, improve processes and transfer money earned or saved into a technological upgrade. “We have four years for that. If we don’t do it, by 2013 all our competitors will have systems that will make them less expensive, and we will lose clients. This might even mean the end of Èeská pošta,” he told the Czech financial server Mìšec.cz at the beginning of September 2008.

Now, the Czech Republic has almost 3,400 branches serving some 10 million inhabitants, while Austria, a country of a similar size has some 1,000 physical branches. On the other hand, ÈP employs some 37,000 employees, more than the 35,800 employed by the Romanian postal service provider Poºta Românã (RP), despite the fact that RP serves more than 20 million inhabitants.

The restructuring plans that Sedláèek inherited include possibly closing some 178 branches that are now in the red. “If we don’t do this and we don’t transfer money obtained from savings into a technological upgrade, this might bring the end of ÈP and subsequently we’d assist to the closure of thousands of branches,” Jurek said.

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IT key to DHL green commitment

Posted by | Oct 13, 2008 | |

Logistics provider DHL is using IT as a key part of its commitment to reduce the firm’s carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2020.
The company owns a huge network of vehicles and warehouses, each with its own constantly changing carbon footprint.
Accurate assessment and real-time analysis of this data is vital in assessing the carbon footprint of a supply chain, according to Karl Feilder, chief executive of DHL neutral services.
Accurate information is very important for DHL. If the information is wrong, the company could end up hedge buying fuel at the wrong time, or investing in innovation where it is not needed.
In some cases DHL estimates that there are as many as 47 companies involved in its supply chain, leaving much space for error in its analysis of information.
A survey of over 1,000 logistics executives by DHL in conjunction with Oracle and Capgemini found that only 38 per cent of respondents were satisfied with their third-party logistics provider’s information technology capabilities.

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Deutsche Post: Letter mail prices within Germany to remain stable in 2009

Posted by | Oct 13, 2008 | |

The prices charged by Deutsche Post for letters and postcards sent within Germany will remain unchanged next year. The Federal Network Agency responsible for regulating the most important mail prices thus confirms the pricing proposal submitted by Deutsche Post.

After a price reduction in 2003, postage for the Standardbrief (standard letter) in Germany remains stable at 55 cents for the seventh year running, with no change to the high quality of service.

The prices for other domestic mail products, such as postcards, Kompaktbrief (compact letter), Großbrief and Maxibrief (oversize letters) as well special services remain unchanged. With inflation currently running at more than three percent, Deutsche Post is clearly bucking the general price trend. Despite rising production costs, Deutsche Post customers will benefit from stable mail prices in 2009 too.

Under the terms of the statutory pricing procedure Deutsche Post has the opportunity to increase prices in 2009 by an average of 0.4 percent for a fixed basket of goods consisting of domestic and international products. The company will not make full use of this flexibility, however, and will instead only implement a slight price increase of 0.1 percent on average through pricing changes applicable to international mail items.

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Work This Way: FedEx Making a Difference at Work

Posted by | Oct 10, 2008 | |

The work FedEx is doing in the communities it serves is recognized in a new book encouraging companies to act responsibly.

The book, written by Tim Sanders, is called “Saving the World at Work – What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference.”

The author calls FedEx a “quality-centered” company, noting how FedEx won the first Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for service in 1990, due in large part to founder and CEO Fred Smith’s commitment to cutting-edge information technology to ensure reliability.

The book goes on to showcase how thousands of FedEx employees volunteer to provide safety expertise during International Walk to School Day each October, and how those FedEx efforts have helped expand the program internationally.

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GLS invests in French network expansion

Posted by | Oct 10, 2008 | |

GLS has opened a larger new depot at Gennevilliers, north of Paris, as part of EUR 10 million worth of investment in its French network this year.

Located close to the nearby port, the 5,000 sqm depot has 60 docking doors gates and a large sorting area. It is equipped with state-of-the art conveyor systems able to increase sorting capacity up to 7,500 inbound shipments and up to 9,000 outbound shipments an hour and thus improving the company’s productivity considerably, GLS France said.

Separately, GLS France has invested about EUR 2 million in the modernisation of the sorting systems in its depots in Roissy and Fleury to cope with peaks in business activity that can increase up to 20 pct on certain days, thus responding to growing customer needs in terms of flexibility and reliability. Capacity at Roissy will go up from 5,000 to 7,000 parcels per hour.

In Europe, some other major investments are planned such as the construction of new depots in Stuttgart, Germany, and Zirl, Austria as well as the expansion of the existing sites in Neustadt-Glewe and Leipzig, Germany, and in Czeladz, Zielona Góra and Wroclaw in Poland, GLS France noted.

In addition to this investment in production equipment, GLS also aims at optimising its information systems to further strengthen parcel security and tracking transparency.

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