Parcel carrier FedEx has began services using the 757 Freighter. The airline will have 12 757 freighters in the next year as it replaces the 727-200 freighter fleet. FedEx are investing USD 2.6 billion in replacing the 90 727-200 freighters with 90 757 freighters.
Read MoreWhile harboring hopes the U.S. economy will turn around and fuel prices will start to level off, FedEx is positioning itself for what company officials say is an altered industry landscape.
Frederick W. Smith, FedEx chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in the wake of the company’s first quarterly loss in several years that FedEx is rethinking its foundation express operations and even the way it gears up for international traffic.
“FedEx Express has not bought a unit of capacity for the domestic express business in years and years and years,” Smith told investment analysts in a conference call on the company’s earnings.
Instead, Smith said, is looking at a new era of air shipping that includes still lighter reliance on aircraft for shorter hauls and a focus on fitting the domestic network into a global supply chain.
That is where increasingly savvy customers, he said, are cutting back on premium services and streamlining.
“The network in the United States has been expanded basically to move inland international traffic,” Smith said. “Increasingly in the international market the movement of goods by air will be in smaller lots and door-to-door express movements rather than in the large consolidations that marked the industry structure several years ago.”
FedEx has benefited from the broad industry trends in recent years, gaining express parcel business as shippers have broken down larger consignments and taking on ground package and trucking volume in its growing surface divisions as cost-conscious shippers have traded down in mode.
But domestic express volume has been flat at best in recent years and now Smith acknowledges that the ideal target for air express is the international shipper rather than the domestic business.
Read MoreThe National Federation of Subpostmasters continues its campaign to highlight the threat to remaining post offices beyond those currently being closed, if the contract for the Post Office card account is lost.
The NFSP points out that the post office network will go into further decline with as many as 3,000 post offices going out of business. The NFSP says that if Post Office Ltd does not need to pay out GBP 27 billion in cash each year through POCA, it will not need to raise large amounts of cash through other services, and the entire business model will unravel.
Post Office Ltd is currently on a mission to reduce massive losses in the post office network by closing 2,500 post offices across the UK. Rural areas have been particularly badly hit where smaller post offices were also the only village shop. Many have already been closed and replaced by outreach services which consist of mobile or limited hours services. The long-term funding of outreach services is the subject of some controversy after the Commons business and enterprise committee raised concerns over the level of funds afforded to the Post Office by Royal Mail.
Business has been lost to post offices in more recent years as many bill payments were transferred to online facilities or contracts put out to tender. Many post offices depend on the POCA and see it as a building block towards a sustainable future for the entire post office network.
Read MoreTNT NV rose to its highest in five months in Amsterdam trading on speculation of a takeover offer.
TNT rose as much as 2.48 euros, or 10 percent to 26.41 euros, the highest since Feb. 27. The stock was up 3.8 percent at 11:26 a.m. local time.
“There are rumors about a takeover bid” of 30.25 euros per share being made “soon,” said Rik Zwaneveld, a trader at AFS Brokers BV in Amsterdam, adding that possible interested parties weren’t mentioned.
TNT rose 26 percent on July 14 on a Financial Times report that FedEx Corp., the second-largest U.S. package-shipping company, was in preliminary talks to buy TNT. The stock tumbled 16 percent on July 24 after the Wall Street Journal said FedEx won’t make an offer.
Pieter Schaffels, spokesman for Hoofddorp, Netherlands- based TNT, declined to comment.
Read MoreOn August 6, the second round of DHL Fast Forward, the first worldwide logistics business simulation, will get underway.
Round one saw more than 8,500 participants from over 120 countries. Now it’s down to the best 100 teams, each with 5 players, to master the unique online strategy game.
While the players used the first round to build up their country’s leading express courier company, phase two will be about taking on the global market. At the same time, business models will be expanded to include other logistics services such as air travel and sea cargo.
At the start of 2009, the ten best teams of this competition will meet at Deutsche Post World Net’s headquarters in Bonn, Germany, and contend in the final round of DHL Fast Forward.
In mid-April, DHL launched its international Discover Logistics initiative under the patronage of German Secretary of State, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The aim of Discover Logistics is to open up the exciting and fast-growing logistics industry to as many talented newcomers as possible and give them a good idea of career perspectives available in the logistics industry.
On top of in-depth industry knowledge and business expertise, the second phase of DHL Fast Forward will require excellent communication skills and the ability to organize teamwork effectively across national borders and different cultural backgrounds. It will take seven weeks in total, and this time everyone who battled it out on their own in the first phase will have to show their ability to contribute to a team effort.
The winning team is in for EUR50,000 worth of prizes, including management training, travel vouchers and opportunities to make invaluable contacts from all corners of the world’s largest logistics employer.
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