Tag: Europe

Jersey Post faces formal competition

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Jersey Post is facing formal competition for the first time after the postal regulator issued a licence to an express delivery service.

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority has granted a licence to Regency Holdings Ltd, which delivers business mail and catalogues from the UK to Jersey.

The company has been delivering to Jersey since last year, and the 10-year licence formalises its operations in the Island.

Chuck Webb, executive director of the JCRA, said: ‘Regency Holdings is a fairly small operation that delivers business mail as well as catalogues and associated letters to Jersey from the UK.

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Commission announces crackdown on mail monopolies

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Speaking at a high-level conference on postal liberalisation on Tuesday (24 June), the EU’s commissioners for competition and the internal market warned countries with lingering postal monopolies to open up or face legal action.

“We will not hesitate to use all means at our disposal to make a competitive and sustainable postal market a reality,” said EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, warning governments not to introduce what he called “creative market barriers” under the pretext of safeguarding basic mail services for all.

Such measures will undoubtedly include infringement procedures against member states that are “backtracking” on their pledges to liberalise the postal market fully, said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. “You know me, I will enforce competition rules in the postal sector […] Regulation is not enough,” she said, highlighting the fact that she had already sent a formal notice to Slovakia on 18 June regarding its plans to “re-monopolise certain sectors of its postal market”.

The strong statements come a surprisingly short time – just four months – after the EU pushed through legislation, which only commits member states to full liberalisation of their mail markets by 2011 at the earliest.

They appear as a testimony of Brussels’ commitment to full market opening amid growing apprehension at the national level as to the concrete effects of full liberalisation on employment and the provision of a quality service for all.

Although no names were cited, Germany appears to take the brunt of the Commission’s discontent, with its plans to introduce a minimum hourly wage of EUR for postmen operating on its territory in order to prevent social dumping.

The move has sparked a big dispute with the Netherlands, where Dutch Junior Economy Minister Frank Heemskerk retaliated by delaying his country’s own planned 1 January 2008 liberalisation until a “more level playing field” was established – a move also under fire from the Commission.

Both Germany and the Netherlands have received letters from the commissioner in which he voices such concerns. So have Finland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Poland – making them all potential targets for legal action. The complaints cover a wide range of practices – from Finland’s charges on new entrants that do not agree to provide nationwide services or Belgian plans to simply force all new operators to deliver across its whole territory to Austria allowing its national operator to install key access to private letter boxes in apartment hallways.

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Free “domicíliate” service to notify postal address changes

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

CORREOS has initiated an advertising campaign to promote the “Domicíliate” service citizens can use to notify their changes of address to its member companies, free of charge.

The postal company has decided to provide this service free of charge for users and its member companies and has sent out more than 500,000 information leaflets, 120,000 of which have been delivered door-to-door in eight districts in Madrid and in the municipalities of Parla and Valdemoro. Furthermore, in newly built housing estates all around Spain, information on the new service will be delivered door-to-door together with the new post code.

CORREOS will also promote the existing synergies between the “Domicíliate” and “Reenvío postal” services the postal company uses to forward correspondence received at the addressee’s previous address, during the period contracted by the latter.

The “Domicíliate” service already has almost large member 100 companies from all the sectors of the economy: telephony, insurance, finance, gas, electricity, water, NGOs, etc.

For companies, the new service guarantees that their customers’ addresses will always be updated, enabling them to avoid sending notices to recipients whose addressees have changed. In other words, they save time and resources in keeping their address files up to date. For the users, in addition to guaranteeing receiving their correspondence in their new address free of charge and in a single operation ‘Domicíliate’ offers the possibility of notifying the change to relatives and friends via email.

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European Parcels Market: Price Pressure Eclipses Growth through Internet Trade

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

After several years of strong sales growth for courier, express and parcel (CEP) services, in the coming years the figures in Europe are expected to slip back. Average annual growth in revenues in international CEP markets, for example, will decline from 8.6 percent today to 6.6 percent in 2010. The almost constant growth in transport volume resulting from steadily rising internet trade is being eclipsed by considerable price pressure. This is one of the conclusions from the latest study conducted by A.T. Kearney. Transport costs are being driven ever higher by the rising price of oil, and this could lead to a significant shift in the choice of means of transport in future. Although costs are rising, for highly time-critical goods such as express parcels there will be no alternative to air transport even in years to come. CEP providers need to tighten up their own market positioning and service provision profile and compensate for price pressure and increases in factor costs through strict cost management. The key challenges are the pressure to differentiate, the expansion of international networks, zonal pricing, closed supply chains and continuing consolidation.

Impacts of the high oil price on the global transport industry

For highly time-critical goods such as express parcels or spare parts, but also for high-value moisture-sensitive goods, there will still be no alternative to air transport in the future. Nevertheless, in the short and medium term opportunities to benefit from this within Europe will be available to service providers who build on a good road network, as in this case fuel costs are a considerably less weighty factor than in air transport.

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Romanian couriers Curiero and TCE Logistica plan merger

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Two of Romania’s larger courier companies, Curiero and TCE Logistica, plan to merge in the latest deal in the country’s rapidly consolidating express and parcels market. The new company will be called RTC Logistica.

Under the deal, TCE’s owner, the RTC conglomerate, will become the 70 pct majority shareholder in the merged company, with the former Curiero owner, Marchessa SA, owning most of the remaining shares.

TCE, with revenues of about EUR 11 million in 2007, is the smaller of the two companies but financially stronger. Curiero, with revenues of €14 million last year, said earlier this year it would sell a 25 pct stake to IT services company Asesoft.

The two companies said that their merger is designed to strengthen their competitive position and that they are targeting combined revenues of EUR 30 million this year. The new company will trade under the name RTC Logistica.

There have been several major transactions in the Romanian CEP market this year, including DHL’s acquisition of Cargus, GeoPost’s purchase of a 80 pct stake in Pegasus and the UPS buyout of local partner TCS.

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