Tag: Europe

SAS Air Mail and Post Danmark sign total mail agreement

Posted by | Jun 19, 2008 | |

Post Danmark has just signed a new two-year agreement with SAS Air Mail on international mail transportation. This means that the two companies will continue their integrated partnership on constant quality improvements for export mail.

The new contract has been awarded following a public tender, where airlines from all over the world made quotes on parts or all of Post Danmark’s international mail traffic. It is a total agreement, where SAS Air Mail accepts full responsibility for the economy and quality performance of Post Danmark’s letter mail shipments from Denmark to 22 countries, which are members of the EU and/or the International Post Corporation (IPC).

By analyzing the quotes, Post Danmark found that SAS Air Mail was best suited to fulfill the requirements. The partnership, which has existed for a number of years, could therefore be continued.

Contrasting our previous agreement with Post Danmark, the new contract does not cover the entire world, but only the most important mail destinations and countries within SAS’ routing network. This limits SAS Air Mail’s economic liability and enhances our quality performance, because we can keep the total logistic flow from airport-to-airport in control, says Michael Thomasen, managing director of SAS Air Mail.

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Negotiations still continue for some Portuguese unions in CTT – Correios de Portugal

Posted by | Jun 19, 2008 | |

One of UNI’s Portuguese affiliates, Sindetelco, has finished negotiations and signed a new collective agreement with CTT – Correios de Portugal. The union advises that they think this is a good deal for their members and that after three years of hard work they have agreement that in 2008 100 new workers will have definitive contracts and 100 in the next year.

However the other UNI affiliates involved, SNTCT and SINTTAV are unhappy with the offer and have continued their protest action including their fifth strike since negotiations started which took place on 9 June. The unions say 65 pct of the CTT workers participated in strike action. They say that CTT are trying to make worse working hours, end the concept of a work place, and to take away the universal access for workers to the CTT private system of health and social assistance.

SINTTAV and SNTCT are undertaking with the Portuguese government ministry of labour, a mediation process. They are not confident that this will resolve the impasse so they have also initiated a complaint to the ILO. UNI Post & Logistics continues to monitor the situation to assist affiliates as appropriate.

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No missing mail with RFID tags, says European Commission

Posted by | Jun 19, 2008 | |

With full liberalisation of all the EU’s national postal services planned for 2013, the likely increase in the number of operators will make improved traceability of sent items a vital necessity to avoid dysfunctions, the European Commission has underlined, calling for the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips to tackle the issue.

Indeed, all EU member states are requested to abolish lingering national monopolies on postal services by December 2012 at the latest. While the intention is to open the market to new entrants and make mail deliveries more efficient across Europe, there is also a risk that, with an increased number of actors involved in the process, items may get lost.

Innovations that can ensure the safe management of items are therefore needed and the Commission is looking at RFID as the “right” technology to do this.

Radio Frequency Identification chips have been already deployed by postal companies in around 50 countries across the world to measure the quality of their services.

Item-level tracking implies a massive deployment of RFID, potentially involving all the items sent. This would result in a close-to-zero risk of failed delivery.

To make this possible, RFID chips would have to be cheap, tiny, easily available and based on common standards. High-tech companies, like Hitachi or Motorola, are currently working to make chips more affordable and functional. The size has already decreased so much that now experts do not talk of chips, but of “smart dust”.

But interoperability remains a key concern. At the beginning of the year, the European Commission launched a two-year project called GRIFS to build a global RFID standards forum. All stakeholders agree on the need of talking and finding common grounds.

Common standards would indeed pave the way for a broader application of RFID technologies for end-users and not just service providers. Radio Frequency Identification tags could then become a day-to-day technology used for making payments through mobile phones or to check the origin of food purchased in a supermarket. The final stage would be the so-called ‘Internet of Things’, where active RFID could make objects communicate between themselves to automatically address daily needs.

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Roberts Europe teams up with e-kurier.net for European capacity

Posted by | Jun 19, 2008 | |

Time-critical freight logistics company Roberts Europe has signed a partnership agreement with German-based online freight capacity platform “e-kurier.net” to increase its available capacity and generate more business for the courier platform members.

The cooperation with e-kurier.net is part of Roberts Europe’s expansion plan in Germany including restructuring and investment in state-of-the-art automating systems. With the agreement, the company aims at integrating the e-kurier.net solutions in its new planning systems.

Under the partnership, Roberts Europe will have access to spare capacity offered by the platform’s 1,800 German and European members, which will be mostly empty return journeys. It expects to optimise its shipping capacity and thus reduce costs for customers. In return, e-kurier.net’s courier companies will increase their volumes through Roberts Europe’s sales and marketing activities.

The automation systems of both companies are now connected to each other so that Robert Europe can book free shipping space.

Fred Snippe, owner and CEO of Roberts Europe, commented: “e-kurier.net and its members are absolute professionals. We complement each other in our core competences and can therefore achieve a strong win-win situation for all parties.”

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Parcelnet acquires TNT post’s courier business (UK)

Posted by | Jun 19, 2008 | |

Parcelnet has acquired the courier business of TNT Post. Under the agreement, Parcelnet has integrated TNT Post’s nationwide courier operation and the home delivery contract for catalogue and online retailer JD Williams into its existing UK business, enhancing the company’s network in terms of size and throughput.

Volumes totalling more than 12.5 million parcels per year have been smoothly and seamlessly transferred to Parcelnet – including the long-term contract with JD Williams – with minimal service disruption to customers. Parcelnet has also become TNT Post’s preferred home delivery partner as part of the deal. The extended network size – increasing to 7,000 lifestyle couriers – makes courier rounds even more local and has strengthened
Parcelnet’s presence in London and the south east of England, enabling the company to introduce enhanced service offers in the future. In addition, Parcelnet has taken on 100 full-time employees that previously held field, support and management roles within TNT Post, allowing the company to make best use of expertise and best practise.

Commenting on the acquisition, Carole Woodhead, Managing Director at Parcelnet, said: ”This latest development builds on the acquisition of the Redcats courier business last year, further strengthening our network, enabling service enhancements and providing continued growth of our client base.”

Last year, Parcelnet acquired the UK courier network of catalogue group Redcats. Under the terms of the deal, Parcelnet was appointed to handle the home delivery service for Redcats’ UK brands – notably La Redoute, Empire Stores, Vertbaudet and Daxon.

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