Tag: Europe

Postal unions warn of strikes over post office closures

Posted by | Jun 16, 2008 | |

A postal workers’ union delivered an ultimatum to the Government, saying there will be escalating strike action unless it abandons plans to axe 2,500 post offices and franchise out 83 Crown Offices.
The Communication Workers Union assistant secretary Andy Furey said “the Government can’t afford not to support this vital public service”.
In a letter to MPs, the union warns: “If a settlement is not reached, an industrial action ballot is inevitable.”
David Drew, Labour MP for Stroud, blamed Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier and chairman Alan Leighton.
He said they had “taken Manchester United and turned them into Derby County”

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Deutsche Post plans to sell all remaining post offices by 2011

Posted by | Jun 16, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post plans to sell off all its 750 remaining post offices by 2011 and will then have a retail network of 13,500 outlets operated completely by private partners or its Postbank subsidiary. It has previously planned to retain about 100 “flagship” outlets as an in-house operation.

A company spokesman confirmed German media reports about the post office sales, stressing that the local branches would not be closed but taken over by private retail partners. The 2,000 post office staff affected by the disposal would be transferred to other jobs within the group.

Deutsche Post’s head of mail, Jürgen Gerdes, said in a statement that the German postal operator was committed to extending its network, improving its service and adding more products while keeping its retail network costs under control.

Deutsche Post, which is legally obliged to operate a minimum network of 12,000 postal outlets, currently has about 13,500 outlets. Over the last decade it has started to divide up the network into a three-tier structure with full-service “flagship” post offices, full-service postal counters within retail stores, and streamlined postal services offered by private partners.

There are currently about 1,600 “flagship” outlets. Of these, 850 are former post offices in top locations sold to financial services subsidiary Postbank in 2006 and re-branded as “Postbank Finanzcenters”, offering a full range of banking and postal services. The other 750 Deutsche Post-operated post offices, often in secondary locations, are those planned to be disposed of.

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ToCOSS calculates Total Cost of Ownership for self-service networks

Posted by | Jun 16, 2008 | |

How high are the costs for a bank’s self-service infrastructure over the entire product lifecycle? A new analysis tool from Wincor Nixdorf provides the answer. It calculates and analyzes the costs of implementing, maintaining and operating complex self-service solutions made up of hardware, software and services.

The tool – ToCOSS: Total Cost of Ownership for Self-Service Retail Banking – examines costs for everything from end-user devices to central systems in the background. It outlines a number of investment scenarios built around an array of parameters. Based on factors that include the cost of acquiring new hardware or software, integration costs, the expense of operating the data center or maintaining and monitoring the various systems, for example, ToCOSS then calculates the costs for the entire product lifecycle of a self-service network (TCO – Total Cost of Ownership).

The new tool is useful whenever banks are planning investments in their self-service networks – in hardware, but particularly in the integration of new software. It helps banks forecast what impact migration to new multivendor applications or integration in multichannel architectures will have on TCO.

The bank’s IT managers can then base their decisions on solid analyses. The TCO analysis delivers investment protection, creates cost transparency and identifies savings potential.

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Postmen told to ditch bikes for trolleys (UK)

Posted by | Jun 16, 2008 | |

Postmen have been told to use trolleys instead of using their bikes, so their shoulders are not injured carrying heavy mail bags.

The move, which has been introduced in Lancashire, comes after one depot took delivery of 60 new bicycles.

All delivery offices in the county are taking part in the trial, which aims to reduce shoulder strain by replacing the bike with “high-capacity” trolleys, which can carry more mail.

But the move has not gone down well with all postmen and women.

One worker from the Leyland depot, where trolleys are currently being favoured over bikes, said: “We are absolutely baffled. They tell us it is health and safety because of the big bags we have on our shoulders but the bikes have saddle bags, so that makes no sense either.

“Can you imagine having to walk miles away from the office, all the time getting further and further away and then having to come back? They are going to be knackered.”

He said postmen and women on the routes chosen for the trial had been told they had “no option” other than to use the trolleys, despite Royal Mail having bought 60 new bikes last year.

The Royal Mail spokesman insisted that “the majority of staff” still had the option of using bicycles on their deliveries.

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