Tag: Europe

Royal Mail cuts may end Saturday post

Posted by | May 10, 2008 | |

The proposal to reduce deliveries to five days a week will also see fewer first class letters arrive the day after they are sent.

The recommendations, to be submitted in the next 10 days as part of a review into the future of the postal sector, are included in a radical plan by the regulator Postcomm to shore up finances at the Royal Mail.

It hopes to secure the future of the “universal service”, which means the company promises to deliver letters to each of the 28 million add-resses in Britain for the same price.

Moving from a six-days-a-week delivery would mark a further reduction of services by Royal Mail, which has already been allowed to end twice-daily deliveries in an effort to restore profitability.

The average delivery time has slipped and post boxes are no longer emptied on a Sunday. Any attempt to drop the Saturday delivery would be fiercely opposed, not least because it is enshrined in law under the Postal Services Act of 2000. Politicians, consumer groups, businesses and the unions say Postcomm’s proposals would lead to a further diminution of the service.

It is the first time that the Royal Mail has ever made a loss from this service.
Postcomm’s recommendations about cutting the six-day service are included in its submission to the review, the Telegraph understands.

The regulator also suggests that the Royal Mail’s delivery targets should be lowered.

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First class war for Business Post's Guy Buswell

Posted by | May 10, 2008 | |

Tucked away in one of Guy Buswell’s depots are 12 pillar boxes. Standard Royal Mail design but painted blue. For Buswell is a private postman and the pillar boxes may one day be part of his expansion plans. For the moment, however, they confirm the conclusion of last week’s report from former Ofcom regulator Richard Hooper that the private consumer has seen no benefit from introducing competition to postal services.

Buswell is chief executive of Business Post, which collects letters from the likes of Vodafone and HSBC, sorts them and hands them to the Royal Mail for delivery. His UK Mail subsidiary handles more than 10 per cent of Britain’s post but, as yet, the public cannot give him letters for posting.

On the wall of his office, on an industrial estate outside Birmingham, above one of his 57 depots, is the very first envelope he delivered. It was from Powergen, posted on May 10 2004, and commemorates the end of the 370-year postal monopoly.

UK Mail now delivers more than 2bn letters a year. “Last week we carried 12m items in one day,” boasts Buswell, 46. It is arguably Britain’s biggest private mail service (the argument would come from TNT, the Dutch post office) and this week he will announce plans to change the quoted Business Post name to UK Mail Group.

Just 50 big customers account for 40 per cent of Britain’s post and Buswell has signed up a fair share, including Abbey, Prudential, Carphone Warehouse, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland. Yet sending letters is a shrinking business.

He blames Royal Mail, whose universal service last week posted its first loss in the year to March – a GBP 100m shortfall.

“We can collect mail from any customer that has 200 items per night. In the future there will be pillar boxes – or collection points,” he says. For now, however, he is working on I-mail, which will allow anyone to e-mail a letter to UK Mail for hand delivery next day.

Why not e-mail it directly to the recipient? Buswell points out that legal addresses are not electronic addresses. I-mail will be launched this summer and the consummate salesman explains: “It massively reduces the carbon footprint and reduces time. It will cost between 40p and 50p and be a next-day service.”

But its importance, he states, “is that it will be innovation in the mail industry by a competitor.”

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Royal Mail calls for end to price controls after profits collapse (UK)

Posted by | May 9, 2008 | |

An interim report from the Government-commissioned review of the deregulation of mail services in 2006 warned this week that only large businesses were benefiting from competition and that the statutory requirement on Royal Mail to offer daily deliveries to every address in the UK would cause it substantial financial problems.

Despite Mr Crozier’s warning, Postcomm, the industry regulator, pointed out that Royal Mail had already been allowed to raise the cost of stamps ahead of inflation and said it believed the current level of price controls governing the company was appropriate.

However, Royal Mail is currently most taxed about the regulation of its services to larger businesses, where it now faces significant competition from around 20 rival suppliers. While the company is free to set prices for services in this area as it sees fit, it has to offer the same price to all businesses on each of its tariffs. It is also required to offer rival services access to its delivery network, at a cost fixed in relation to the charges it makes its own customers.

Mr Crozier believes these restrictions reduce the competitiveness of the business services offered through Royal Mail Letters, undermining the company’s ability to subsidise the universal service.

The Government’s review of deregulation is due to conclude later this year but has already said the status quo should not be allowed to continue.

Nevertheless, relaxation of regulation of Royal Mail is likely to be stiffly contested by both Postcomm and the company’s commercial rivals, such as UK Post and TNT, which are facing similar market pressures. The overall size of the mail market in the UK is declining as the internet replaces both personal and business mail. More people pay bills online or by direct debit, and businesses have moved away from direct mailshot activities towards online marketing.

While Royal Mail’s rivals now collect and sort a fifth of all mail in the UK – before paying Royal Mail to deliver much of it – they insist they still need protection from the former monopoly.

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ABX Logistics acquires Lyons-based AIT

Posted by | May 9, 2008 | |

ABX Logistics has taken steps to boost its growth in France by acquiring AIT, a leading regional player in the Eurocargo market for traffic with Southern Europe (Italy, Spain and Portugal).

AIT is based in Genas (Lyons), employs 35 people and has an annual turnover of approx. EUR 10 million. Founded in 1996 by the Sisti family, the company will complement ABX Logistics existing LTL, groupage, customs and logistics operations in the Rhone-Alps region of France.

In this part of France, ABX Logistics already has a turnover in excess of € 25 million in the international road, air and sea sectors. Currently operating from four locations across the region (Saint-Priest, Saint-Exupéry (airport), Grenoble and Chambéry), today’s acquisition adds a fifth location, namely the AIT site in Genas.

AIT’s customers will be able to enjoy the advantages of ABX Logistics densely meshed network that extends across the whole of Europe and offers daily round trips to destinations in countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Benelux, the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, as well as regular links with Turkey, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. ABX Logistics has more than 90 branches and hubs in Europe from which it conduct its international road groupage operations.

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