Tag: Europe

Iceland Post cares about the environment

Posted by | Nov 7, 2007 | |

It has one of the country’s largest fleets of vehicles, 123 in number, which cover annually about 2,780,000 km, an average of 22,600 km per vehicle. The company is now offsetting the carbon footprint of its entire fleet by financing the planting of 7,613 trees, to be planted with the collaboration of Kolviður in the Geitasandur Forest in the South of Iceland.

Iceland Post has adopted a policy for the environment which informs its procedures. In the Reykjavík area it operates five methane-powered vehicles, and the plan is that around 10 pct of the Post Office’s fleet should be environmentally friendly; more methane-powered vehicles are expected by the end of June.

This year has seen the establishment in Iceland of a fund whose aim is the fixation of carbon in vegetation and soil in order to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. By purchasing carbon fixation, Kolviður’s clients can offset the emissions produced by their road and air travel. The fund then finances forestry management such as the planting of trees in zones subject to long-term (90-year) agreements.

Kolviður aims to increase carbon fixation in vegetation and soil in order to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Kolviður is also working towards increasing individual and corporate awareness about the release of greenhouse gases. By enabling people to take responsibility for their own emissions and react in a concrete way, results will be achieved. Kolviður will encourage Icelanders to become the world’s first nation to offset their transport carbon footprint with forestry.

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Royal Mail payments won't plug pension hole

Posted by | Nov 6, 2007 | |

Royal Mail’s plan to clear its pension deficit is set to leave a 2.9 billion pound hole because the group is understating the size of the deficit, a leading pension consultant said on Tuesday.
In a note for RBC Capital Markets, independent consultant John Ralfe says the company’s latest annual report shows it is basing its 17-year plan of inflation-linked annual payments of 260 million pounds on a deficit of 3.4 billion pounds — below the 5 billion pound deficit under accounting standard IAS 19.
Such a payment plan is set to leave a deficit of 2.9 billion pounds, meaning the group may have to raise charges to customers.
The Royal Mail pension scheme’s 450,000 members make it the UK’s largest corporate pension scheme by that measure.
Ralfe’s note comes shortly after the state-owned group, which lost its 350-year monopoly on postal services last year, faced strikes by workers over pensions, pay and shift changes.
The company said last week falling mail volumes, rising competition and a payment into its pension scheme led to a one-third drop in annual profit. It also attracted controversy by saying Chief Executive Adam Crozier would collect 74 percent of his performance-related bonus.
Ralfe said Royal Mail’s shortfall in payments could lead to higher charges for customers.
“Customers are paying for the pension deficit through higher stamp prices, agreed with Postcomm in the 2006-2010 price control review,” he said.

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MapChart goes Scandinavian

Posted by | Nov 6, 2007 | |

Norpost – a leading postal service company from Norway announces a value added web service. Dedicated to business customers, the new business mapping solution is a perfect tool to simplify requests for unadressed direct marketing campaigns.

Norpost AS, a Norwegian specialist in customer oriented door drop marketing, leaflet distribution and spatial segmentation services is offering its customers an online geoinformation system for campaign planning.

By using the new technology of the German MapChart GmbH customers in Norway are now able to select in a fast and easy way target and distribution areas together with the latest houshold figures. The MapChart Stage technology is an application service provided with software and updated maps. The software and mapping data is hosted with a high performance and was integrated from the MapChart server directly in the Norpost web project.

Based on the corporate design of the Norpost web service the application was customized accordingly concerning colors, language, interface design and handling.

Advantages for the customers of Norpost are faster ordering process of marketing services, transparent information on the demographic structure in Norway and current display of the postal code areas for the planning of the distribution areas.

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Draft regulation could mean higher TNT rates – OPTA

Posted by | Nov 6, 2007 | |

A draft Dutch post regulation could mean higher stamp prices from mail and parcel firm TNT after liberalisation of the market, post and telecoms regulator OPTA said on Tuesday.
OPTA pointed out a potential loophole in draft regulation supplementing the country’s new postal law that is due to end TNT’s remaining monopoly in the Netherlands from January 2008, which could lead to higher prices.
Investors have closely followed the liberalisation process as it affects the Dutch mail business, one of TNT’s most profitable units. Higher stamp prices could mean better margins for the unit.
The Dutch parliament had approved the postal law in June but left a number of details for the economy ministry to flesh out. The ministry’s draft regulation was submitted to parliament on Tuesday, and OPTA released its comments at the same time.
OPTA — which will be in charge of overseeing the so-called universal service that includes consumer mail and parcels — said a subtle difference to the existing postal regulation could allow TNT to move profitable activities outside of the scope of regulators and hence boost stamp prices.
Instead of TNT as a group, its Dutch unit TNT Post BV will be assigned as provider of the universal service, OPTA said.
“TNT has the possibility to take profitable postal activities out of TNT Post and move them to another unit. This would decrease the economies of scale that are realised by providing postal services in one unit,” OPTA said.
“As a rule it can be said that lower economies of scale lead to higher tariffs.”
TNT spokesman said the company viewed the regulation drafted by the economy ministry as a continuation of the current situation and that it considered the rules workable. He declined to comment specifically on OPTA’s comments.

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TNT and Russian Post sign Memorandum of Understanding

Posted by | Nov 6, 2007 | |

TNT CEO Peter Bakker, together with Acting Director General Andrej Konoval of Russian Post, signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Mr. Bakker was accompanying the Dutch trade mission to Russia led by Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende.

TNT and Russian Post will look for areas in which they can work together in the future. They will also set up a programme to facilitate the exchange of knowledge.

TNT has been active in Russia in the area of International Express since the late eighties and presently serves 5,500 towns and cities. Russia is one of the fastest growing markets for TNT.

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