Tag: Europe

Cross-border mail going round houses' to get there

Posted by | Oct 19, 2007 | |

Residents living in border areas have been left asking if they are receiving a first class service after it emerged that letters sent to destinations just yards away are traveling hundreds of miles.

Barry McElduff, Sinn Fein MLA for West Tyrone, said he cannot understand why letters and parcels must go on such long journeys, even though “you could throw a paper aeroplane” between some of the border towns involved.

Letters between places such as Lifford in Co Donegal and Strabane in Co Tyrone – just hundreds of metres apart – travel to Athlone, Dublin and then Belfast before arriving at their intended destination, postal chiefs have confirmed.

A spokeswoman for An Post in the Republic said that mail posted in Lifford and meant for Strabane travels from Lifford to Athlone Mail Centre, from there to Dublin Mail Centre, then to Belfast and then on to Strabane for two-day delivery.

Mail from Strabane to Lifford makes the same journey in reverse.

“An Post sorts mail at its automated hubs for onward despatch to all national and international destinations,” the spokeswoman explained.

“The main hubs are located in Athlone, Portlaoise, Dublin and Cork.

“There is a next day delivery between Dublin and Belfast.”

Royal Mail defended their arrangements too.

“Royal Mail and An Post have special operational procedures in place to ensure that mail flows as efficiently as possible on a daily basis between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

“Items for either destination are handled separately in the mail centres of both Royal Mail and An Post where sorting machines are capable of processing mail at a rate of 30,000 plus items per hour, which is clearly much quicker than manual sorting.

“Mail is then transported in bulk by road between the two postal authorities for onward delivery.

“This arrangement is the most effective way of ensuring that cross-border mail is handled as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

“Royal Mail carefully monitors performance in this area as with every other aspect of our operations.”

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Magyar Posta to outsource post offices

Posted by | Oct 19, 2007 | |

Hungarian postal operator Magyar Posta Zrt plans to “outsource” more than 1,000 post offices across the country to private operators, reports portal hirado.hu. The process will involve five different tenders, the first of which will take place next summer, and involve 220 offices in four counties.

Under existing law, Magyar Posta is forbidden from closing any additional post offices, having already shuddered more than 100 this year. But maintaining its massive network of offices is also impossible due to financial constraints, and executives of the company expect these measures will save it Ft 2.5 billion (EUR 10 million) in 2009.

Entrepreneurs wishing to participate in the tenders have to own an office of at least ten square meters, while the locations being put out to tender are among the network’s smallest, with an annual turnover of between Ft 2.5 (EUR 10 million) million and Ft 10 million (EUR 40 million).

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Rival services take advantage of Royal Mail’s troubles

Posted by | Oct 19, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has announced that its service disruption is over for the moment, but for many small businesses in Bucks, the damage has already been done and confidence has been badly shaken.

With SMEs forced to make alternative arrangements for vital aspects of their day to day running, many businesses have been left wondering if they can trust the postal service anymore.

And one competing postal business has already seen a major upturn in fortune in the wake of Royal Mail’s troubles.

DX Network Services was originally set up to serve the legal community, during the industrial action of the mid to late seventies. With so many important documents to move, such as deeds, mortgage information, invoices and cheques, the legal profession was particularly sensitive to postal disruption. But now the company provides a service to a wide range of businesses.

James Greenbury, chief executive of DX Network Services, said: “As the only end-to-end competitor to the Royal Mail, we have seen a substantial increase in new customers since the first rumblings of proposed industrial action in June – in fact we took on more customers over the summer strike period than we did in the whole of 2006.

He noted that delayed postal payments could easily spell cash-flow disaster for a small business. DX’s core service is document exchange, where customers drop off and collect their mail from dedicated mailboxes at more than 4,500 exchanges across the country. At present, only commercial facilities can currently send mail, although residential addresses can accept deliveries.

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