Tag: Europe

UK Ministers hail post strike deal

Posted by | Oct 13, 2007 | |

The government has welcomed a deal which could lead to an end to strike action by postal workers.

The agreement between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers’ Union is still to be ratified and details have not yet been announced.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform described the development as “significant progress”.

Royal Mail said unofficial strikes were continuing at about 10 delivery offices in London and 20 in Liverpool.

The deal was ratified by Royal Mail boss Adam Crozier, Communication Workers’ Union general secretary Billy Hayes and his deputy Dave Ward, and TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

If the terms reached after marathon talks at the TUC are supported by the union’s executive on Monday, the deal is likely to be put to the vote by the CWU’s 130,000 members.

It is hoped the resolution will bring to an end the long-running row over Royal Mail’s modernisation plans, which union officials had feared would see 40,000 jobs lost.

Royal Mail has been granted an injunction to stop CWU members at sorting centers and delivery offices striking next week.

But the injunction did not apply to all parts of the Royal Mail, and in the wake of Friday’s agreement it was not clear whether some groups, such as drivers, would take part in the walkouts.

Workers who had been staging unofficial strikes in east London and parts of Scotland have returned.

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Itella Information creates one international document scanning environment standardising on Kodak’s production scanners

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

Eastman Kodak Company today announced that Itella Information, the service bureau division of Itella Group, has harmonized its production scanner infrastructure selecting Kodak as its main partner. To support ongoing growth of the business and add future capacity for growth, four i1860 scanners, the fastest ever high volume systems from Kodak, have been purchased for use at its production centers in Finland and Sweden.

This is a significant deal as Itella Information’s extensive scanner fleet will be now be predominately Kodak based thereby simplifying hardware management, improving efficiency and flexibility in a hugely price sensitive and competitive business.

Formerly known as Finland Post Group, the company was renamed Itella Group in June 2007 and provides traditional consumer focused postal services in Finland under the Posti brand, along with services to businesses in Finland and eight other northern European countries as Itella (1). Operating in three business areas –Itella Logistics (freight services), Itella Mail Communication (letter and direct mail delivery) and Itella Information (outsourced document management services, invoicing and business communication), the Group employs over 24k staff with net sales in 2006 totaling EUR 1,550.6 million.

Itella Information provides a range of standardized and bespoke services for customers with particular focus on digitizing solutions which covers invoice processing and document process outsourcing. Itella manages the whole lifecycle of documents from initial scanning, workflow, document management, electronic archiving and subsequent access.

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Geodis opens a new groupage and express branch in Amiens

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

Geodis will open its new branch in Amiens on Friday 12 October 2007. This local transport facility will help local companies to grow by widening access to Geodis’s worldwide network.

On a 44,000m² site at the Espace Industriel Nord in Amiens (140km north of Paris), this site offers 85 loading dock doors, a 5300m² operating area and employs 140 people. All Geodis Calberson Picardie and France Express “groupage” and “express” deliveries and pick-ups for the Amiens sector will be handled here.

This new facility provides a direct link with Geodis’s national and international networks thus allowing the local firms to take advantage of the Group’s know-how.

Using its next-generation parcel management tool transmitting data in real-time via wifi, this facility will be able to process over 600,000 express or conventional groupage shipments a year as part of a quality, secure and reliable service.

The new site is part of Geodis’s strategy to regularly update its production equipment in a bid to constantly improve Total Customer Satisfaction (STC) against a backdrop of sustainable development. This investment and the drive of the regional team are also Geodis’s way of confirming its intention to become a key player in supporting companies in the Picardy region and their international aspirations.

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Belgian Post to merge parcel, express subsidiaries

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

Belgian Post announced yesterday it will merge its two subsidiaries Taxipost and Kilopost into a new merged division to be called “Parcels & Express” to cut costs and enhance its services. The future business will operate under the Taxipost brand.

The express unit Taxipost has succeeded in increasing volumes and revenues but has not achieved a financial breakeven in a tough competitive environment, the postal group said in a statement.

Belgian Post said it has therefore decided to merge Taxipost with the parcels unit Kilopost into a new merged division to be called “Parcels & Express” under the management of Eric Piers.

The Taxipost depots will be integrated into the Belgian Post mail division during the first half of 2008 and its contracts will be transferred to the parent group. The mail division will be responsible for handling and delivering all parcels. Belgian Post aims to complete the restructuring by mid-2008.

Belgian Post managing director Johnny Thijs said the restructuring was designed to enable the postal group to achieve its “major ambitions” in the parcels sector, to increase its market share and to reduce cost levels.

The two units had combined volumes of 25 million parcels in 2006. Taxipost increased its express volumes by 22 pct in the first half of 2007.

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DHL extends leading European coverage of morning deliveries

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

DHL Express is responding to the increasing demand for morning deliveries and has expanded its European coverage. Setting a new benchmark, DHL Express now reaches 80 percent of business addresses in Europe before 12:00, up by 6 percentage points compared to the end of 2006.

DHL Express is responding to the increasing demand for morning deliveries.
This development further strengthens the company’s leading geographic footprint. DHL Express offers unparalleled coverage in Europe, serving major cities as well as smaller and mid-sized towns. All of Germany and more than 90 percent of the businesses in the UK, Belgium and Netherlands are now covered before noon. In addition, significant improvements were made in 2007 in the Nordic countries and in Eastern Europe.

Along with the expanded service, DHL Express Europe is introducing a simplified product portfolio. It comprises the services DHL EXPRESS 9:00 and DHL EXPRESS 12:00 in addition to the close-of-business service DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE. The new portfolio is designed to make DHL Express services easier to use for customers. With the same late collection times as before, customers can select three time-defined services based on their shipping needs – with a money-back guarantee for delivery times in Europe.

DHL EXPRESS 9:00, DHL EXPRESS 12:00 and DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE are offered in 40 European countries and territories. * Moreover, DHL EXPRESS 12:00 service is available to 26 overseas destinations from Europe as well. “This is another milestone of DHL’s continuous investment in its network capabilities in order to secure market-leading services. Earlier this year we invested in service upgrades for deliveries to the United States. Now we are pushing our capabilities for morning deliveries in Europe to set a new benchmark,” says Thomas George, Managing Director, Marketing & Sales DHL Express Europe.

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