Tag: Europe

USPS proposes addressing standards for FSS

Posted by | Oct 11, 2007 | |

The US Postal Service proposed two rules yesterday that would require stricter addressing for mail sent with automation, presorted or carrier route rates, in an effort to support the national deployment of the Flats Sequencing System (FSS).

These proposals include new address placement requirements for Periodicals, Standard Mail, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail, and Library Mail flat-size pieces. It also calls for a mandatory 11-digit PostNet barcode or Intelligent Mail barcode on flat-size First Class Mail, Periodicals, Standard Mail and Bound Printed Matter sent at automation rates.

The proposed changes require addresses to be placed parallel or perpendicular to the top edge on the upper portion of all Periodicals, Standard Mail, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail and Library Mail flat-size pieces mailed at automation, presorted, or carrier route rates. Addresses must be 8-point type or larger, with no overlapping lines or characters. Each element of the address line may be separated by no more than three blank character spaces.

The first phase of the FSS program calls for an initial order of 100 FSS machines to be deployed to 33 postal facilities beginning in the summer of 2008.

With IMB all tracking and routing information can be included without human-readable ACS codes and keylines.

The rules can be viewed on the Federal Register. Comments must be received by December 10.

The USPS also proposed a rule to allow Automated Clearing House debit as a method of payment for its Express Mail corporate accounts. The other ways for EMCA clients to pay are participation in the Centralized Account Processing System (CAPS) or use of a personal or business credit or debit card. The rule eliminates cash and check deposits made into local trust accounts. Comments on this rule close November 9.

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Chronopost France announce new appointments

Posted by | Oct 10, 2007 | |

Stephane Simon has been appointed Sales Director of Chronospost France, heading national and international sales. Stephane Simon started his career in 1989 in TNT, where he was Operational and Commercial Regional Director.

Stephane Simon was Sales Regional Director of South East in Chronopost from 1998 to 2004. Before joining Chronospost, he was Sales Director in Taxicolis.

Chronopost also announced the appointment of Bernard Lemaire as a Human Resources Director. Before joining Chronospost, Bernard Lemaire was Director of Human Resource in FNAC.

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Berlin ponders mail VAT move

Posted by | Oct 10, 2007 | |

The German government is considering exempting private-sector postal operators from value-added tax in order to improve their competitive position with Deutsche Post, the former monopoly, three months before the liberalization of the German letters market.

A spokesman for chancellor Angela Merkel told the FT that Berlin was reviewing ways to “correct competitive distortions” in the postal market. “The review includes the different tax treatment of affected companies.”

Currently, only Deutsche Post is exempted from VAT in its letters business on the ground that it provides a universal public service – a mandate that includes the obligation to serve remote and thinly populated parts of the country.

Competitors, including Pin, a joint venture created by large publishing houses, and the Netherlands’ TNT, have long complained that the exemption gave Deutsche Post, which controls 91 per cent of the German letters market, an unfair competitive advantage.
Their complaints grew louder this summer after the government decided to impose a minimum wage on postal services. The government plans to use a 1996 law that allows it to declare a wage deal between the trade unions and employers in any sector as legally binding for all companies in this sector.

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Commission gives public aid to finance La Poste pensions for civil servants

Posted by | Oct 10, 2007 | |

Acting under the EC Treaty rules on state aid, the European Commission has authorized the aid planned by France for the reform of the arrangements for financing the retirement pensions of civil servants working for La Poste. The authorization is subject to conditions to ensure that La Poste and its competitors are placed on an equal footing as regards social security contributions and tax.

In the light of important commitments given by the French authorities, the Commission has concluded that the social security contributions and tax paid by La Poste would now be equivalent to what is borne by the postal operator’s competitors.

Under a 1990 law, La Poste was to finance in full the pensions paid by the State to its civil servants by way of a repayment to the State of the amounts paid out. This method of financing was a departure from the ordinary arrangement. Unlike an ordinary employer in a pay-as-you-go system, La Poste did not pay the levy that releases employers from any additional commitment for retirement pensions, but it had to ensure that the pension scheme for its civil servants was in balance.

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