Tag: Europe

EU states strike partial mail liberalization deal

Posted by | Sep 19, 2007 | |

European Union states have reached a partial deal on opening the bloc’s 88 billion Euro (USD 123 billion) postal markets to full competition, but starting dates are still unresolved, an EU diplomat said on Wednesday.
The European Commission has proposed stripping away the remaining barriers to competition from 2009 but the measure needs approval from EU member states and the European Parliament.
Envoys from member states agreed to push ahead with the basic text of the measure, a diplomatic source said.
EU ministers meet in Luxembourg on Oct. 1.
Currently the market for letters weighing up to 50 grams is shielded from competition. Mail above that weight is fully liberalized.
States are divided over when full liberalization should start.
“The main issues to be resolved by ministers are the final date and possible list of countries that can delay implementation, as well as the reciprocity clause,” the source said.
Under parliament’s first reading compromise, the 12 mostly eastern European states that joined the EU in 2004 and after will have until 2013 to implement the reform.
Parliament also introduced new criteria for delayed implementation, such as for countries that have many islands, a reference to Greece. Luxembourg was also effectively given a delayed start by parliament.
Parliament has inserted a reciprocity clause in the measure so that a country that is fully liberalized does not have to authorize competitors from states that have yet to open up their own sectors.
Some EU states are opposed to these compromises agreed in parliament.
The sector employs 5.2 million people, who deliver 135 billion items a year to the European Union’s 490 million consumers.

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DHL moves road operations from Vienna to Bratislava

Posted by | Sep 19, 2007 | |

Global transport and logistics company DHL has moved part of its express road transportation outlet from Vienna’s Schwechat Airport to Bratislava’s M.R. Štefánik Airport, Kamila Mráziková of DHL Express (Slovakia) said on September 18.

Thus, the M.R. Štefánik Airport has become an international sorting junction (a so-called hub) for road consignments from designated central European countries. Truck consignments from Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, part of Romania and Austria, as well as a large part of the Czech Republic, which in the past used to come to Vienna, where they were processed, will from now on come to Bratislava.

In connection with the strategic changes, the DHL has employed new people at its terminal at Bratislava Airport, and, at the same time, it has made current personnel capacities more effective.

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The Pallet Network trials reduced time frame for RDC deliveries

Posted by | Sep 19, 2007 | |

(TPN) and its members are trialling a system to cut the amount of time trucks are sat waiting to make deliveries into RDCs. At a meeting of TPN members in July this issue was raised as a major concern for all hauliers and as a result trial has been set up. Adam Leonard, managing director at TPN, says an increasing proportion of the deliveries made through the network were into RDCs.

“Our members are fed up with queuing and losing the vehicle for hours if not a whole day, while it waits to make a delivery at an RDC and so we are trialling a system where we will only make deliveries into RDCs between 9am and 2pm.” He adds the problems are symptomatic of the fact that major retailers are putting the squeeze on their suppliers. “The trial is a fairly radical step [designed to] prevent the rest of our members’ customers being penalised because the trucks carrying their deliveries are stuck in an RDC.”

Leonard admits that the policy has resulted in some “tough” conversations with the retail customers of some members. “But there needs to be sensible dialogue so the retailers understand why we are doing this. “This is something that collectively the pallet networks should be addressing with the major retailers because it is not cost effective for the transport industry,” he says.

The trail is due to run for a month, after which TPN will collect feedback from the members and decide whether to extend the policy more permanently. Jack Semple, director of policy at the Road Haulage Association, says that the way hauliers are forced to wait at RDCs is not green and it is uneconomic. “The users of transport services need to take on board the realities of the haulage industry.”

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TPN trials reduced time frame for RDC deliveries

Posted by | Sep 19, 2007 | |

The Pallet Network (TPN) and its members are trialling a system to cut the amount of time trucks are sat waiting to make deliveries into RDCs. At a meeting of TPN members in July this issue was raised as a major concern for all hauliers and as a result trial has been set up. Adam Leonard, managing director at TPN, says an increasing proportion of the deliveries made through the network were into RDCs.

“Our members are fed up with queuing and losing the vehicle for hours if not a whole day, while it waits to make a delivery at an RDC and so we are trialling a system where we will only make deliveries into RDCs between 9am and 2pm.” He adds the problems are symptomatic of the fact that major retailers are putting the squeeze on their suppliers. “The trial is a fairly radical step [designed to] prevent the rest of our members’ customers being penalised because the trucks carrying their deliveries are stuck in an RDC.”

Leonard admits that the policy has resulted in some “tough” conversations with the retail customers of some members. “But there needs to be sensible dialogue so the retailers understand why we are doing this.”This is something that collectively the pallet networks should be addressing with the major retailers because it is not cost effective for the transport industry,” he says.

The trail is due to run for a month, after which TPN will collect feedback from the members and decide whether to extend the policy more permanently.

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German cabinet paves way for minimum wage for postal workers

Posted by | Sep 19, 2007 | |

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet agreed on legislation that paves the way for basic rates of pay for postal workers, a move that extends the industries covered by statutory pay levels without introducing a national minimum wage.

The bill is a precondition for agreement between the postal employers’ association and the Ver.di labor union on a basic rate of pay for people who deliver, sort and collect letters. The deal excludes workers delivering packages, newspapers, magazine or books unless they also carry letters.

The regulation became necessary because Deutsche Post AG, Europe’s largest postal service, loses its letter-delivery monopoly at the end of this year, yet other European countries aren’t immediately following suit, Labor Minister Franz Muentefering told reporters in Berlin today.

A statutory minimum wage may be good news for Deutsche Post, which has forecast that domestic competition will trim earnings at its mail division by as much as 20 percent by 2009. The minimum wage regulation would also apply to competitors such as Pin AG.

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