Consumer to test smart drop boxes
Consumer to test smart drop boxes
Read MoreTag: Europe
New Chronoexpress office in Malaga, Spain
Chronoexpres, the express parcel subsidiary of Spanish postal operator Correos, has opened a new depot in Malaga as part of its policy of continuing to modernize and improve its infrastructure.
The new facility significantly exceeds the capacity of the premises that have been used in the city until now. Covering 2,500 sqm, the depot will handle more than two million shipments every year. The new automatic parcel sorting system will have capacity to process 2,000 parcels per hour.
The workforce will consist of 24 employees, excluding drivers, and about 55 vehicles will transport goods from and to the new facility each day. The depot will serve the Andalusia city and the surrounding province.
According to Chronoexpres, the new depot will significantly strengthen its position in the south of Spain, which is a key region for the Correos subsidiary. In 2006, Chronoexpres generated revenues of more than EUR 12 million in the region. This year it expects business to grow further thanks to improved service quality.
Read MoreDeutsche Post in uproar over planned market changes
At the end of this year, the remains of Germany’s postal monopoly are slated to be fully dismantled. But Deutsche Post says it faces a less-than-level playing field and unfair competition on the open market.
This means that starting in 2008, Finland’s postal system, for example, can expand into Germany, where the Finnish companies can concentrate on lucrative big-city markets. While facing competition from abroad in the cities, Deutsche Post will also be left to deliver mail to German rural regions — a costlier and more difficult service to provide. If Deutsche Post wants to deliver mail in Finland, however, it will be obliged to fork over 20 percent of its turnover to the Finnish state.
It is that kind of scenario, what Deutsche Post calls a very uneven playing field that is causing uproar at the former mail monopoly. The German mail carrier has a legal obligation to provide universal service, covering routes that are money making as well as those that are not.
Since the partial break up of the German postal monopoly in 1998, Germany’s governing post and telecommunications body has granted some 1,000 business licenses for delivering mail. Unlike employees at Deutsche Post, the mail carriers for these start-ups are often part-time or temporary workers, who don’t enjoy the job security or compensation rates of Deutsche Post employees.
Read MoreRoyal Mail given extra pricing flexibility
Postcomm has proposed that Royal Mail be given extra flexibility to increase some retail prices but has decided to leave access margins unchanged in response to the company’s request to review some aspects of the 2006-10 Price Control.
Royal Mail will be allowed to increase prices on certain loss-making products in April 2008 and April 2009 by more than was originally agreed when its four year price control was set. If it wishes, Royal Mail will be able to raise the price of a second class stamp to 29p by 2010, subject to inflation (the original price cap was 26p). The price cap on a first class stamp will not be affected by these proposals.
Postcomm is rejecting requests from TNT and UK Mail to widen the margin between Royal Mail’s prices for bulk mail products and the amount Royal Mail charges them for access to its network and delivery of bulk mail over the ‘final mile’. Royal Mail had also made an application on access, to narrow the margin. However the company has not provided sufficient evidence to support this application and has been unable to justify the level of loss it claims it is making on access mail.
Postcomm’s Interim Review document contains information extracted from Royal Mail’s regulatory accounts which were submitted to the regulator on 31 July in accordance with Royal Mail’s license obligation. Royal Mail has informed Postcomm that the sections of the regulatory accounts, which it normally makes public, will be published by no later than 15 August.
Read MoreUPS announces three top financial assignments
Scott Davis, UPS vice chairman and chief financial officer, today announced a series of three appointments to key financial posts. Rich Peretz has been named vice president of finance; Teresa Finley the chief financial officer for international operations, and Andy Dolny the vice president of investor relations.
Peretz, 45, most recently has worked as the vice president of international finance. He will report to Davis and will be responsible for the functions of Treasury, procurement, risk management, investments and mergers and acquisitions.
Finley, 45, has served as UPS’s vice president of investor relations since November 2003 and will succeed Peretz, functioning as the chief financial officer for UPS’s international operations. She will report to UPS International President Alan Gershenhorn.
Dolny, 49, a certified public accountant and chief financial officer of UPS Supply Chain Solutions, will succeed Finley as the company’s top investor relations officer. He will report to Davis.
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