Tag: Europe

The accessibility of the postal retail network and the objectives of social cohesion and economic development

Posted by | Jun 5, 2007 | |

The goal of the presentation is to set the basis for the analysis of the impact of public services on commercial behaviors and economic activity in order to improve the efficiency of regional and national planning policies.

Some conclusions are:

– In French rural areas, postal services are more accessible than any other services (except Primary education).
– By coordinating public services, public authorities not only act more efficiently on economic development, but they also reduce the net cost of postal presence.
– Indeed, in return, the presence of commercial services combined with public services creates demand for postal services, and increases the takings for retail outlets… and therefore reduces the net cost of the constraint.
– This is a special characteristic of postal outlets, they could be considered as a public and a commercial service.
– The understanding of demand created by proximity and co-location is then undoubtedly an efficient way to reduce the net cost of the postal accessibility.
– This need of coordination pleads in favour of a ‘location choice’ policy for public services.

Presented in the 15th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics, 31 May-2 June 2007, Semmering, Austria.

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German government may extend Deutsche Post monopoly as EU liberalization lags

Posted by | Jun 5, 2007 | |

German economy minister Michael Glos is prepared to extend Deutsche Post World Net AG’s letter mail monopoly beyond the beginning of next year as it becomes apparent that a Europe-wide market liberalization likely won’t come before 2011, Handelsblatt reported, citing German government sources.

And European finance ministers are unlikely to agree at their upcoming meeting on a specific date on which they will open up the market for letter mail in their countries, the newspaper said, citing unidentified diplomatic sources in Brussels.

German media has said the liberalization of Germany’s mail market, which was initially planned for Jan 1, 2008, may be delayed if Germany cannot convince the other EU member states to open their markets as well.

Deutsche Post’s virtual monopoly on letter delivery for letters up to 50 grams is earmarked to expire at the start of 2008, with the EU seeking a continent-wide liberalisation of the market in 2009.

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First-class victory over Royal Mail's early collections

Posted by | Jun 5, 2007 | |

Royal Mail was told yesterday to scrap its policy of last collections at 9am or earlier.

The cost- cutting measure has meant many in rural areas have had to post first-class letters early in the morning to ensure delivery the next day.

But the industry regulator Postcomm has ordered that the last collection for most mail boxes should take place after midday.

Royal Mail is thought to have brought forward the times of last collection at 19,000 of its 116,000 post boxes.

Postcomm has demanded a review of the 7,000 boxes which have a final pick-up time before noon, with a view to switching to later collections.

Some 2,320 boxes have last collections at 9am or earlier.

Although the first of the changes are expected within five weeks some boxes will keep their morning cut-off times.

Earlier final collections are the most unpopular of a range of costsaving measures brought in by Royal Mail to fend off commercial rivals.

The policy has also made it much easier to hit targets for delivering first- class mail the next day.

Delivery times are measured from the moment post is picked up and not from when it is put in the box.

So a letter posted first-class on Monday afternoon – after that day’s last collection – would meet the next – day target when it arrives on Wednesday morning.

Postcomm, which conducted a poll of Royal Mail customers, stopped short of taking legal action and has given Royal Mail a grace period to review and change collection times.

If it fails to do so, the regulator could seek to rewrite Royal Mail’s operating licence to include set times for the last collection of post.

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Dutch parliament ends TNT's mail monopoly

Posted by | Jun 5, 2007 | |

The Dutch parliament passed the country’s new postal law on Tuesday, scrapping the remaining monopoly of mail company TNT NV in the Netherlands.

The law is due to take effect from January 2008 but includes an “emergency break” procedure to delay it if the government determines that TNT is hindered from effectively competing abroad, particularly in Germany.

TNT currently has a monopoly on letters up to 50 grams — around half of the 2 billion euro Dutch postal market.

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Royal Mail agrees to examine customer concerns about earlier final collections

Posted by | Jun 5, 2007 | |

Postcomm has secured Royal Mail’s agreement to assess further the needs of its customers in all those geographic areas where the final daily mail collection is being made before noon.

Postcomm’s intervention was prompted by concerns raised over Royal Mail bringing forward some final collection times, mainly in rural areas, to as early as 9am. Postcomm wanted to find out how widespread these practices were and whether these changes cause significant problems for mail users.

Postcomm has reached an agreement with Royal Mail which has been informed by some extensive market research and by a public consultation. The consultation found that, although earlier collection times do not present any widespread problems, final collections at 9am do not meet customers’ needs.

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