Tag: Europe

Nightfreight invests for future growth

Posted by | Feb 23, 2007 | |

Leading specialist delivery business Nightfreight, has announced the next stage of its multi million pound investment programme in customer service and operational developments designed to continue to radically improve the business and prepare it for further development.

This year Nightfreight is investing in excess of GBP 2million in a comprehensive rollout of track and trace technology to all sites, building on the infrastructure that was put in place last summer. The company is updating its fleet and taking delivery of more than 200 new vehicles in the next 12 months, including a range of 7.5 tonne, 18 tonne and artics. Satellite navigation systems will be fitted to all vehicles.

Nightfreight is also undertaking a relocation programme across a number of its sites to increase its capacity and improve on existing standards. Its site at Swanscombe has relocated to a new depot in Dartford whilst its site at Welwyn Garden City has relocated to Hoddesdon. Both new facilities are significantly larger and boast improved dock space with state of the art facilities for the vehicles. In addition there is a planned move from the company’s site in Middlewich to a new site in Crewe. Other relocations are planned for later in the year.

Steve Allen, CEO, Nightfreight Group, said:” Our ongoing investment in this business includes new vehicles, new sites, new technology and new working practices which are all designed to enhance the customer experience. This investment is all part of our transition to becoming a logistics and solutions business. It enables us to offer our customers new and innovative integrated services that will meet their changing requirements. Our home delivery solution is a good example of this because by utilising the backbone of our network we can offer retailers a wide range of service propositions, which in turn enables them to meet the delivery and price requirements of their customers. We believe this is one of our key growth area for us.”

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Brussels investigates claims of unfair subsidies to Royal Mail

Posted by | Feb 23, 2007 | |

The European Commission began an in-depth investigation yesterday into Pounds 2.6 billion of government funding received by the Royal Mail over the past six years.

The inquiry was triggered by complaints from some of Royal Mail’s competitors, including TNT and the Deutsche Post-owned DHL. They claimed that the government finance amounted to illegal subsidies and gave Britain’s main supplier of postal services an unfair competitive advantage in the recently liberalised sector.

The Commission is focusing on three individual loans to Royal Mail: Pounds 500 million (2001), Pounds 1 billion (2003) and Pounds 300 million (2007). It is also examining the conditions of the Pounds 850 million that has been placed in an escrow account to reduce the contributions the company will have to make to address the deficit in its pension fund.

Both Royal Mail and the Government insisted yesterday that the financial arrangements were perfectly legal and could not be considered unfair state subsidies.

If the Commission agrees that the loans have been made on commercial terms and satisfy market investor conditions, it will close the investigation. It pointed out yesterday that the inquiry could help Royal Mail if it removed any suspicions about the status of the loans.

The main complaint was lodged last October by the Mail Competition Forum, an association of seven licensed competitors to Royal Mail. The group, which includes TNT Post, approached the Commission to protest at the measures put in place to tackle the company’s pension fund deficit.

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European ''emerging markets'' come into focus

Posted by | Feb 23, 2007 | |

Against the background of moderate growth and increasing consolidation in mature Western European markets such as Germany, Britain and France, “emerging markets” such as Spain, Poland, Russia and Turkey are increasingly coming into focus for international express and parcel operators. In contrast to the moderate single-digit growth rates in core European markets, the continent’s smaller markets are growing at high single-digit or double-digit rates and offer attractive areas for expansion. More acquisitions can be expected in these markets during 2007.

Germany, France and Britain jointly account for over half of the total European express and parcel market, according to CEP-Research data. The “Big Three” are the home markets or major regions for carriers such as DHL, TNT, GeoPost/DPD, GLS and UPS. But the market growth rates have slowed significantly in recent years, mostly due to low economic growth, and operational costs are rising. The inevitable result is tougher competition between the market leaders and a clear trend towards market consolidation.

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Snail mail, still the champion of our hearts

Posted by | Feb 22, 2007 | |

E-mail’s pokey cousin – the old fashioned letter – is still most people’s preferred way to receive important information

In a competition that is right out Aesop’s fables, the ease and speed of electronic communication is proving no match for the seriousness and persistence of letters, IT news website comon.dk reported Thursday.

More than half of those participating in a poll taken by Epinion for national postal service Post Danmark say they prefer paper to electronic when it comes to receiving information from public institutions or private businesses.

Some 75 percent said they preferred communication from doctors to wind up in their mailbox rather than their inbox, and more than half said they felt communication from businesses by post was more ‘serious’ than electronic communication.

Not all forms of communication are equal, however. Most felt that routine information such as bank statements were low priority enough to be sent as email.

Part of the reason for the difference, according to the study, is the immediacy of written communication – not on the sender’s part, but on the recipient’s part: 83 percent said they open letters as soon as they get they get home from work. Only 35 percent read their e-mail first.

As the piles of email mounts up and number of letters decline, written communication increasingly signifies something important, while electronic communication is associated with ease and speed.

When it comes right down to it, however, people just want to be able to choose how companies contact them. Some 84 percent said the recipients should be able to indicate their preference.

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CSR programme aims to bring TNT Post's UK operations in line with global ambitions

Posted by | Feb 22, 2007 | |

TNT Post has launched a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme to bring its UK service in line with its global operations.

The mail service, which operates in 62 countries and employs more than 128,000 people, said it hoped to improve its social and environmental impact on the communities in which it operates.

The programme includes a new mobile phone initiative to enable staff to donate to the United Nations World Food Programme by text, a carbon omission reduction scheme and a new workplace safety standard.

Simon Dolph, head of marketing and communication at TNT, said: “Developing a CSR programme for our UK business is an important step forward for TNT Post. Having built up an established reputation as leading challenger to Royal Mail in the postal market, we are keen to build on our parent’s track record in CSR and instil these values in our UK operations.”

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