Tag: Europe

Postcomm reviews Royal Mail application

Posted by | Feb 20, 2007 | |

Postcomm is seeking views on Royal mail’s application to extend its Pricing in Proportion (PiP) framework to Packetpost Returns.

Packetpost Returns is a service that allows packets to be returned from customers with the postage cost being borne by the original sender.

Currently the price per item paid by the original sender is based on the average weight of the mail returned. Royal Mail advised Postcomm that Packetpost Returns was overlooked when it made its original PiP application in August 2003, and proposes that an item returned through this service should be treated and charged as a packet under its Pricing in Proportion framework.

Royal Mail has also requested that Packetpost Returns, consistent with the greater alignment of these prices to those of normal Packetpost, should be included in the same controlled services group as Packetpost1 .

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An Post offers postmasters euro12m deal

Posted by | Feb 20, 2007 | |

An Post has offered to pay euro12 million to its 1,300 postmasters as part of a move to end a long-running stand-off with the Irish Postmasters’ Union (IPU) over pay and the future of the post office network

Two working parties will also be set up – one to look at the viability and make-up of the post office network and the other to examine a long-term pay deal for IPU members. Both are expected to produce recommendations by the end of the year.

An RTÉ report yesterday suggested that about 500 post offices could close under the restructuring plan.

However, An Post and the IPU said that no figure had been placed on how many post offices might close. This would not be decided until the working group had issued its report, they added.

At present, An Post owns and directly runs about 80 post offices around the country. Another 1,300 are operated under licence by members of the IPU.

It is understood that the viability of each post office will be scrutinised. The IPU had previously warned that 300-400 post offices could close in the next few years if its members were not paid more by the State-owned postal service.

Since 2001, about 450 post offices have shut, according to the IPU.

It is understood that a deadline of February 28th has been set for a deal to be reached on these proposals.

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UK campaigners rally to save post offices

Posted by | Feb 20, 2007 | |

Groups opposed to the closure of post offices are staging a national protest today as part of a campaign to keep open threatened branches. Union leaders, politicians, countryside and pensioners’ organisations will join forces to call on the Government not to press ahead with plans to shut 2,500 offices. The campaign aims to secure the future of the postal network offering a range of government products and services including a Post Office card account. A rally in Westminster will be followed by a lobby of MPs and events across the UK. Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern said, ‘We are

pleased that the Government has started to wake up to our concerns about the future of post offices.

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Record growth for DPD Masterlink in 2006

Posted by | Feb 20, 2007 | |

In 2006 Masterlink registered a record growth of volumes – 12,2 million parcels delivered. This figure represents an approximate 50% rise in comparison with 2005. This increase is also reflected in the growth of turnover by 40%.

Since the beginning of 2006 investments began in operational and IT infrastructure of DPD Masterlink. This resulted in the establishment of a second depot in Warsaw, enlargement of the company’s headquarters by further warehouse and office areas and expansion of the Katowice depot area and the modernization of other existing branches in the country. Simultaneously, the company invested in necessary warehouse equipment, conveyor belts and IT systems.
For the second year in a row the company registered growth three times bigger than the market, without jeopardising its commitment to maintaining a high quality of service. The future plans will see continued growth with further investments in the infrastructure. Rafal Nawloka, DPD Masterlink President, predicts that the finalization of the first phase of investments in operational infrastructure will occur in 2010.
The change of the legal name of the company is the last step in the transition phase of the two brands coexistence. Thanks to this change Masterlink will be able to build a new international image, as well as compete more effectively on the market and increase its share in the international parcels segment.

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Mail start-up iq letternet targets 100 million letters in 2007

Posted by | Feb 19, 2007 | |

A new postal operator, iq letternet, aims to become one of the three leading postal operators in Germany competing with Deutsche Post. The privately-owned company is currently setting up a nationwide network of delivery partners and will use UPS for intra-regional linehaul transport.

Based near Düsseldorf, iq letternet plans to despatch 100 million letters this year which would establish it among the three leading postal operators in Germany in terms of volumes. “Each of our private delivery partners will receive more than 10,000 letters a day on average from iq letternet by the end of this year,” said Rainer Pliska, one of the three managing directors of the company.

The six companies that own iq letternet, which include several direct mailing firms, handle about 170 million letters from customers such as the German airline LTU, the Galeria Kaufhof department store chain and allkauf supermarket group.

Volumes are presently delivered mostly by some 60 regional postal delivery firms and the rest by Deutsche Post. Volumes will be gradually transferred to the new delivery network, with about 30 million pieces planned for this year, to ensure that quality levels are maintained.

To secure a long-term cooperation with its delivery partners, iq letternet plans to set up a joint stock company in the first half of the year which all its partners can take shares in. Their participation will guarantee the reservation of their delivery area exclusively for themselves. At the same time, special shareholder agreements will ensure that competitors will not be able to enter the network by buying delivery partners.

Iq letternet claimed that it is the only postal operator alongside Deutsche Post in Germany that can receive letters as electronic data, print them centrally or decentrally, and then handle delivery. Letters are handed over pre-sorted to UPS for transport to the respective local postal delivery partner. This process chain halves the usual production and distribution times for a mass mailing. The company is also planning to open a central mail sorting centre in Darmstadt, central Germany.

The company said last autumn that it is aiming for annual revenues of euro 500 million by 2010.

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