TNT Post expects a turnover of Euro 1bn from its European networks (eight countries outside the Netherlands) this year, according to the Financieele Dagblad. This is double the figure booked in 2005.
The company forecasts 2006 turnover from foreign activities to reach Euro 750m. The British and German markets are particularly important, said TNT.
Read MoreThe German presidency presented its six-month plan in which its says: The first (economic) priority will be to take steps to strengthen Europe on the global stage within the framework of the new Internal Market Strategy, in consultation with the Commission.
This requires us to foster innovative potential and push forward market opening in growth industries. Specifically, the Presidency aims to move closer to fully liberalizing the European market for postal services and revising the legal framework for telecommunications, as well as to establish an efficient and competitive information society (i2010).
Read MoreRoyal Mail has been accused of misleading the UK public over the scale of its price prices, according to one rival.
Hamilton House Mailings claims that while the Royal Mail’s price rises have been presented by the company as being a simple just above inflation price adjustment, analysis it has done show that the rises are in fact much steeper.
Hamilton House analysed the outcome for a series of typical mailings to 5,000 addresses with a standard 50/50 direct/residue split.
At low weights, it said it found increases in the 3% to 4% range. However, with packet mail the price increases it said were typically between 6% and 7%. When it looked at the heavier packages it found price decreases with the mailing of 5,000 1.4kg packets, resulting in a price decrease of 24%.
Tony Attwood, chairman of Hamilton House, said: “Once again creative teams and mailing teams are going to have to get together to work out the best approach for their customers — and the answers from April are going to be very different from the answers that exist today.
“It really is a great shame that the structure was not sorted out once and for all last August, so that we all knew where we were going.”
Read MoreRoyal Mail’s Parcelforce Worldwide business has started an initiative to give its customers the option of offsetting the carbon footprint emitted in the delivery of their parcels.
Parcelforce has calculated the cost of the average amount of carbon emitted per parcel as 10p for UK deliveries and 20p for international deliveries.
Customers booking online have the option to donate half that amount, with Parcelforce contibuting the other half. The money will be invested in a programme run by woodland protection charity The Woodland Trust.
Parcelforce is also working with a number of its account customers who want to achieve carbon-neutral status for their deliveries.
Vanessa Leeson, Parcelforce managing director, said the move is a first in the UK express parcels market, and part of a wider approach by the company to carbon management.
She said: “Our business uses renewable energy in our buildings, bio-diesel in our vehicle fleet and proactively seeks to increase energy efficiency where practical.
“While we’d never force carbon offset onto our customers, many of them are telling us that they will choose the commitment.”
Read MoreLa Poste has seen the strike action in its mail sorting centres increase since it began, sporadically, in mid-October. There was little let-up in the industrial action during the festive period. Staff employed under private-sector law have been holding strikes for one hour each night, while those with civil servant status are taking strike action on Friday nights. The trade union SUD, which, along with fellow union Force Ouvriere, has been calling the strikes, reports that 46 sorting offices have been affected, while management reports that between 25 and 35 centres have been hit. Employees are protesting against plans to alter the pattern of working hours, which, would increase the number of nights worked, and are calling for an increase in the rate of additional pay for night shifts.
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