Tag: European Commission

No missing mail with RFID tags, says European Commission

Posted by | Jun 19, 2008 | |

With full liberalisation of all the EU’s national postal services planned for 2013, the likely increase in the number of operators will make improved traceability of sent items a vital necessity to avoid dysfunctions, the European Commission has underlined, calling for the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips to tackle the issue.

Indeed, all EU member states are requested to abolish lingering national monopolies on postal services by December 2012 at the latest. While the intention is to open the market to new entrants and make mail deliveries more efficient across Europe, there is also a risk that, with an increased number of actors involved in the process, items may get lost.

Innovations that can ensure the safe management of items are therefore needed and the Commission is looking at RFID as the “right” technology to do this.

Radio Frequency Identification chips have been already deployed by postal companies in around 50 countries across the world to measure the quality of their services.

Item-level tracking implies a massive deployment of RFID, potentially involving all the items sent. This would result in a close-to-zero risk of failed delivery.

To make this possible, RFID chips would have to be cheap, tiny, easily available and based on common standards. High-tech companies, like Hitachi or Motorola, are currently working to make chips more affordable and functional. The size has already decreased so much that now experts do not talk of chips, but of “smart dust”.

But interoperability remains a key concern. At the beginning of the year, the European Commission launched a two-year project called GRIFS to build a global RFID standards forum. All stakeholders agree on the need of talking and finding common grounds.

Common standards would indeed pave the way for a broader application of RFID technologies for end-users and not just service providers. Radio Frequency Identification tags could then become a day-to-day technology used for making payments through mobile phones or to check the origin of food purchased in a supermarket. The final stage would be the so-called ‘Internet of Things’, where active RFID could make objects communicate between themselves to automatically address daily needs.

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Dutch minister sees no post liberalisation until fair competition in Germany and UK

Posted by | Jun 11, 2008 | |

Dutch Economic Affairs State Secretary Frank Heemskerk said Wednesday he won’t take the decision to liberalise the Dutch postal market until fair competition exists in the German and UK markets, and postal workers are given a satisfactory employment contract.

The statement came after Deutsche Post World Net AG. filed a complaint with the European Commission to protest against the renewed delay of the opening of the mail market in the Netherlands.

The Dutch government on Tuesday decided not to end the mail monopoly as planned on July 1 2008 but to extend it indefinitely.

Both the Dutch government and national carrier TNT NV are unhappy about the German government’s introduction of a sector-wide minimum wage of up to 9.80 euros, saying it prevents fair competition within the German market.

TNT says that, unlike its rivals, Deutsche Post enjoys an unfair advantage through a VAT exemption on 40 pct of its operations in Germany.

A Berlin court ruled in March that a German law imposing a minimum wage at all companies in the letter-carrier industry is illegal.

The German government appealed the decision, with a higher court expected to rule in September, a TNT spokesman said.

Heemskerk said he will update parliament on the situation by October 1

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UK Mail Operators likely to see Uniform VAT rates

Posted by | Mar 28, 2008 | |

Postcomm has hinted at the introduction of a uniform VAT rate (possibly 5 pct) that could be applied to all mail services in the UK.

In it’s ‘Forward Work Plan 2008-11’ Postcomm said it recognised the complexity of the UK mail market and was looking at the constraints that have been holding back the development of end-to-end competition in the UK:

Postcomm said that one barrier to entry was the uneven VAT regime. Royal Mail is currently exempt from VAT, whereas other operators have to charge customers VAT at 17.5 pct. Postcomm said it continued to support a level playing field on VAT for all postal operators, with no significant price rises for customers.

More significantly, it believed that a reduced rate of VAT (of say 5 pct) should be applied to all mail services. It said that in light of the European Commission’s ongoing infringement proceedings against the UK, Germany and Sweden on the interpretation of the VAT exemption for postal services, Postcomm has modelled the effect that different VAT exemption scenarios might have on the UK postal services market.

The result of this modelling has shown that the imposition of the full rate of VAT on all mail services (17.5 pct) could result in around a 5 pct decline in Royal Mail volumes, while the imposition of the reduced rate should only result in a 1 pct decline.

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TNT files complaint with the European Commission about Germany’s postal sector minimum wage

Posted by | Mar 27, 2008 | |

TNT has filed a complaint with the European Commission about the introduction of a euro 9.80 minimum wage for all postal carriers in Germany, which violates European Union rules.

The German government’s decision to declare the minimum wage generally binding violates the European treaty on competition and freedom of establishment. Under the cover of social reasons, it aims to raise the costs of Deutsche Post’s rivals, hinder competition, and shield the historic monopolist from the impact of market liberalisation and the realisation of a single European postal market.

“Some Member States are taking protectionist measures to circumvent the Postal Directive. European customers deserve more than a cosmetic liberalisation,” says Peter Bakker, CEO of TNT. “By filing our complaint, we join in the European Commission’s efforts to ensure fair competition.”

On 7 March 2008, the Berlin Administrative Court in first instance ruled that the German State had failed to consider the economic impact on competitors when introducing the euro 9.80 minimum wage. The German government publicly disregards the ruling.

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