Tag: France

La Poste expands self-service kiosk network

Posted by | Oct 21, 2008 | |

Pitney Bowes announced that it has signed a contract to provide 50 stand-alone postal kiosks to La Poste, so that La Poste can enhance its retail network in large urban areas.

The contract is one of the largest Pitney Bowes has ever signed for postal kiosks, and includes the design, installation and servicing of postal kiosks that will be located in post offices in some of France’s largest cities, beginning in 2009.

The Pitney Bowes kiosks allow postal customers to perform a wide range of tasks, including weighing a mailpiece or a parcel, ordering special postal services such as insurance, and printing and applying the correct postage or transport label, including a barcode for tracking. By allowing many customers to handle these tasks on their own, the kiosks permit postal retail counter employees to focus their attention on those customers who have special or hard-to-meet needs more efficiently.

Many kiosks provide services during hours when the regular post office is closed, thereby enhancing public access to the national postal network.

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La Poste acquires Experian document management activities

Posted by | Oct 17, 2008 | |

Docapost, La Poste’s holding company specialised in document services and solutions, has taken over the outsourced customer process activities from the French subsidiary of Experian, the global provider of value-added information solutions to organizations and consumers.

With the new integrated subsidiary called Extelia, La Poste is strengthening its position on the market of document management in line with its ambitious development strategy. This acquisition is aimed at boosting structural growth of the company enabling Docapost to double its size.

The deal, which needs to be approved by French competition authorities, enables Docapost to complete its service range in areas including electronic exchange as well as handling of inbound and outbound documents.

As operational and industrial holding company composed of 10 subsidiaries of La Poste Group specialised in document management, Docapost comprises 2600 employees working in more than 300 locations in France. The company is also represented in numerous other countries such as USA, Spain and Italy.

Established in France since 1996, Experian currently employs 1600 people in France and generates about 50 pct of its revenues in insurance and banking sectors.

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FedEx to support growth in Catalonia with Airbus 310 flights

Posted by | Oct 16, 2008 | |

FedEx Express has incorporated an Airbus 310 into its Spanish fleet, operating between Barcelona and Paris four days per week.
The new Airbus 310 replaces two feeder flights that previously operated to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and increases capacity by up to 25 tons.
The flights, which have been operational since Sept. 15, reduce the transit time of heavy shipments using the International Priority Freight service by up to a day from more than 119 postal codes in Spain.
FedEx Express investment in Barcelona is the result of business growth in the region.
The Catalonian region is a major driving force behind business growth in Spain and an important gateway to Europe and the rest of the world, thanks to its key geographical location.

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GLS invests in French network expansion

Posted by | Oct 10, 2008 | |

GLS has opened a larger new depot at Gennevilliers, north of Paris, as part of EUR 10 million worth of investment in its French network this year.

Located close to the nearby port, the 5,000 sqm depot has 60 docking doors gates and a large sorting area. It is equipped with state-of-the art conveyor systems able to increase sorting capacity up to 7,500 inbound shipments and up to 9,000 outbound shipments an hour and thus improving the company’s productivity considerably, GLS France said.

Separately, GLS France has invested about EUR 2 million in the modernisation of the sorting systems in its depots in Roissy and Fleury to cope with peaks in business activity that can increase up to 20 pct on certain days, thus responding to growing customer needs in terms of flexibility and reliability. Capacity at Roissy will go up from 5,000 to 7,000 parcels per hour.

In Europe, some other major investments are planned such as the construction of new depots in Stuttgart, Germany, and Zirl, Austria as well as the expansion of the existing sites in Neustadt-Glewe and Leipzig, Germany, and in Czeladz, Zielona Góra and Wroclaw in Poland, GLS France noted.

In addition to this investment in production equipment, GLS also aims at optimising its information systems to further strengthen parcel security and tracking transparency.

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62pct of Europeans will change provider if met with bad customer service

Posted by | Oct 9, 2008 | |

A study commissioned by DHL Express has revealed that the average European consumer spends more than two hours and 33 minutes per week dealing with customer services.
The independent online survey of 6,435 adults in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, has revealed some consistent expectations amongst European respondents about customer service:
• Lengthy waiting times (86 pct) is cited as top frustration for Europeans dealing with customer service, yet 71 percent of Europeans had to wait up to a week for their problem to be resolved
• 62 percent said they would seek an alternative supplier of the product or service if they received bad customer service, and 66 per cent disliked automated answering services
• Interestingly, more European men say they prefer to deal with customer service operators face-to-face than women (34pct vs. 32 pct). When asked about their preferred method of communication, Britain and France are in agreement, opting to speak to a representative face-to-face (43pct), compared to the rest of Europe who prefer speaking to a representative on the telephone (40pct).
• When asked which industry provides the best customer service, opinions were mixed with banks, retail and hotels all ranking well, amongst others such as telecommunications, utility, restaurants, insurance, healthcare, express delivery and online industries. For instance, banks are rated as the best customer service provider, according to 22 percent of total respondents from Poland, France and Sweden, whereas the Italians and Germans consider retail companies to offer the best service (19pct). A quarter of Britons (24pct) have chosen the hotel industry, while 14 percent of respondents from France infer that hotels, restaurants, and banks provide equally good customer service.

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