Charlie McCREEVY: European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services
The EU Internal Market for Postal Services – creating it together
High Level Conference on Postal Market Reform
Further to the European Commission high level conference on Postal services on 24 June, 11 signatory postal operators from Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Slovakia express their support for the next steps towards Full Market Opening (FMO) of the European postal market under the balanced conditions embodied in the third postal directive.
The two key principles for the signatory operators are first and foremost the creation of mechanisms able to ensure the financing of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) all over the EU territory under FMO conditions, and the establishment of a true level playing field in all aspects, including social conditions.
In this perspective, the Member States have the responsibility to ensure balanced national regulatory frameworks that take into account the two mentioned principles.
Confronted with an uncertain economical environment where the question of financing or sharing the universal service is still under debate, the signatory operators call for special attention to the sustainability of the universal service and the postal market in its entirety. A study carried out in 2007 by the independent consulting firm Oxera demonstrated that the fundamental policy question to be asked is how the universal service obligations are to be financed.
The 11 signatory operators will continue to contribute to the implementation process in a positive and constructive manner, and with strong vigilance upon safeguarding the provision of universal service and the implementation of a level playing field.
Read MoreBusiness Direct, the UK’s leading developer of ‘intelligent drop box’ logistics solutions, has commenced a trial of the ParcelXchange with Ciblex in France. This comes only a short time after the company decided to offer national Post Offices and local logistics service providers outside the UK access to its intelligent advanced technology.
Ciblex is the leading pre-8am parts delivery provider in France, formerly part of the successful Hays Group of companies. After researching the supplier market, Ciblex recognised the dynamic capability and benefits of the ParcelXchange modular locker system as a perfect solution to complement their existing network. They strongly believe that the ParcelXchange will add a dynamic and innovative solution to give them competitive advantage within their growing supply chain capability.
ParcelXchange will provide Ciblex’s customers the benefit of 24/7 convenience, with completely secure and controlled access for both the collecting and returning of goods through the Ciblex delivery network. The specific nature of the new modular style ParcelXchange offers the potential to have as many different configurations as each of the individual locations within the Ciblex network needs.
Ciblex already has over 400 locations with key lockers but feels that the addition of real time reporting and secure ATM access will help their existing B2B business and also with their B2C business. The company believes that the ParcelXchanges will provide a cost-effective consolidation of the deliveries, while maintaining their already high levels of customer service.
Teddy Megarbane, Ciblex President, stated, “The new modular intelligent ParcelXchange is the most exciting opportunity to happen in the in-night real-time inventory management sector in France for a long time. This is another example of Ciblex continuous investment in the business and this innovative new modular locker system with its SoftLocker ATM style technology, supplied by ParcelXchange Worldwide will ensure we are well positioned to constantly meet the growing needs of our customers”.
“We have produced a cost effective, sustainable, flexible solution for the ‘last mile’ in the delivery process,” says Business Direct’s ParcelXchange Worldwide MD, Tim Houstoun. “Ciblex now has the opportunity for an even greater competitive advantage in their B2B marketplace for deliveries and managing returns and in developing a network of ParcelXchanges, can also engage in using the system network for other B2C, consumer to consumer (C2C) services.”
Read MoreBusiness Direct has commenced a trial of the ParcelXchange with Ciblex in France. This comes only a short time after the company decided to offer national Post Offices and local logistics service providers outside the UK access to its intelligent advanced technology.
Ciblex is the leading pre-8am parts delivery provider in France, formerly part of the successful Hays Group of companies. After researching the supplier market, Ciblex recognised the dynamic capability and benefits of the ParcelXchange modular locker system as a perfect solution to complement their existing network. They strongly believe that the ParcelXchange will add a dynamic and innovative solution to give them competitive advantage within their growing supply chain capability.
ParcelXchange will provide Ciblex’s customers the benefit of 24/7 convenience, with completely secure and controlled access for both the collecting and returning of goods through the Ciblex delivery network. The specific nature of the new modular style ParcelXchange offers the potential to have as many different configurations as each of the individual locations within the Ciblex network needs.
Ciblex already has over 400 locations with key lockers but feels that the addition of real time reporting and secure ATM access will help their existing B2B business and also with their B2C business. The company believes that the ParcelXchanges will provide a cost-effective consolidation of the deliveries, while maintaining their already high levels of customer service.
EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva today announced the results of a new EU wide survey on e-commerce and cross border trade. The figures show that even though e-commerce is taking off at national level, cross-border e-commerce is failing to keep pace. From 2006 to 2008, the share of all EU consumers that have bought at least one item over the internet has increased significantly (from 27pct to 33 pct) whilst cross border e-commerce is stable (6pct to 7pct). The pattern is similar for those with internet access at home – 56pct of consumers with internet at home have made a purchase (in any country including their own) by e-commerce compared to 50pct in 2006, while only 13pct (of those with internet access at home) made a cross-border e-commerce purchase compared to 12pct in 2006.
“These figures underline how much work we still have to do to boost confidence in the online internal market” said European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva. “Consumers and retailers are beginning to embrace e-commerce at national level but internal market barriers still persist online. The potential of the online internal market to deliver greater choice and lower price to consumers and new markets for retailers is considerable. We need to redouble our efforts to tackle the remaining borders.”
Amongst retailers, the cross-border potential of e-commerce seems not to have been fulfilled: 51pct of EU27 retailers sell via the internet, but only 17 pct of e-commerce revenue of those who sell cross-border stems from cross-border sales – as compared to 16pct in 2006. There appears to be a lack of confidence in cross-border shopping on both sides of the market, although consumer confidence appears to be growing: while 37pct of consumers said they would be more confident making online purchases from sellers/providers located in their own country, 57pct said they are equally or even more confident making purchases online from sellers in another EU country. This figure is up by 8pct compared to the 2006 survey.
The report published today was compiled from two Eurobarometer surveys on Businesses and Consumer attitudes to cross border trade. Data gathering was carried out in February – March 2008 amongst more than 26.000 consumers and 7.200 businesses in the 27 EU-countries and Norway.
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