Tag: Germany

EU postal operators failing to communicate

Posted by | Jul 14, 2008 | |

Swiss Post and Royal Mail have been praised for their regular news bulletins by Hellmail, the European postal industry news site.

Editor for Hellmail, Steve Lawson, said “Many Euro postal operators have been rather slow to market themselves and communicate in the wider context since Liberalisation began.” he said.

He said that some postal operators should be praised for their efforts. Swiss Post particularly, with a whole section devoted to media communications including an impressive image library. Royal Mail too has a dedicated press office with almost daily news.

“Oddly, Lithuania scores well in terms of news output, but France’s La Poste, Turkey, Slovakia and Slovenia fall far behind. Italy, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria rarely update their news, The Ukraine, Latvia and Luxembourg have no translation facility at all for news, and Romania stopped producing translated news altogether in 2007.”

Hellmail found that most web sites were reasonably easy to navigate except for Denmark & Greece which had a Flash into that was very difficult to get past. Swiss Post and Royal Mail scored the highest for news output, closely followed by DHL, Malta, and Russian Post.

“Clearly there is much room for improvement and we have emailed most of these operators asking them to look closer at the way they communicate. Obviously some European postal services are heavily tied into state ownership, and in some cases, political regimes, but even so, with Europe pushing for closer ties under postal liberalisation, some countries have simply failed to exploit the potential here. From our perspective, its so important that smaller European countries can be heard. We really do want to know what they’re about.” he said.

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FedEx revives talks to buy rival TNT

Posted by | Jul 12, 2008 | |

FedEx is in preliminary talks to acquire TNT, its smaller Dutch rival, in a deal that would bolster the package-delivery company’s parcel network throughout Europe.

While FedEx and United Parcel Service have coveted TNT’s parcel business, they have been reluctant to take on the Dutch company’s slower-growing postal division.

UPS’s interest in snapping up TNT has waned in the past decade as it built its own European delivery network. The company recently forged closer ties to TNT’s main rival, DHL, through its agreement to ferry the Deutsche Post unit’s packages between North American cities.

Deutsche’s GBP 3.7bn acquisition of Exel, the UK-based logistics group, in 2005 has been the sector’s biggest deal to date.

On Friday, FedEx’s market capitalisation was USD 22.8bn (GBP 11.5bn), while TNT stood at USD 11.3bn.

TNT, which primarily operates in Europe and North America, divides its business into two segments: express and mail.

FedEx remains the largest player in the market it pioneered: express delivery. While its biggest operations remain in the US, it has sought to expand overseas.

In Europe, the company aims to build out both its intra-continental network while establishing a local presence in discrete countries. FedEx bought ANC in 2006 to strengthen its domestic express-delivery business in the UK.

In June, FedEx posted its first quarterly loss in 11 years and projected earnings that fall short of analysts’ estimates because of fuel costs and declining demand.

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Global integrators keep driving up fuel surcharges for air express

Posted by | Jul 11, 2008 | |

Top express companies including DHL, FedEx, UPS and TNT have further increased their fuel surcharges for air express shipments in July as a result of dramatically rising oil prices around the world.
DHL Express hiked its US air express and international fuel surcharge to 34 pct for the 29 June – 2 August period compared to 30 pct in June and 27 pct in May.
In Europe, DHL currently has an air express surcharge of 20 pct, up from 18.5 pct in June and 17.5 pct in May. In Asia Pacific, DHL’s fuel surcharge has risen from 21.5 pct in May and 23.5 pct in June to 26.5 pct in July.
FedEx Express increased its fuel surcharge for US domestic, import and export shipments to 32.5 pct for the July 7 – August 3 period from a previous 28 pct in June and 25 pct in May. In Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEA), the FedEx fuel surcharge was hiked to 20 pct for July 7 – August 3 from 18 pct in June and 17 pct in May.
In Asia, where its surcharges vary by country, the July export shipment fuel surcharge in Singapore is 24.5 pct, up from 22 pct in June and 20.5 pct in May. The import shipment fuel surcharge for July is 26.5 pct, up from 24 pct in June and 22.5 in May. In Hong Kong, the FedEx fuel surcharge for exports and imports is 24.5 pct for July, up from 22 pct in June and 20.5 pct in May.
UPS has increased its US domestic and international air express fuel surcharge to 32.5 pct effective July 7 from the previous 28 pct applied in June and the 25 pct charged in May. In Europe, UPS hiked its fuel surcharge for express and expedited shipments to 20 pct from July 7 onwards from the previous level of 18.5 pct in June and 17.5 pct in May. In Asia, the UPS package service fuel surcharge went up to 24.5 pct on July 7 from 22 pct in June and 20.5 pct in May.
TNT Express increased its European fuel surcharge to 21.5 pct for the June 30 – 3 August period from 20 pct in June. In the UK, where it has different fuel surcharges, the global express surcharge went up to 13 pct in July from 11.5 pct in June. The separate UK domestic and economy express surcharge increased to 6.5 pct in July compared to the June and May figure of 5.5 pct. In the rest of the world (excluding the Americas), the TNT surcharge is at 27 pct for July compared to 23 pct in June. In North America, its fuel surcharge rose to 34.5 pct in July from 30 pct in June.

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GLS Germany upgrades vehicles for more safety

Posted by | Jul 10, 2008 | |

GLS is equipping all its new lorries with special reflection markings for safety reasons in order to increase the visibility of vehicles in road traffic during night.

To minimize this risk, the company is pasting up the backside or long side of trailers and trunks with retro-reflecting stripes on purchase or varnish renewals. Up to now, the EU directive 2007/35/EG does only apply to newly produced vehicles in Germany. With effect from 2011, all vehicles over 7,5 tons will have to be equipped with reflecting markings. In some states of the EU like Italy and Poland, this is already obligatory for all heavy vehicles.

“As we purchased new transport vehicles in Germany last year, we equipped them with reflecting material straight away”, said Klaus Conrad, managing director of GLS Germany. “High quality of transport services should not negatively impact the road safety. With the retro-reflecting markings we increase the visibility and thus minimise the risk”, he added.

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