Tag: Germany

DHL launches modern customer service centre in Poland

Posted by | Oct 15, 2007 | |

DHL EXPRESS (Poland) is building the country’s largest customer service center in Lódz, which will provide domestic parcel service. The value of the investment amounts to around EUR 5 million. The contact centre, with 150 employees, is an innovative solution providing complex customer services ranging from taking orders to allocating certain courier routes.

The DHL contact centre is a part of a new model of customer services recently acquired by the company, using innovative technological solutions. It is based on centralizing, integrating and automating the process of receiving orders, including within existing communication channels between the company and customers. Lódz contact centre will be the preferred and dominant contact channel, with more than 80 pct of the total orders submitted and realizing complex customer services in Poland.

‘The new contact centre lets us improve the process of servicing our customers, right up to efficiently centralizing and fully managing processes. Simplifying customer services at the Lódz customer service centre is unique amongst logistics companies in Poland,’ said Tomasz Buras, President of DHL Express (Poland)’s management board.

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Deutsche Post CEO Zumwinkel Confirms 2007 Ebit Guidance

Posted by | Oct 15, 2007 | |

German mail and logistics company Deutsche Post AG at the weekend confirmed its 2007 guidance for earnings before interest and taxes, or Ebit, and despite the uncertain U.S. economy, still sees an increase possible this year.
Chief Executive Klaus Zumwinkel, who was visiting Moscow at the weekend, said he can confirm the outlook now the third quarter has ended; Ebit for 2007 is planned to reach EUR3.6 billion from EUR3.5 billion a year earlier.
Zumwinkel reiterated that it is possible the company will increase its guidance. This was mentioned earlier in the year after the Bonn-based, DAX company delivered its half-year results.
Deutsche Post’s unit Express, like its peers United Parcel Services Inc. (UPS) and FedEX Corp. (FDX) faces a weak U.S. market, said the CEO.
The CEO also confirmed this year’s guidance for the company’s business segments. Express will reach an Ebit of at least EUR400 million, while logistics could reach operating profit of around EUR900 million.
The medium-term goal for the business in the Americas has not been lowered, and Deutsche Post still plans to reach break-even by the end of 2009 in the Americas, he said.
In 2003, Deutsche Post acquired U.S. Express postal service Airborne. After this takeover, the company incurred losses that are valued in the three-digit million euro range. The company said it would break-even on two occasions, but is still to do so.
The CEO has replied to criticism surrounding the losses by saying it is inevitable for a conglomerate with international customers, like Deutsche Post, to do business in the U.S.

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DHL extends leading European coverage of morning deliveries

Posted by | Oct 12, 2007 | |

DHL Express is responding to the increasing demand for morning deliveries and has expanded its European coverage. Setting a new benchmark, DHL Express now reaches 80 percent of business addresses in Europe before 12:00, up by 6 percentage points compared to the end of 2006.

DHL Express is responding to the increasing demand for morning deliveries.
This development further strengthens the company’s leading geographic footprint. DHL Express offers unparalleled coverage in Europe, serving major cities as well as smaller and mid-sized towns. All of Germany and more than 90 percent of the businesses in the UK, Belgium and Netherlands are now covered before noon. In addition, significant improvements were made in 2007 in the Nordic countries and in Eastern Europe.

Along with the expanded service, DHL Express Europe is introducing a simplified product portfolio. It comprises the services DHL EXPRESS 9:00 and DHL EXPRESS 12:00 in addition to the close-of-business service DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE. The new portfolio is designed to make DHL Express services easier to use for customers. With the same late collection times as before, customers can select three time-defined services based on their shipping needs – with a money-back guarantee for delivery times in Europe.

DHL EXPRESS 9:00, DHL EXPRESS 12:00 and DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE are offered in 40 European countries and territories. * Moreover, DHL EXPRESS 12:00 service is available to 26 overseas destinations from Europe as well. “This is another milestone of DHL’s continuous investment in its network capabilities in order to secure market-leading services. Earlier this year we invested in service upgrades for deliveries to the United States. Now we are pushing our capabilities for morning deliveries in Europe to set a new benchmark,” says Thomas George, Managing Director, Marketing & Sales DHL Express Europe.

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Kiala enters Austrian B2C parcel market

Posted by | Oct 11, 2007 | |

The Belgian-based parcels operator Kiala has entered the Austrian B2C parcels market, intensifying competition for Austrian Post.

The company has built up a network of 290 parcel pick-up points in kiosks, shops, petrol stations and other retail outlets, and plans to add about 100 more by next spring, Kiala Austria managing director Michael Zakoucz told Austrian media.

Customers are informed by SMS, e-mail or phone that a parcel is ready for collection at a nearby “Kiala Point”. Transportation has been contracted out to Salzburg-based newspaper distribution company PGV Salzburg.

The operator’s first major customers in Austria are the mail order companies La Redoute and Klingel. Zakoucz said that Kiala is aiming to gain a market share of 13-15pct in 2008.

Kiala, which is currently active in Benelux and France and has a test operation in the UK, increased turnover by 21 pct to EUR 25 million in 2006 and handled some 10 million parcels. It claims a network of 4,700 Kiala Points in Europe.

The company, whose investors include funds linked to La Poste and TNT, has also recently appointed a country manager for Russia and a new manager for Spain.

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Berlin ponders mail VAT move

Posted by | Oct 10, 2007 | |

The German government is considering exempting private-sector postal operators from value-added tax in order to improve their competitive position with Deutsche Post, the former monopoly, three months before the liberalization of the German letters market.

A spokesman for chancellor Angela Merkel told the FT that Berlin was reviewing ways to “correct competitive distortions” in the postal market. “The review includes the different tax treatment of affected companies.”

Currently, only Deutsche Post is exempted from VAT in its letters business on the ground that it provides a universal public service – a mandate that includes the obligation to serve remote and thinly populated parts of the country.

Competitors, including Pin, a joint venture created by large publishing houses, and the Netherlands’ TNT, have long complained that the exemption gave Deutsche Post, which controls 91 per cent of the German letters market, an unfair competitive advantage.
Their complaints grew louder this summer after the government decided to impose a minimum wage on postal services. The government plans to use a 1996 law that allows it to declare a wage deal between the trade unions and employers in any sector as legally binding for all companies in this sector.

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