Tag: Germany

Deutsche Post AG is calling on its partner companies to take part in a pilot savings scheme in a bid to cut costs by up to 15 pct, reported Thomson Financial News partner dpa-AFX.

One partner firm has since announced plans to end its contract with Deutsche Post, reported dpa-AFX.

The pilot scheme, which was agreed with trade union Ver.di, affects around one tenth of Deutsche Post’s delivery areas, added the report.

‘We have spoken to the companies and shown them where money could be saved,’ reported German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag, citing a company spokesman.

Deutsche Post hopes its partners will cut costs by either reducing wages for drivers, or by placing an increased number of packages for delivery into trucks, added Welt am Sonntag.

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office still aims to abolish Deutsche Post World Net AG’s monopoly on letter delivery as of January 1 and rejects proposals to selectively allow only some competitors on Germany’s mail market, the Office’s new head Bernhard Heitzer told WirtschaftsWoche magazine in an interview.

‘Limitations that are dubbed reciprocity clauses should be taken with a pinch of salt,’ Heitzer told the magazine in an interview to be published on Monday.

Such clauses would limit expansion by European postal companies to those firms whose home market has already been liberalized, he said.

‘Such politically motivated limitations have proven a major obstacle in international trade too many times,’ Heitzer said.

He said he understands why Deutsche Post opposes the liberalization of Germany’s postal market, as a ‘monopoly is always comfortable and lucrative’ for a company.

But Deutsche Post is ‘set up well and does not have to be afraid of competition,’ Heitzer said.