Tag: International

Supreme Court denies FedEx appeal

Posted by | Nov 29, 2007 | |

The Supreme Court of California on Thursday denied the final appeal of FedEx Corp.’s domestic ground unit, which tried to overturn a lower court’s ruling that FedEx drivers are employees and not independent contractors.

The package delivery company claimed its drivers are independent contractors, which under federal labor laws prevents them from organizing, and from receiving medical, pension and other benefits given to employees.

Last month, a federal judge approved class-action status for a lawsuit filed on behalf of about 14,000 FedEx Ground delivery drivers.

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Cooperation with Adria Airways: time:matters Integrates the Slovenian Capital Ljubljana into its Sameday Route Network

Posted by | Nov 29, 2007 | |

Effective December 1, 2007 time:matters, the expert for courier, sameday and emergency logistics which belongs to the Lufthansa group, will cooperate with the Slovenian airline Adria Airways. The airline, which is based in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, is as the country’s largest and most significant airline, a member of the “Star Alliance” carrier network. With the new partnership, time:matters expands its route network that encompasses around 400 destinations in 90 countries to Ljubljana Airport (airport-code: LJU). Thus southeast Central Europe gains a quick direct connection to the international logistics network of the provider that specializes in especially reliable “high-speed” solutions. This will result in advantages not only for companies that have particularly urgent shipments to send to or from Slovenia – the companies based in neighboring Austria or its bordering country Slovakia will benefit from the new sameday hub at the nearby Ljubljana Airport as well.

Due to the agreed cooperation between Adria Airways and time:matters, the Greater Ljubljana/Vienna/Bratislava area is practically moving closer to numerous economic centers both in Europe and around the world. The integration of Adria’s flight plan into time:matters’ sameday route network means for example that important components or spare parts can be flown directly from Ljubljana to Vienna four times a day or to Zurich three times a day – so that they usually reach their recipient within just a few hours after dispatch. Up to now such express deliveries often first had to be transported from Slovenia to Graz Airport by car, causing the loss of valuable time. Since flights from Ljubljana also fly to the important transit airports in Frankfurt and Munich several times a day, express shipments to destinations outside of Europe can in many cases also be realized “sameday.”

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UPS sees fast-growing Asia unaffected by softer U.S.

Posted by | Nov 29, 2007 | |

Packaging delivery company United Parcel Service Inc expects regional growth in Asia will remain robust and be unaffected by a slowing U.S. economy, a senior company official said on Thursday.

UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company, has said growth this peak season would be below the previous four years, reflecting slowing U.S. economic growth, the housing sector slowdown and expectations of low retail sales growth.

But rising trade within the Asia-Pacific region was boosting demand for freight and logistics services in countries including China, India, Vietnam and Thailand, said Ken Torok, president of Asia-Pacific region for UPS.

“Asia-Pacific is our fastest growing region, as the momentum in the services sector and infrastructure development continues,” he said at a conference to launch a strategic alliance with local logistics firm AFL Pvt Ltd.

“And in the region, intra-Asia trade is the fastest growing and leading segment,” he said.

The UPS annual Asia Business Monitor for 2007 showed intra-Asia trade accounted for the most volume growth from small and medium enterprises. Also, trade with the Middle East overtook Europe and the United States for Asian firms.

“Growth within the region is so strong, that what happens in the U.S. market will not have as big an impact on Asia as it did some years ago,” Torok said.

For UPS, business in Asia grew by more than 20 percent in the third quarter, while China and India grew by more than 25 percent, Torok said.

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Fuel cost ups shipping bill (U.S.)

Posted by | Nov 29, 2007 | |

Carriers once again are responding to higher oil and gasoline prices by passing along the costs. Rather than raise base rates, they impose fuel surcharges.

– DHL raises the Air Express and International surcharge from 18.5 percent of the total shipping bill, to 19.5 percent. The surcharge for Ground Delivery service rises from 5 percent to 5.3 percent.

-UPS raises the Ground Delivery fuel surcharge from 5 percent to 5.25 percent. The surcharge for air and international deliveries goes from 16.50 percent to 17.50 percent.

FedEx fuel surcharges go up the same as UPS, for the same categories.

In catalogs and on Web sites, most of the tables on shipping costs don’t include a fuel surcharge.

The U.S. Postal Service, whose rates are governed by a federal commission, can’t impose fuel surcharges.

That doesn’t stop the postal service from taking other steps to realign pricing with the actual costs of processing the mail. First class stamp rates rose from 39 to 41 cents in May, Since then, the postal service also takes more consideration of the size and shape of a piece of mail, when calculating prices.

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Public consultation on access to mail boxes installed in apartment buildings with controlled access

Posted by | Nov 29, 2007 | |

ARCEP is launching a consultation on how to provide access to mail boxes installed in apartment buildings with controlled access.

An increasing number of apartment building residents are opting for permanently restricted access. Yet, at the same time, changing lifestyles require that more and more service providers frequently enter apartment buildings, to exercise their activity on residents’ request, in particular for distribution or for personal service.

Today, authorised postal operators (1) and press carriers face difficulties gaining access to mail boxes inside apartment buildings with controlled access systems, such as Vigik.

However, article L. 5-10 of the post and electronic communications code (CPCE) states: “In order to be able to distribute postal items, the universal service provider and bearers of the authorisation covered by Article L. 3 have access to individual mail boxes, under identical conditions which are defined by a decree of the Council of State, established following an opinion issued by the Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes”.

For this reason, ARCEP is opening a public consultation on the solutions and necessary changes to the effective application of Article L. 5-10 of the CPCE. A number of scenarios are possible, on which ARCEP wishes to collect as many opinions from players as possible. These scenarios aim to reconcile residents’ demand for security and the increase in the number of service providers having to enter apartment buildings to meet residents’ needs.

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