Tag: International

Chronopost enhances international express and B2C pick-up services

Posted by | Oct 8, 2008 | |

Chronopost has improved its international shipping service by broadening its product features and is offering earlier collection times at retail locations for domestic B2C shipments.

Chronopost has expanded its “Prêt-à-Expédier” product, which since March has provided next-day delivery before 13:00 within France and international delivery of envelopes up to 500g. Customers can now also ship bubble envelopes of up to 2 kg and small boxes of up to 6 kg to 230 countries and regions worldwide. Chronopost has split international destinations into two zones: EU and Rest of World. Customers can buy the packaging and ship their goods from Chronopost agencies and post offices for rates starting at EUR 36.79.

Separately, French B2C customers can now collect their parcels half a day earlier from the 3,000 Chrono Relais service points across the country. Shipments are available for pick-up the next day before 13:00 compared to the previous option of before 17.00. .

This new delivery option will allow Chronopost to continue establishing partnerships with e-businesses but also target new markets in industry, banking or even maintenance sectors by offering value-added services such as product exchange.

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USPS grows international business

Posted by | Oct 8, 2008 | |

USPS is expanding its international business and is poised to gain additional commercial freedom to negotiate rates with air suppliers in order to reduce transportation costs.

In 2007, USPS increased its international revenues by 13.5 pct to USD 2,036 million, which represented 2.7 pct of its overall USD 74,973 million revenues. Volumes increased 5 pct to 833 million pieces. Packages have grown in recent years and last year represented 59 pct of international revenues, or USD 1,201 million, compared to 38 pct of international revenues in 2000.

Customers, especially small businesses, were seeking cheaper alternatives to the global express companies, Paul Vogel, Managing Director global business and senior vice-president said. “

Last year’s product simplification and re-branding in line with domestic products, improved IT tools such as tracking and tracing, as well as growing online shipping had also increased international business.

Although the depressed US economy was impacting on USPS’ domestic business, and especially mail business from the financial sector, the weak dollar was encouraging more international business, Vogel pointed out. European customers, for example, were doing more online shopping with US websites.

In a significant development, USPS expects soon to gain commercial freedom to negotiate air transportation rates with airlines, Vogel disclosed. Until now, it has had to pay fixed tariffs, which represent about one third of its international supply chain costs. The House of Representatives had recently passed legislation to deregulate tariffs, and the legal change was now awaiting presidential approval, he pointed out.

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DHL expands French express network with new Lille sorting centre

Posted by | Oct 7, 2008 | |

DHL Express France has opened a new centre for sorting, distribution and customs clearance in Lille-Fretin, northern France, to strengthen its air express network in the country.

The new state-of-the-art EUR 1 million facility is part of the company’s large-scale investment in its European network now interconnected through its international hub at Leipzig/Halle, Germany, DHL France said.

Three months of construction work were needed to put the sorting centre into operation including its sorting chain and the air freight security system. The 2,700 sqm facility has sorting capacity of up to 600 parcels an hour. In total, there are about 1,900 import and 1,500 export shipments handled daily at Fretin by 60 employees working at the site. DHL Express employs a total of 73 people in the area, including staff at the two depots at Calais and Amiens.

Security is ensured by X-ray tunnels to control the outbound shipments immediately and on-site. This equipment is in line with the air cargo security regulations of the French civil aviation authority DGAC.

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Parcelnet links up with Hermes

Posted by | Oct 7, 2008 | |

“We want to be part of the European network as part of Hermes,” Parcelnet’s Managing Director Carole Woodhead said. German-based Hermes is building up a European network with sister companies Parcelnet, Mondial Relay (France) and Porta a Porta (Italy) as well as its subsidiary in Austria.

Parcelnet is currently testing cross-border deliveries from Britain to Germany for TV shopping company QVC, Woodhead said. “More British companies are interested in Europe, and there are European customers with UK shipments,” she commented. The home delivery firm, which has so far used other European carriers for its cross-border shipments, is also in talks with France’s Mondial Relay over cooperation. “In future we want a common service offer,” she added.

Parcelnet currently handles about 110 million parcels a year, has revenues of over GBP 200 million (EUR 257 million) and “is a profitable company”, Woodhead stressed.

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FedEx CEO: Economy will come back

Posted by | Oct 6, 2008 | |

FedEx CEO Fred Smith says the economy is stronger than most people realize, and that mountains of cash is “on the sidelines” in emerging markets, waiting to be invested.

Asked in an interview what it would take to turn around the U.S. economy as the credit crisis unfolds, Smith, who founded the global freight carrier, said things in the real economy are not that bad.

“The industrial economy is a lot stronger and more resilient than I think people give it credit for,” Smith told Fortune.

“And there’s an enormous amount of money in China, in the Middle East, and elsewhere that has to be invested. It can’t just be placid on the sidelines. So after a period of trauma and readjustment, my guess is that the economy will come around.”

“They’re showing pretty clearly that the economies of the industrialized world are slow, and that the emerging economies, like China and India and the intra-Asia trade, all continue to grow at pretty good levels but at substantially lower growth rates than was the case a few months or years ago.”

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