Tag: Mail Services

Postal company head asks Histadrut to exempt needy from sanctions

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Israel Postal Company director-general Avi Hochman called on Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini on Wednesday to intervene in the current work dispute and allow National Insurance Institute allotments to be distributed to the needy.
He also called on the workers’ union, headed by Baruch Weizman, and the finance and communications ministers to sit down immediately and solve the dispute.
Sanctions by Israel Postal Company employees intensified earlier this week, halting the delivery of mail to government ministries and ministers, MKs and diplomats, as well as payments for visas to the US.
The sanctions have resulted from an impasse between the Communications Ministry and the postal company union.
The former refuses to lower bulk mail rates so the government-owned company can offer competition to private entrepreneurs and make money from such mail distribution, while the latter insists that it do so, fearing hundreds will be dismissed as the postal company continues to lose money.
The Communications Ministry and the Treasury prefer efficiency measures to lowering rates, while the postal company demands its “promised security net” until it stabilizes financially. During the first quarter of this year, the company lost over NIS 10 million. 1 USD = 3.33077 ILS

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Canada Post Responds to Cost Pressures with 2009 Pricing Strategy

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

In response to rising cost pressures, Canada Post is proposing an amendment to the Letter Mail Regulations to establish the rates of postage for domestic Lettermail for the next three years. The domestic Lettermail rate would increase from 52 to 54 cents in January 2009. The rate would rise by two cents per year in the following two years. Even after these rate increases, Canada will continue to enjoy the 3rd lowest rate of postage in the developed world.

Under the current Letter Mail Regulations, increases in the domestic basic letter rate have been restricted by a price-cap formula that limits increases to two-thirds the rate of inflation as reflected by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI has increased 14.5 per cent since 2002, while the price of a basic stamp has gone up only 8.3 per cent or 4 cents. This does not adequately reflect Canada Post’s costs in operating the postal service – in particular rising costs for labour, fuel and transportation.
Other rate adjustments for regulated products announced in the Canada Gazette include a 2-cent increase to 98 cents for letters, cards and postcards up to 30g destined for the USA; and a 5-cent increase to CAD 1.65 for letters, cards and postcards up to 30g to foreign destinations.

Price adjustments will also be applied to non-regulated products. Publications Mail rates will increase by an overall weighted average of 3.1 CAD along with the introduction of a distance-based Letter Carrier Pre-sort price structure. Canada Post will also introduce a new formula to calculate the existing Parcel Fuel Surcharge.

1 CAD = 0.991926 USD

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Jersey Post faces formal competition

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Jersey Post is facing formal competition for the first time after the postal regulator issued a licence to an express delivery service.

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority has granted a licence to Regency Holdings Ltd, which delivers business mail and catalogues from the UK to Jersey.

The company has been delivering to Jersey since last year, and the 10-year licence formalises its operations in the Island.

Chuck Webb, executive director of the JCRA, said: ‘Regency Holdings is a fairly small operation that delivers business mail as well as catalogues and associated letters to Jersey from the UK.

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Commission announces crackdown on mail monopolies

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

Speaking at a high-level conference on postal liberalisation on Tuesday (24 June), the EU’s commissioners for competition and the internal market warned countries with lingering postal monopolies to open up or face legal action.

“We will not hesitate to use all means at our disposal to make a competitive and sustainable postal market a reality,” said EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, warning governments not to introduce what he called “creative market barriers” under the pretext of safeguarding basic mail services for all.

Such measures will undoubtedly include infringement procedures against member states that are “backtracking” on their pledges to liberalise the postal market fully, said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. “You know me, I will enforce competition rules in the postal sector […] Regulation is not enough,” she said, highlighting the fact that she had already sent a formal notice to Slovakia on 18 June regarding its plans to “re-monopolise certain sectors of its postal market”.

The strong statements come a surprisingly short time – just four months – after the EU pushed through legislation, which only commits member states to full liberalisation of their mail markets by 2011 at the earliest.

They appear as a testimony of Brussels’ commitment to full market opening amid growing apprehension at the national level as to the concrete effects of full liberalisation on employment and the provision of a quality service for all.

Although no names were cited, Germany appears to take the brunt of the Commission’s discontent, with its plans to introduce a minimum hourly wage of EUR for postmen operating on its territory in order to prevent social dumping.

The move has sparked a big dispute with the Netherlands, where Dutch Junior Economy Minister Frank Heemskerk retaliated by delaying his country’s own planned 1 January 2008 liberalisation until a “more level playing field” was established – a move also under fire from the Commission.

Both Germany and the Netherlands have received letters from the commissioner in which he voices such concerns. So have Finland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Poland – making them all potential targets for legal action. The complaints cover a wide range of practices – from Finland’s charges on new entrants that do not agree to provide nationwide services or Belgian plans to simply force all new operators to deliver across its whole territory to Austria allowing its national operator to install key access to private letter boxes in apartment hallways.

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Free “domicíliate” service to notify postal address changes

Posted by | Jun 26, 2008 | |

CORREOS has initiated an advertising campaign to promote the “Domicíliate” service citizens can use to notify their changes of address to its member companies, free of charge.

The postal company has decided to provide this service free of charge for users and its member companies and has sent out more than 500,000 information leaflets, 120,000 of which have been delivered door-to-door in eight districts in Madrid and in the municipalities of Parla and Valdemoro. Furthermore, in newly built housing estates all around Spain, information on the new service will be delivered door-to-door together with the new post code.

CORREOS will also promote the existing synergies between the “Domicíliate” and “Reenvío postal” services the postal company uses to forward correspondence received at the addressee’s previous address, during the period contracted by the latter.

The “Domicíliate” service already has almost large member 100 companies from all the sectors of the economy: telephony, insurance, finance, gas, electricity, water, NGOs, etc.

For companies, the new service guarantees that their customers’ addresses will always be updated, enabling them to avoid sending notices to recipients whose addressees have changed. In other words, they save time and resources in keeping their address files up to date. For the users, in addition to guaranteeing receiving their correspondence in their new address free of charge and in a single operation ‘Domicíliate’ offers the possibility of notifying the change to relatives and friends via email.

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