Tag: Mail Services

India Postal Department to launch foreign exchange service

Posted by | Apr 2, 2008 | |

As part of diversification, the Postal Department is foraying into the foreign exchange sector.

Four foreign exchange counters will be opened at the major post offices in four districts this month. It will be part of the 30 foreign exchange units being opened by the Postal Department across the country.

The foreign exchange counters in the state will be at the General Post Office at Pulimoodu in Thiruvananthapuram and at the head post offices at Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kozhikode, Postal Services director Mervin Alexander told this website’s newspaper.

“Work on starting the counters is going on and we hope to inaugurate them this month itself,” he said.

Among the 30 counters spread in ten states, three had already started functioning at New Delhi and are receiving good response, he said.

“Initially we are only providing currency exchange and travellers’ cheque encashing services. Our main target will be foreign tourists. After knowing the response, more counters will be opened and more services will be offered,” he said.

The Postal Department, which already had money changing services licence of the Reserve Bank of India, is launching the service in association with the Centurion Bank of Punjab. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the department and the bank at the national- level recently. The bank will provide the back office support for the counters and training to the Postal Department staff, Mervin said.

The Postal Department is already carrying out Western Union Money Transfer Services. More than 50 percent of Western Union Money Transfer Services are being done through the Postal Department.

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Satisfaction at Post Denmark with Danish-swedish merger

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

With the publication of the plans for a merger between Post Danmark A/S and Posten AB, a long-felt desire for an international business partner is now one decisive step closer to being fulfilled.
– The European postal market is undergoing a violent process of change in these years of radical EU liberalisation. As a result, the future of small and medium-sized national postal companies will at best be highly uncertain. For Post Danmark, the development means that we will need larger volumes and a much wider range of services for our customers than we are capable of developing based on the Danish home market alone. It is therefore vital for Post Danmark to find an international business partner, and the merger with the Swedes was quite naturally at the top of our wish list, Fritz Schur, Chairman of Post Danmark, says.
In future, Fritz Schur will take up the post of chairman of the merged company.
Post Danmark points out that the main advantages to the Danish company and its cus-tomers are in the field of information logistics, in which Posten AB has a very wide range of services provided by the subsidiary Strålfors, which is already active in several European countries. In addition, being part of the new company Post Danmark will greatly enhance its position within the company’s most significant growth areas – cargo and parcels.
– In the coming years we will see a trend towards further intensification of the current consolidation wave in postal and logistics areas, and with a merger between Post Danmark and Posten Sverige we are well equipped to meet that challenge, Fritz Schur says.
Post Danmark’s CEO Helge Israelsen looks forward to the new opportunities that the merger will generate:
It is my expectation that the merger will benefit our customers. At the same time, I am/we are very satisfied that this will provide us with a stronger foundation for retaining our position as the preferred postal company of all citizens and companies in this country. Post Danmark will still have a large number of tasks to perform for the Danish society, tasks that we take pride in performing. The day’s announcement does not change the rules and requirements we have to meet, and it will still be entirely up to us in Denmark to decide how to organise our postal service in the future. The Danish society differs from the Swedish society in having different challenges and requirements relating to postal services and we will retain our focus on meeting these challenges. A fact that a coming merger will not change. The merger, on the other hand, will give us the strength to continue to develop the company and our services to the Danish society, CEO Helge Israelsen says.

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Royal Mail warned over industrial action

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is facing the prospect of a second summer of discontent after postal workers rejected its plans to reform its pension fund.

The Communication Workers Union today called for fresh talks on pensions reform after a ballot of 140,000 members voted heavily against Royal Mail’s plans to curb the fund’s GBP 5 bn deficit.

Last year Royal Mail was hit by a series of damaging strikes over pay, modernisation proposals and pensions.

Royal Mail insists its pension’s reform formed part of the settlement; the union maintains that the issue was “de-coupled” from the other issues.

Royal Mail’s reforms, which came into effect this week, mean that the pension scheme was closed to new employees from March 31 though they will be able to join a new scheme next year. The normal retirement age has been increased from 60 to 65 though it will still be possible to take a pension at 60. From the beginning of April, benefits will accrue on a career average, rather than on a final salary basis, but previous earnings will come under the final salary scheme.

Royal Mail said it could not give a figure for the savings from the changes but added that it was contributing GBP 850m a year to the pension fund. It said that equated to 30 pct of pensionable earning and the reforms would bring that total figure down to 21 pct.

The union said 92 pct of the vote has been against the Royal Mail proposals.

Royal Mail managers voted to reject the pension reforms two weeks ago and the CWU said it would be discussing with their union, Unite, a joint approach to industrial action if it became necessary.

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Postcomm publishes final proposals on Royal Mail's compensation schemes

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, has announced it is minded to accept Royal Mail’s proposed changes to its retail compensation arrangements for lost, damaged and delayed mail.

The regulator has conducted a public consultation and worked closely with Royal Mail and Postwatch to address concerns about the complexity of Royal Mail’s current compensation schemes for retail customers and some inconsistency in how they are applied.

The key changes to the retail compensation arrangements for loss, damage and delay are:

– if the item was posted with Royal Mail, there will be compensation for loss, damage and delay where an item has no intrinsic value or where a claimant cannot provide proof of posting;
– loss and damage to items with an intrinsic value, with proof of posting with Royal Mail and proof of value, will entitle customers to a postage refund plus compensation for actual loss;
– the GBP 5 and GBP 10 payments for delay and substantial delay will be removed, except for Special Delivery Next Day;
– compensation for delayed retail mail will become payable one day earlier than at present;
– redirected mail will be eligible for compensation for delay; and
– users of the Articles for the Blind service will be able to claim compensation for loss, damage and delay.

Postcomm will decide whether to remove the bulk compensation scheme from regulation when it makes a final decision on Royal Mail’s application for suspension of the scheme and the so-called “C-factor” in 2007-08 due to industrial action arising from its transformation plan.

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Postcomm consults on licence for Peoplepost Limited

Posted by | Apr 1, 2008 | |

Postcomm today began a 30-day consultation on the proposed grant of a postal operator’s licence to Peoplepost Limited.

Under the licensing framework that took effect from 1 January 2006, and was amended in January 2008, the licence would:

– allow Peoplepost Limited to provide all types of postal service;
– be issued for a rolling ten year period; and
– require the company to comply with codes of practice on mail integrity (safety and security of the mail) and common operational procedures (designed to ensure the multi-operator market works well in practice).

The closing date for responses is 1 May 2008.

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