Tag: Mail Services

TNT posties set to explode monopoly (UK)

Posted by | Jan 20, 2008 | |

TNT postmen will soon take on the Royal Mail on the streets of Scotland, the boss of the private postal operator has hinted.

Nick Wells, Chief Executive of TNT Post, told Scotland on Sunday that the company was gearing up to launch trials of its first “end-to-end” service, where items are picked up, sorted and delivered by TNT staff without any involvement from the Royal Mail.

He gave his clearest indication yet that some of the locations, which the company has so far refused to confirm, are likely to be in Scotland.

Although a number of private operators have entered the UK postal market since it was opened up to full competition in February 2006, Royal Mail continues to dominate what is referred to in the trade as the “final mile” – the actual delivery of letters and parcels to individual addresses by postmen.

Since its launch in Britain in 2003, Dutch company TNT Post has seized a 9% share of the market, yet it still has to rely on Royal Mail for the final leg of deliveries, effectively handing business back to its competitor.

Wells said: “Last year we handled over 1.8 billion items, but we give all of that back to Royal Mail. Royal Mail still do the end-to-end. We’re Royal Mail’s biggest client.”

It is understood that TNT Post is planning to launch its own end-to-end service early this year in order to reduce the amount of business it hands back to its rival.

Although Wells refused to disclose locations and timings of the end-to-end pilots for competitive reasons, he said TNT Post has been building up a sizeable business in Coatbridge, Glasgow, over the past 18 months.

However, Wells said the company had no plans to support the struggling Post Office network in Scotland, which will see up to 30 branches closed or downgraded this year.

Postcomm, the postal services regulator, recently urged private companies such as TNT Post, DHL and UPS to strike deals with the Post Office network over undelivered mail.

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Emirates Post plans USD 408m Asia acquisitions

Posted by | Jan 20, 2008 | |

Emirates Post, the state-owned UAE monopoly postal service, said it is in talks to spend as much as 1.5 billion dirhams (USD 408.4 million) on acquisitions in Asia, including Malaysia and Singapore.

“We want to expand our network of distribution, which is why we are interested in Asia because … it completes our market,” the chairman of Emirates Post, Abdulla al-Daboos, told Reuters in Dubai on Sunday on the sidelines of a meeting with reporters.

“Our investment will be between 1 billion and 1.5 billion dirhams over five years on acquisitions in Asian companies in postal and financial services,” Daboos said.

Daboos did not identify any target companies. Other countries include Thailand and Indonesia, he said.

Empost plans to sell as much as a 40 percent stake in an initial public offering in the second-half, valuing the company at not less than 3 billion dirhams, al-Khaleej and Emirates Business reported this month, citing Daboos and Sultan al-Mansouri, Minister of Governmental Sector Development

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Postcomm takes first steps to split Royal Mail operations

Posted by | Jan 18, 2008 | |

Postcomm has set the ball rolling on a consultation which could lead to the eventual separation of Royal Mail’s collection and delivery operations in order to improve on current access agreements.

A consultation document was published yesterday to review the current framework allowing rival operators to use Royal Mail’s delivery arm. Earlier in the week, Postcomm proposed the principle of ‘wholesale equivalence’ which has already been adopted by Ofcom to reduce the burden of regulation on BT.

These moves stem from Postcomm’s Strategy Review which was launched in August 2007. As part of this review Postcomm has made a commitment to evaluate the current access agreements and identify and resolve any problems with the existing arrangements.

A letter was sent this week to all postal operators, organisations representing mail users and postal watchdog Postwatch asking for their views on how best to regulate the industry from 2010 when the current price control arrangement expires.

In the letter, Postcomm chief executive Sarah Chambers said: “We want to begin by taking a top-down approach, based on what we have learned from our Strategy Review. We want to consider whether adopting a different approach could allow a significant reduction in the scope of regulation, whilst maintaining sufficient protection for customer and operators in those areas where Royal Mail has substantial and enduring market power.”

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Irish company launches mobile banking, ATM solution

Posted by | Jan 18, 2008 | |

Banks will now be able to reach customers on any mobile phone without the customer having to download special software, according to Ireland-based Kinzna Ltd., which specializes in mobile-Internet solutions.

Kinzna has launched a product that allows bank customers to view statements and account histories, receive alerts on account activities and overdrafts, monitor deposits, access loan statements, transfer funds and pay bills. Other value-added services include a branch and ATM locator, currency rates and mobile-phone top-up.

The product, called mobileBank, does not use WAP (wireless application protocol), nor it is restricted to a certain set of customers who use a specific mobile device or subscribe to a certain mobile operator. MobileBank conforms to industry best practice in the area of secure transmission of private customer data. It protects users’ data in three ways. Each time customers access mobileBank, they must authenticate themselves. No personal data, including account numbers, are ever stored on the phone or the mobileBank system. And all data exchanged between the phone and the bank has 128-bit encryption.

“With mobileBank, there is no need for client-software download,” said Isam Khalaf, Kinzna’s managing director. “Banks can offer mobile-banking services to all customers, and customers can enjoy the service, irrespective of whether they are using a mobile phone, PDA, XDA, Black Berry or any other device.”

MobileBank also can be interfaced with an already operational ATM-management system over ISO 8583 interface and act as an ATM.

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Postcomm launches access review consultation (UK)

Posted by | Jan 17, 2008 | |

The focus of the access review is the current framework under Condition 9 of Royal Mail’s licence and the operation of access agreements. This new consultation is the first phase of an access review and aims to identify what problems – if any – exist with the current access framework. Later phases will consider the remedies needed to resolve any problems, as well as how to implement them.

Notes for editors

On 15 January 2008, Postcomm published an industry letter setting out scenarios for the future of the price control and regulation, including how Postcomm intends to take forward work covering price regulation, wholesale equivalence, cost transparency and access. As part of that consultation, Postcomm wants to consult on how effectively current access arrangements (as established under Condition 9 of Royal Mail’s licence) are working. This follows on from a commitment made in Postcomm’s “Strategy Review: Emerging Themes” report, published in August 2007, in which Postcomm said it planned to undertake a wide review to determine how well access had operated to date and to consider whether the introduction of an Access Code could be an efficient way to address potential concerns regarding non-price forms of discrimination for access users.

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