Tag: New market / Developments

Business Direct signs 3-year deal with Parcelforce Worldwide (UK)

Posted by | Mar 27, 2008 | |

Business Direct Group plc has signed a 3-year deal with Parcelforce Worldwide, part of the Royal Mail Group, for access to Business Direct’s network of over 4,200 ParcelXchange intelligent locker secure drop-boxes. The agreement will provide Parcelforce with a pre-8 a.m. in-night delivery service to complement its existing extensive portfolio of services.

Nick Landon, Head of UK Marketing and Commercial Strategy for Parcelforce Worldwide, said, “This deal will allow sectors such as High Tech, Utilities and Medical Industries, or any field-based technician or engineer, to receive deliveries 24/7 at any of Business Direct’s ParcelXchanges throughout the UK.”

Nick Landon went on to say, “When deciding on whom to use for this service, we needed to be confident that they could meet the current and future needs of both our business and that of our customers. The addition of the well established ParcelXchange network facility gives Parcelforce Worldwide greater competitive advantage, by extending our supply chain capability in Pre-8am secure field delivery and collection points.”

Paul Carvell, CEO of Business Direct, stated, “ParcelXchange goes from strength to strength. I am delighted that Parcelforce has joined two of the other leading express carriers in the UK, in DHL and TNT, in choosing ParcelXchange to add to its service offer.”

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Russian Post represented mid-term development program

Posted by | Mar 25, 2008 | |

Russian Post represented the enterprise mid-term development program at the Session of the Collegium of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the RF headed by L.D. Reiman, Minister for Communications and Information Technologies of the RF held on March, 25, 2008.

As the Minister noted, present postal structure, development and quality of services don’t meet requirements of modern economy and society, it should be considerably modernized. Post should immediately find solutions to such problem as renovation, unified process, postal employees social status.

A.I. Kazmin, Russian Post Director General represented complex of anti-crisis measures and medium-term enterprise modernization program for the period till 2011. The program already implemented in Russian Post aims at providing break even of the enterprise profits, establishing and supporting main production processes. Expenses optimization and efficient management system are among the prior measures taken by new heads of the enterprise. Post is to improve information system security, continuation of business-processes, reduce operation, technology and reputation risks. Quality improvement of services, delivery speed and security of mails is one of the key Russian Post’s goals.

Postal infrastructure modernization program will be held till 2011. It stipulates for capitalization of the enterprise at the expense of state investment support. It helps to reconstruct and provide technique equip for post offices, renovate transport and improve logistics, develop banking services infrastructure and other.

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eBay requires specified shipping

Posted by | Mar 25, 2008 | |

eBay posted an update about shipping policies and features on its Announcement Board on Monday. Beginning this week, eBay will begin requiring that all new sellers who are listing for the first time specify their shipping costs using the Shipping Details section. A few months from now, specified shipping costs will become a requirement for most listings on eBay, including listings from third-party listing tools. (Exemptions will apply to certain categories like Vehicles, or services such as Freight.)

eBay’s shipping calculator supports only certain USPS and UPS services. eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman said, “For sellers who prefer to use shipping services or carriers not included in eBay’s calculator, they can specify “Standard Flat Rate Service”, “Expedited Flat Rate Service”, “Overnight Flat Rate” or “Other (see description)” in their listing and set a flat rate cost. This is something many sellers do already.” However, FedEx and DHL are not flat-rate services, so sellers who use such major carriers are forced to either select flat-rate shipping or select UPS (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-options.html).

eBay also said Best Match would begin taking into consideration how the shipping cost for an item compares to other items in the same sub-category, and also whether the shipping price is specified. “Items with shipping costs significantly above the average cost for other items in the same sub-category may receive less exposure,” according to the announcement.

One seller writing on eBay’s discussion boards about the policy said, “items in the same sub-category can still be very, very different and have very different packing needs, and shipping weight. This stuff is ridiculous and best of all – will punish the larger size and fragile items of each subcategory. Not for gouging, but just for being big and delicate” (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671785).

eBay said the new USPS Priority Mail Large Flat Rate box is now included in the eBay Shipping calculator, but sellers on the AuctionBytes Blog wondered why the new box won’t be incorporated into the PayPal shipping labels solution until later in the summer.

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Getting it dead right

Posted by | Mar 21, 2008 | |

Make sure you get your funeral sorted says the Post Office®

As the credit crunch takes effect many people are reviewing their finances but one thing people often forget about is planning for a funeral should the worst happen. In fact recent research for the Post Office® shows that only 15 per cent of us will actually plan in advance to cover the costs of our funeral and perhaps even more importantly stipulate the kind of funeral we want.

Post Office® research has shown that, given the choice, only half the UK population would opt for a traditional burial or cremation. It also revealed that the favourite UK spot to have ashes scattered would be the Lake District followed by the deceased’s favourite football ground.

If they planned ahead, 18 per cent of people would opt to have their ashes turned into a diamond and 13 per cent made into a firework. A quarter of people would go for a more eco friendly cardboard coffin and 15 per cent for freeze drying where your body is frozen then shattered into a biodegradable dust.

Forty per cent of those surveyed would want a celebratory-style funeral with nobody dressed in black although 10 per cent would go for a funeral procession with black horses and carriage.

Despite the fact that the cost of a funeral is generally well over GBP 2,000 these days, the research showed that nearly half (47 per cent) of people thought it would cost less than GBP 2,000. And only 30 per cent of people would have GBP 2000 or more to cover the cost of a loved one’s funeral if they died tomorrow.

Post Office® life insurance manager Duncan Caesar-Gordon said: “The cost of a funeral can run in to several thousand pounds. Taking out the Over 50s life insurance cover means you will receive a guaranteed cash sum so at least family and friends will have money to put towards a traditional funeral or a special send off you may have in mind.

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US Postal Service site lets anyone hold your mail

Posted by | Mar 21, 2008 | |

Wednesday night on Off The Hook, a radio show on WBAI in New York, Emmanuel Goldstein and the guys from 2600 discussed a feature on the Web site of the U.S. Postal Service that can only be described as ill-conceived.

If you’re going to be away from home for a while, the your local post office can hold your mail to avoid an overflowing mailbox. Fine.

In the old days (and you can still do this), you went to the office and filled out a form (PDF). Someone on the show who has done this said the Postal Service doesn’t validate the identity of the person who requests mail to be held. It validates only the identity of the person who comes to pick up the mail.

Government techies copied this manual system to the Internet.

You can go to https://holdmail.usps.com (or click on Hold Mail at the Postal Service home page, as shown below) and put a hold on mail delivery. Notice that I didn’t say put a hold on your mail delivery. You can put a hold on mail delivered to anyone. This is true with the traditional system, too, but the Internet makes it worse, adding more anonymity and making the process easier. Too easy.

The agency site claims that it needs a name, address, and phone number to stop mail delivery. When tested, however, this turns out not to be the case. Requests with wrong names and wrong phone numbers were accepted, according to a listener who wrote in to the show. All you really need to know is an address.

And with the address, you can stop all mail delivery, not just mail to one person. Quoting from the Frequently Asked Questions: “All mail, regardless of name, will be held for the address entered. Submitting an online Hold Mail request once is all that is required to hold mail delivery for everyone at the address.”

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