Tag: North America

UPS Canada helps expand largest global Green Fleet

Posted by | Feb 27, 2008 | |

PS Canada announced it will be rolling out 139 additional cleaner-burning, propane delivery trucks. The majority of these vehicles will be deployed in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta and the rest distributed between British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The propane vehicles are joining roughly 600 propane trucks already operating in Canada. The addition of these vehicles means more than a third of UPS Canada’s 2,000 package delivery vehicles will run on low-carbon fuel.

The 139 new propane trucks are expected to reduce UPS’s carbon dioxide emissions by a total of 254 metric tonnes per year, the equivalent weight of 80 UPS trucks. This would be a 35 per cent improvement compared to conventional gas engines. Additionally, particulate matter emitted from vehicles will be virtually eliminated.

The newly added propane-powered vehicles feature the latest technology in clean-burning propane engines. Propane vehicles emit about one-third fewer reactive organic gases than gasoline-fuelled vehicles. Nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions are 20 per cent and 60 per cent less, respectively, than conventional vehicles.

UPS’s global alternative-fuel fleet now stands at 1,629 vehicles – the largest such private fleet in the transportation industry – and includes compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane and electric and hybrid electric vehicles. UPS is also working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on a hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicle.

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Canada Post Launches Customized Postal Indicia

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

In response to its business customers’ demand for opportunities to differentiate their LettermailTM from their competitors, Canada Post has launched Customized Postal Indicia. The innovative service allows businesses to design a ‘stamp-like’ postage indicia, with an image of their choice, printed onto envelopes.

“Our business customers have expressed continued interest in picture postage, which indicated a market for a customized postal indicia for commercial customers,” said Alice Lafferty, Director of Product Development at Canada Post.

Customized Postal Indicia provides a number of benefits to the business customer including:

– an additional branding medium and unique finishing touch which can increase the likelihood of customers identifying, opening and reading Lettermail

– opportunity to leverage significant real estate on the envelope, twice the size of a traditional stamp, for marketing and branding

– An opportunity to communicate with customers before they even open the envelope – Special events can be highlighted, including launches and announcements, and key audiences can be recognized, including preferred and loyal customers

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Verizon designs IP network for US Postal Service

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

Verizon Business has completed the design and implementation of a new, fully managed IP-based network for the U.S. Postal Service.

Under a 30-month, USD 60 million contract, Verizon Business is managing the USPS Postal Information Technology Network Upgrade Project, consolidating three previously distinct networks to control costs and reduce bandwidth requirements.

The project also includes the redesign, upgrade and management of network services for approximately 300 mail-processing facilities; upgrades to the existing information technology administrative network; and the design, implementation and management of new network services at 188 Postal Inspection Service locations.

Verizon Business also will help the Inspection Service upgrade its existing frame relay network to a next-generation IP network, which incorporates advanced security features to protect sensitive law enforcement communications. The features include push-to-talk radio over IP, live video multicast service and IT applications for background checks and incident response.

In addition, the telecommunications company is installing a new, more robust network for large USPS mail processing facilities and the Postal Service administrative network, which will include built-in layers of redundancy for business-critical mail processing systems.

Critical data traffic will be carried on Verizon Business’ Very High Performance Backbone Network Service network, dedicated primarily to government and educational institutions with high-performance network requirements.

With the PITN award, Verizon Business will manage more than 30,000 devices for the Postal Service and more than 17,000 wide-area network circuits, the company said.

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US Postal Service names Philo IT Chief

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

An international leader recognized for enabling business transformation through innovative IT solutions has been named executive vice president and chief information officer of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

Ross Philo, who comes to the Postal Service after a long career in energy-related information services, will support the development of growth, service and administrative initiatives by ensuring that planning and development are linked with appropriate technology strategies.

Philo will lead a department that has for the fourth year in a row been named as one of the best places to work in the IT industry by Computerworld magazine, and which supports more users for less money than any other federal government agency.

In his new role, Philo will be responsible for managing and maintaining the USPS IT services that:
— connect more than 28,000 locations to critical business systems 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,
— support more than 650 applications designed to run the Postal Service on a day-to-day basis, including employee payroll and vendor payments and
— oversee the Postal Service’s extensive nationwide telecommunications network, including satellite, land-line and mobile telephone requirements.

Philo will report to the Postmaster General and serve on the agency’s Executive Committee.

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U.S. Postal Service undercharged countries for mail

Posted by | Feb 25, 2008 | |

The U.S. Postal Service undercharged countries including China, India and Canada by millions of dollars because of errors in processing mail at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, auditors said.

The Postal Service may recover USD 2.2 million of the USD 3.4 million that it said it is owed by the postal agencies of the other countries, a report by the service’s inspector general said. The remainder stemmed from computer, billing and employee errors made in 2006, too long ago to be recovered under law.

The Postal Service’s JFK Airport facility made billing errors on 78 percent of the overseas mail received from Oct. 1, 2006, to May 31, 2007, according to a Jan. 24 report displayed on the agency’s Web site last week.

About 39 percent of the mail was from China. The JFK Airport facility processes international mail from more than 190 countries, Yoerger said.

The Postal Service is a government agency required by law to set its rates to cover costs. It had USD 75 billion in revenue last year, and ran a deficit of about USD 5 billion, Yoerger said.

The JFK Airport location, the largest of five Postal Service facilities in the U.S. that process international mail, handles 60 percent of all overseas express mail entering the U.S. If auditors hadn’t caught the errors, the facility would have undercharged foreign agencies USD 12.5 million over two years, the report said.

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