Tag: North America

UNITED STATES: Domain Name in the Works for Post Office

Posted by | Feb 4, 2008 | |

A new “dot-post” Internet address in the works aims to set apart the electronic services increasingly offered by postal agencies around the world.

Backers say restricting the “.post” domain name to postal agencies or groups that provide postal services would instill trust in Web sites using such names. By contrast, popular suffixes such as “.com” and “.org” are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Internet’s key oversight agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is trying to work out contract terms for the suffix with the U.N. Universal Postal Union. Approval could come as early as mid-February and implementation several months later.

“Dot-post is an extension of the innovation currently happening in the postal agencies,” said Paul Donohoe, the postal union””s eBusiness manager. “They are investigating services that are looking for alternative ways to add value to communications.”

Services unveiled or proposed around the world include electronic postmarks, online billing and payments and hybrid mail — when a digital document gets printed by the postal service and delivered as paper, or when physical mail gets scanned into an electronic document for delivery.

If the suffix is approved, the U.N. postal agency would assign domain names under it to individual national agencies, which could then distribute sub-domains to contractors and other service providers.

The U.N. agency also could assign names directly to mail-related industries, such as direct marketing and stamp collecting.

The postal union proposed “.post” in March 2004. ICANN gave it a tentative OK that October, but Donohoe said final approval has been delayed partly because of the structure of the U.N. agency — one requiring unique contract terms.

ICANN has said it may start a new round of applications later this year.

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Little known Canada Post program to prevent junk mail from arriving finally gets promoted

Posted by | Feb 1, 2008 | |

When you get home, do you pick up the stack of junk mail in your mail box and throw it right into the recycling bin?

Most of us do. And many of us wish they wouldn’t send us this stuff.

But very few of us knew that Canada Post has had a program in place for the past 10 years that allows Canadians to notify the post office that they do not want junk mail delivered to them. The Straight’s Sindy Zelezen heard about the program on the CBC.

A Vancouver businesswoman is now promoting it out of her own company’s funds and has started the Red Dot Campaign Web site.

Whether you’re irritated at having to deal with junk mail, or you want to save the environment, or both, just follow the simple instructions and you can stop the endless flow of junk mail.

Talk about stopping the insanity!

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EU bans postal monopolies from 2011

Posted by | Jan 31, 2008 | |

National monopolies for mail delivery in the European Union will be dismantled by 2011, with postal companies free to operate in any of the EU’s 27 countries – meaning the Royal Mail could face threats by European competitors on British soil.

Nine new EU countries plus Greece and Luxembourg will get the option of an additional two years to prepare for a full opening of the delivery of letters under 50 grams (1.75 ounces) – the last category where national postal companies face no rivals.

The plan was approved by the European Parliament last Thursday 31st January.

A universal public service ensuring every European gets at least one delivery and collection a day, five days a week will still be guaranteed and can be subsidized by governments if it loses money.

Postal services in the European Union handle an estimated 135 billion items a year, with an estimated turnover of 88 billion Euros (GBP 65billion) – around 1 per cent of the union’s gross domestic product. The sector employs more than 5 million people.

Full liberalization should lead to cheaper and more reliable mail deliveries, according to EU officials.

It could also force the Royal Mail to scramble to remain competitive against European services moving to Britain – and raises the possibility of a Royal Mail service operating on the continent.

An organization representing customers and competitors of the public postal operators across the EU called on the national regulators to prevent national monopolies from unfair tactics.

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Saia, Inc from 31 January 2008

Posted by | Jan 31, 2008 | |

SAIA reports downside EPS. SAIA reported 4Q:07 EPS of USD 0.05 vs our USD 0.28 estimate and Cons USD 0.26. SAIA also benefited by USD 0.01/share from a lower tax rate. They were negatively impacted by about USD 0.04 related to “an employment matter” and benefited by an estimated USD 0.04 from net fuel impact. Rev, EBIT, and EPS changed y-o-y +11.2%, -68.9%, and -90.7% vs our expectations of +11.3, -21.8%, and -37.3%, respectively.

OR deterioration drives miss. SAIA’s OR deteriorated 410bp vs our expectation of 170bp of deterioration and 190bp in 3Q:07, resulting in EBIT down 69% y-o-y. The larger than expected deterioration was due to the weak pricing environment and several minor cost issues.

Yields ahead of expectations driven by fuel. SAIA’s yields (rev/cwt, gross of fuel) grew 6.1%, ahead of our 4.7% estimate which included a material increase in fuel surcharge. SAIA for the first time did not report yields net of fuel, but we estimate fuel surcharges accounted for almost 5pp of the gross yield growth and real pricing was likely flat to down considering 4% lower weight per shipment and a 4% increase in length of haul.

Tonnage below expectations. SAIA grew tonnage at 5.1% in 4Q:07, below our forecast of 6.5% and down from 8.9% in 3Q:07 as its acquisitions began to grandfather (the Connection closed 11/20/06). Tonnage declined 8% on a proforma basis in 4Q:07 and worsened throughout the qtr, but has improved to -4% in January.

Stock still has a lot of risk. SAIA is struggling with operating and cost issues as it continues to integrate two acquisitions made right into the downturn. We expect many of these issues to continue in the near term as competition in LTL pricing continues to increase in 2008 and we are sharply reducing our 08 and 09 EPS estimates. However, SAIA will likely benefit from potential capacity reduction by its competitors, especially in its core Southern region. For now BS is solid and mgmt has reduced C08 capex meaningfully.

INVESTMENT CONCLUSION: SAIA was up yesterday despite a materially weaker than expected report into the Fed interest rate cut and continued running for cover in the truck sector. SAIA was up 2.3% yesterday compared to our LTL Index excluding it up 3.3% and the S&P 500 down 0.5%. Year to date SAIA is up 2% compared to our LTL index excluding SAIA now up 17% and the S&P 500 down 8%.

We have reduced our C08 and C09 EPS estimates by 56% and 42%, respectively, from USD 1.45 and USD 1.55 to USD 0.63 and USD 0.90 (compared to prior Consensus USD 1.42 and USD 1.76). Based on our reduced forward estimates, SAIA is currently trading at 20.7x and 5.2x our forward year EPS and EV/EBITDA, respectively, compared to its average 1, 3 and 5 year averages of 10.4x, 11.5x and 12.0x, and 4.7x, 4.9x and 5.0x. SAIA’s balance sheet feels solid at this point ending the year with a debt ratio including off balance sheet leases of 48.8% compared to 51.6% at year end 2007. We now project SAIA will bottom with an EPS loss during 1Q:08; however we have little visibility to our estimates. SAIA remains rated Peer Perform.

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UPS Board increases dividend

Posted by | Jan 31, 2008 | |

The UPS Board of Directors today increased the regular quarterly dividend to USD 0.45 per share from USD 0.42 on all outstanding Class A and Class B shares as a sign of its confidence in the company’s growth prospects and financial strength.

The dividend is payable March 4, 2008, to shareholders of record on Feb. 11, 2008.

UPS’s dividend has more than doubled since February 2003. The company has either increased or maintained its dividend every year for almost four decades.

The Board also approved an earlier payment schedule for the dividend typically declared in November. Beginning this year and going forward, that dividend will be paid in December instead of the following January. The actual payment date will be determined at the November meeting of the Board.

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