Tag: North America

US Postal Service recognized for Innovative Technology

Posted by | Nov 27, 2007 | |

The U.S. Postal Service has been recognized for its cutting-edge supply management with an award by the Aberdeen Group, a leading business research firm.

The group awarded the Postal Service its “Innovation in Technology Award” at its Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Summit on Nov. 13, citing the agency’s use of advanced sourcing technology to reduce costs and increase efficiencies across its supply chain.
Award winners were determined by Aberdeen’s research over the past 12 months. The research group cited the Postal Service’s use of flexible bidding with optimization, an “expressive” bidding process that matches suppliers’ competitive advantages to buyers’ business needs.

The Postal Service’s bidding process enables suppliers to define specific bid bundles, which creates new volume discounts, as well as production schedule changes, flexible delivery times, supply locations and payment terms. In one example cited by Aberdeen, allowing suppliers to define the market for pallets enabled the Postal Service to save 9 percent.

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DHL announces rates for 2008

Posted by | Nov 27, 2007 | |

DHL Express (USA), Inc., today announced new list rates for 2008. Rates will include a 4.9 percent increase in the net average shipping rate for DHL Domestic Air Express and International Express as well as an average increase of 4.9 percent for DHL Ground shipments and for DHL@Home. The increase for air express and international shipments is comprised of a 6.9 percent average increase in the base rates, offset by a 2.0 percentage point reduction in the Air fuel surcharge index. The new rates will be effective January 6, 2008.

Other changes effective January 6, 2008, include a USD 0.10 increase in the surcharge for Residential Delivery and for both residential and commercial Delivery Area Service. Exception Handling will increase by USD 0.50. The Large Package Fee will increase to USD 45. Additional details of the 2008 fee and rate changes will be available at www.dhl-usa.com as of December 14, 2007, and will be updated as further details become available.

In 2008, DHL customers can experience benefits resulting from service enhancements including:

– Improved on-time performance across the U.S. resulting from expanded hub capacity with state-of-the-art automation

– Increased shipment visibility with twice the number of checkpoints per domestic shipment and even more security, driven by a global containerization program

– Earlier U.S. delivery of International shipments, with all packages destined for locations within DHL’s morning delivery footprint now qualifying for noon delivery.

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DHL Express awards global contract to Quintiq for dispatch system

Posted by | Nov 26, 2007 | |

DHL has expanded its contract with Quintiq for a real-time advanced planning & scheduling solution into a worldwide agreement. The new global contract will enable DHL to improve its dispatch process and customer service around the world. DHL already signed a European contract earlier in 2007. DHL has decided to begin the implementation in Asia-Pacific.

The Quintiq solution will enable DHL Express to streamline and standardize its dispatch process and activities around the globe. Additionally, the solution will reduce the workload of dispatchers and improve their productivity and also increase tour efficiency.

The benefits of the Quintiq system are expected to be significant, as the majority of all pick-up and delivery (PUD) workload will be automatically assigned to the correct sector and tour. This will enable dispatchers to focus on exceptions and on the quality of the dispatch operation. DHL Express has particularly complex dispatch needs that require coordination of the pick-up and delivery for customers around the world. Its dispatch process includes processing dispatch workload, daily workload allocation, managing daily tours and allocating daily tour resources. To improve the productivity of its PUD, DHL Express decided to replace the existing heterogeneous landscape of solutions and functionalities with one centralized dispatch solution.

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Blockbuster tests video-rental kiosks

Posted by | Nov 26, 2007 | |

Blockbuster Inc. has begun testing movie rental kiosks at Papa John’s pizza outlets and Family Dollar stores. Movies at the kiosks will be available for USD 1, substantially less than the cost for rentals at regular Blockbuster stores.

The Blockbuster Express kiosks, which are about the size of a vending machine and hold 250 movies, are in three Papa John’s International Inc. locations and seven Family Dollar Stores Inc. outlets in the Lexington, Ky., area, said Karen Raskopf, a spokeswoman for Blockbuster.

The kiosks may help Blockbuster fend off DVDPlay Inc. and Redbox Automated Retail, jointly owned by McDonald’s Corp. and Coinstar Inc. The two companies have lured customers from Blockbuster and Movie Gallery Inc. movie rental stores by offering USD 1 DVD rentals at supermarkets, drugstores and McDonald’s restaurants.

“It’s a natural affinity,” Papa John’s Chief Executive Nigel Travis said. “You are seeing a consolidation of food and entertainment. It definitely drives traffic.”

Recently released DVDs typically rent for USD 4 for five days at a Blockbuster store. The USD 1 DVD rentals can be returned to any Blockbuster Express kiosk, not just the location where the movie was rented, Raskopf said.

Blockbuster also is testing kiosks in fast-food restaurants and other unspecified stores around the U.S., Raskopf said. Papa John’s, which will have three kiosks in rural towns in another state, said customers would be able to rent the movies when they pick up carryout orders. They can’t get the USD 1 rental when ordering pizza that will be delivered.

Shares of Dallas-based Blockbuster fell 11 cents Wednesday to USD 3.76.

Blockbuster is considering kiosks and vending machines where customers can rent movies or burn copies directly to a DVD, Chief Executive James Keyes has said.

“We think vending is probably the fastest-growing segment right now,” Keyes said in an interview this month. “The next bigger trend is for vending, and we are well positioned to be able to play through an electronic kiosk.”

Papa John’s, based in Louisville, Ky., has linked pizza with DVDs before, with promotions in the last two years with films such as “Spider-Man 3.” The chain wants to see if the kiosks help increase the number of customers, Travis said.

Blockbuster is seeking to boost in-store sales as the number of ways consumers can obtain movies has increased. Customers can rent DVDs online at Netflix Inc. and have them delivered by mail, download TV shows at Amazon.com Inc. or watch video-on-demand through their cable provider.

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UPS: Getting big brown machines to go green

Posted by | Nov 23, 2007 | |

United Parcel Service’s fleet of all-electric delivery trucks were no match for the potholed streets and heavy package volumes of New York City.

UPS is experiencing a blast from the past. It again has some electric vehicles carrying packages in various U.S. cities. Diesel-electric hybrids, natural-gas-powered trucks and a slew of other experimental vehicles also cruise city streets and highways.

The company’s morphing into a leader in using truck fleets powered by alternative fuels. And what it’s learning offers pointers for other firms trying to lower costs and environmental impacts by using new vehicle tech.

UPS has over 1,600 of its trucks using either hybrid or alternative-fueled drive systems around the world. The company says it’s invested USD 15 million over the years in alternative vehicles.

At the same time, UPS has a ways to go. So-called green vehicles amount to less than 2 pct of its total global fleet. That gas and diesel engines remain the norm at UPS underscores the hurdles in turning big brown trucks into green ones.

In early October, UPS announced it will add another 306 alternative-fueled vehicles — 139 compressed natural gas trucks and 129 propane delivery trucks — by next year.

Savings vary for the other alternative fuels UPS uses, though they typically run cleaner than diesel trucks.

Today, UPS has over 100,000 vehicles around the globe, and about 600 aircraft. It says about 20,000 of its trucks are classified as “low emission” vehicles. That includes alternative-fuel trucks, as well as newer,cleaner-running regular trucks.

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