Tag: North America

USPS open office at The Bookstore

Posted by | May 23, 2007 | |

The United States Post Office recently opened a Contract Postal Unit at The Bookstore, 399 Campbellsville Bypass, Suite 207.

The CPU will provide a full range of postal services except for selling money orders. The CPU is another way to extend postal services to a different area of town and make it convenient to do business with the USPS.

The CPU will have extended hours beyond the traditional post office. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday (except Wednesday), 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday and closed on Sundays.

The CPU will be closed on six holidays compared to the 13 holidays that the post office at the Broadway location is closed.

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AM PM making Mexico proud

Posted by | May 22, 2007 | |

The express package delivery group from Jalisco, Mexico, AM PM, founded by Pablo Moreno Valenzuela, yesterday won the World Mail Awards prize thanks to a technological innovation called EyeTrack, a system that permits company to know the exact time and place of delivery. AM PM has patented the system and has had interest from other express delivery groups from other countries in buying a copy. EyeTrack took 18 months to perfect and cost USD 5mil to develop. The delivery-man himself wears devices around his neck that scan at the critical moment and send information back to their base where special software interprets it, explains technological director at AM PM, Bernardo Bravo Gaxiola.

The firm has 4,000 employees and 12 distribution centres (in Jalisco, Baja California Norte and Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora, Distrito Federal, Guanajuato, Nuevo Leon, Nayarit, Colima and Michoacan) plus 1,500 vehicles; it is the nation’s biggest such enterprise and focuses on mass-mailing and credit-card deliveries, having been founded 16 years ago. It beat firms such as DHL Global Mail, Deutsche Post, the U.S. Postal Service and the Royal Mail to the World Mail prize. AM PM will invest around USD 6.5mil in 2007 on technological development alone.

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USPS to lower bar code height on Intelligent Mail

Posted by | May 18, 2007 | |

The U.S. Postal Service will lower the height of the bars in the Intelligent Mail bar code from .134 inches to .125 inches.

Charlie Bravo, senior vice president of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality at the USPS, announced the news May 16. The Intelligent Mail bar code, formerly called 4-State Customer Bar code, lets business mailers track up to one billion pieces of mail at a time and also allow them to more easily request services, including address correction and confirmation of delivery, and enable the USPS to process and deliver mail more efficiently.

In the past mailers expressed concern that the current length of the bar code makes them hard to read on some mail processing machines and others are concerned that the height of the bars takes up too much space or “real estate” on the envelope.

Mr. Bravo said that because of some software changes and testing, the change would take place in about nine months.

The bar code is the latest offering under the USPS Intelligent Mail program. The Postal Service expects that the program, begun in late 2001, to eventually let customers track every piece of mail from pickup to delivery. The bar code will be required to receive automation discounts in 2009.

In September, the use of Intelligent Mail bar codes for automation discounts became available for letter mail. The bar code became available for flats mail beginning May 1. Since the reading technology is different on flats than it is on letters, the USPS had delayed the start date for flats.

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UPS Franchisees protest during Annual Meeting

Posted by | May 18, 2007 | |

As some 50 UPS franchisees from around the country picketed in a light rain outside Wilmington’s Hotel DuPont Thursday (May 10) during UPS’ annual meeting, several shareholder-franchisees directed questions about their concerns to CEO Mike Eskew.

During the question and answer period, Joe Wightman, who owns a Mail Boxes Etc. franchise in New York, asked Eskew why it is that UPS’ 4,000-plus-store retail franchise network of UPS Stores and Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) is invisible in the UPS annual report and in the presentation Eskew made at the shareholders meeting May 10 in Wilmington. Wightman suggested that it is due to the “abysmal” failure of UPS’ effort and the unhappiness of its franchisees.

Eskew’s response, which Wightman said appeared rehearsed, was that he (Eskew) checked the source for Wightman’s report last year claiming that 60% of the UPS network is unprofitable, and Eskew replied that the information is not accurate. He did not say what his “source” was. Platinum Shield Association (PSA) Board member and UPS shareholder Glenn Sturgis then pointed out to Eskew that the 60% figure came from a written report by UPS’ Franchise Advisory Council, which includes UPS and MBE management as well as its UPS Store franchisees.

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Echo Global Logistics, Inc. acquires Mountain Logistics, Inc.

Posted by | May 17, 2007 | |

Echo Global Logistics, Inc., a technology-driven transportation management outsourcing firm, has acquired Mountain Logistics, Inc. doing business as Transportation Management Group, a third party logistics provider based in Park City, Utah.

Mountain Logistics, founded by Ryan Renne and Buster Schwab in 2001, has a strong West Coast carrier and customer base with offices in Park City, Utah and Los Angeles, California. Effective immediately, Mountain Logistics will begin doing business as Echo Global Logistics, Inc.

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