Tag: North America

UPS franchisees to demonstrate outside annual shareholders meeting In Wilmington

Posted by | May 6, 2007 | |

Franchisees representing United Parcel Service franchise outlets across the United States under the Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) and The UPS Store brands will demonstrate at Thursday’s (May 10) meeting of UPS shareholders in Wilmington, Del.

“All of us in the franchisee organizations believe UPS shareholders should hear our concerns and understand UPS’ total failure to live up to promises and projections made to us – and to UPS shareholders,” said Joe Wightman, who operates a UPS (Mail Boxes Etc.) store in New York City. He is also an official in the Platinum Shield Association (PSA), which has some 131 members, many of whom will be in Wilmington Thursday.

Wightman said an equally disturbing concern is profitability. “Last year at the shareholders meeting, we asked UPS CEO Mike Eskew what percentage of the franchises were profitable for the franchisee, and he professed not to know, despite the fact that UPS’ own Franchise Advisory Council had informed management that 60% of the franchises were not profitable,” he added. “As a UPS shareholder I believe management has issued misleading statements and needs to ‘come clean’ with all UPS shareholders.”

Echoing Wightman’s concerns over UPS’ treatment of its franchisees are members of three other franchisee organizations, the Brown Shield Association, IAMCO and the Brown Board Owner’s Association, whose members will also appear at the UPS shareholder meeting in Wilmington.

Wightman said a measure of UPS’ failure to take steps to improve the company’s relations with its franchisees is the spate of lawsuits brought by his organization and others in recent months. “Just last week a class action was filed in San Francisco over UPS practices in weighing and measuring packages,” he said, “and virtually every franchisee who will be in Wilmington this week is part of a lawsuit or arbitration against UPS.”

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New US postage rates take effect May 14

Posted by | May 4, 2007 | |

New postage rates go into effect on Monday, May 14, including a two-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail stamp to 41 cents. Post Offices nationwide are now selling the new 41-cent stamps and also one and two-cent stamps for customers who still have a supply of 39-cent stamps.Customers can also order stamps online at www.usps.com or by telephone at 1-800-STAMP-24. The new stamps are also available at Automated Postal Centers and ATM’s nationwide (beginning May 14). In addition to the new domestic rates, changes will take effect May 14 for customers sending international mail. USPS has simplified its eight main international products into four: Global Express Guaranteed, Express Mail International, Priority Mail International and First-Class Mail International. New packaging will allow mailers to use the same Priority Mail and Express Mail packaging for shipping both within the United States and to other countries. For details of the International Mail changes, go to: http://www.usps.com/ratecase and select “New International Rates, Fees and Country Listing.” New rates can be downloaded from http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2007/pr07_039.pdf.

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US Governors accept PRC's revised rate recommendations

Posted by | May 2, 2007 | |

The Governors of the Postal Service announced they accepted the decision of the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to modify two of its earlier rate case recommendations: lowering the price of the Priority Mail Flat-Rate Box to USD 8.95 and extending the nonmachinable surcharge (which encourages mailing efficiencies) to all single piece and presorted First-Class Mail letters, regardless of weight.

Still pending is the Governors’ request that the PRC reconsider its decision relating to Standard Mail flats. No date has been announced for that decision. All new rates are scheduled to go into effect May 14, except those for Periodicals (magazines and newspapers), which are scheduled to go into effect July 15.

Also during today’s meeting of the agency’s Board of Governors, Chief Financial Officer H. Glen Walker reported that a USD 925 million net loss was recorded during the second quarter of the fiscal year (Jan. 1 – March 31) due largely to expenses relating to the implementation of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, signed into law on Dec. 20, 2006.

The Board of Governors also approved funding to purchase additional Delivery Bar Code Sorter equipment for sorting letter mail in the sequence in which carriers deliver it. The purchase consists of 110 new machines as well as 394 stacker modules for existing Delivery Bar Code Sorters.

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DHL USA expands in Louisville

Posted by | May 2, 2007 | |

DHL announced the opening of a new facility near the Louisville International Airport in Kentucky. DHL has invested USD 2.7 million in the new service center facility, consolidating all local operations to enhance services for DHL customers shipping to and from the region.

The new, 64,000-sq.-ft. service center combines a facility east of Louisville and DHL’s previous operations near the airport to one service center strategically located across from Standiford Field. The location is home to DHL’s local pickup, delivery and sorting operations, and provides a base for local sales employees.

The pickup and delivery footprint for the new facility includes cities in and around the Louisville, Ky. metro area, east to Indiana including Austin, and as far South as cities along the Tennessee border. The new Louisville service center will handle a wide variety of shipments – including domestic and international parcels as well as palletized, loose-load and container freight.

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FedEx announces 2008 pension freeze

Posted by | May 1, 2007 | |

FedEx is planning to freeze its traditionally-defined benefit plans, moving employees to an existing cash-balance plan. The FedEx freeze of its USD 11.5 billion plan is effective June 1, 2008.

Watchdog groups have long suspected that older workers are being “squeezed out” of FedEx in order to reduce pension payments and other benefits to employees based on seniority.

FedEx bean-counters may be hoping the news of the pension freeze will cause more of FedEx’s older workers to choose early retirement.

Because benefits earned before the point of the pension freeze are protected by law, workers and retirees who leave employment before the freeze do not stand to lose benefits. A pension freeze only affects those employees who continue to work for the company.

Pension freezes often have the strongest impact on older workers. In 2005, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report which found that a typical cash balance plan provides lower benefits for most workers than a traditional plan. The report states that this decline in benefits tends to be largest for older workers.

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