Tag: North America

DHL enhances service in hundreds of U.S. cities

Posted by | Dec 13, 2006 | |

DHL today announced significant progress on its Route Optimization Initiative, a component of a program announced earlier this year to enhance courier pick-up and delivery efficiency as part of DHL’s commitment to providing the best possible experience in the shipping industry. To date, DHL has improved pick-up service for customers in hundreds of cities across the United States, while decreasing vehicle usage and fuel consumption.

At facilities across the U.S., the DHL Route Optimization Initiative uses a customized software solution to pull pick-up and delivery data from courier data terminal scanners. The information is uploaded for analysis and route mapping, enabling DHL to increase efficiency and effectively balance its workload capacity across its entire U.S. fleet.

Since its inception, the route optimization program has decreased required drive times, limited route length and fuel consumption, and enabled more rapid processing of shipments. As a result of the initiative, customers throughout the country have more predictable regular delivery times. In addition, DHL has been able to extend the deadline for pick-up service by up to 90 minutes in over 400 metropolitan areas across the U.S., encompassing over one half million businesses.

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Pitney Bowes – Chairman & CEO Interview

Posted by | Dec 13, 2006 | |

BECKY QUICK, CNBC ANCHOR: Next year is looking a whole lot greener for the U.S. Postal Service. An overhaul bill passed through the Senate over this last weekend. And that is set to relieve the Postal Service of billions of dollars in retirement expenses and keep the cost of postage down. Of course, the president still needs to give his stamp of approval on this whole thing. So let`s get into what is at stake for business with Michael Critelli. He is the chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes.Michael, thanks for being with us today.

MICHAEL CRITELLI, CHMN. CEO, PITNEY BOWES: You are very welcome, Becky.

QUICK: You know, we have heard a lot about this bill that is out there. What is it actually? What would it do? And what does it mean for business?

CRITELLI: Well, you know, we are in a USD900 billion industry that employs 10 million Americans. It stabilizes the Postal Service financially by fixing and funding its retirement obligations. It sets an annual cap on price increases of the CPI, the consumer price index. And it gives the Postal Service the same ability that we are used to with utilities, airlines and other people, promotional rates, off-peak rates, discounts for other benefits to promote the use of mail, all of that that is now possible, that just wasn`t possible under the old law. And that will start to go into effect in 2008.

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UPS system delivers savings; UPS has spent USD600 million to automate package sorting and cut time, miles and cost. For drivers, it's a real help.

Posted by | Dec 12, 2006 | |

When Rick Schetinski starts his United Parcel Service truck each morning, he no longer worries about overlooking packages during a rapid-fire delivery schedule averaging 17 stops per hour.

Thanks to a huge computer-automation project at the Maple Grove distribution center where his truck is loaded, Schetinski receives a list on his handheld computer of everything in his truck and where it’s going. “In years past, the truck was loaded but you didn’t know what was in it” or where it was, Schetinski said. “It would take you 20 minutes a couple of times a day to go through the truck to see what you had.”

UPS says the automation system – akin to putting the Dewey Decimal System in a library to replace random book piles – is a key to handling increasing package volume, up 8 percent this year, and coping with the increased volume of holiday deliveries. The Maple Grove distribution center, one of three serving the Twin Cities, expects a peak volume of 86,000 packages a day around Dec. 20, up from 59,000 packages a day the rest of the year.
Automating a fleet of delivery trucks is quite a feat considering that the back of a United Parcel Service truck resembles a cardboard-box jungle. Hundreds of boxes and envelopes crowd the floor and eight shelves in each truck, differentiated only by small labels that spell out their destinations.

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Bilbray joins Postal Service governors

Posted by | Dec 12, 2006 | |

Former Nevada Rep. Jim Bilbray was confirmed by the Senate over the weekend to serve on the board of governors of the U.S. Postal Service until the end of 2015.

Bilbray, 68, was nominated in August by President Bush to complete the remainder of a term that expired Dec. 8, and then serve a new nine-year term.

The Senate confirmed Bilbray’s appointment as Congress closed this year’s session.

The 11-member board of governors usually meets monthly and is comparable to a board of directors for a private corporation.

Board members are paid USD30,000 a year and USD300 a day for meetings.

Bilbray, a Democrat, represented Las Vegas in the House from 1987 through 1994.

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Publishers applaud postal reform

Posted by | Dec 12, 2006 | |

The Magazine Publishers of America and the entire magazine industry are applauding the recent victory of postal reform.

Approved by both Houses of Congress on Dec. 9, the reform included resolutions for two of the magazine industry’s most important issues: Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS)/military pension funding and limiting rate increases to increases in the Consumer Price Index.

On the CSRS issue, the bill eliminates the CSRS escrow fund and returns responsibility for the military pensions of postal employees back to the U.S. Treasury.

The MPA played a key role in the mailing community’s efforts to push for the legislation, and several MPA member companies were instrumental in making the case to Congress.

Congressional leaders of reform include chairman Susan Collins and fellow senators Tom Carper and Joe Lieberman; and chairman Tom Davis and representatives Henry Waxman, John McHugh and Danny Davis from the House.

The New York based-MPA represents more than 240 domestic publishing companies with approximately 1,400 titles, more than 80 international companies and 100-plus associate service providers.

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