Tag: North America

USPS uses transportation modeling to reduce transportation costs

Posted by | Sep 9, 2008 | |

ILOG announced that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has realized over USD 5 million in annual savings through a strategic transportation management initiative. Developed by USPS and IBM using ILOG CPLEX(R) optimization software, the Highway Corridor Analytic Program (HCAP) uses advanced technology to analyze USPS highway transportation scenarios and identify cost saving opportunities. The HCAP model examines routing and scheduling options to minimize costs while meeting business goals – leading to a savings of over USD 10 million in the two years since the model was deployed in 2006.

The USPS transportation network is large and complex – including responsibility for shipping over 200 billion pieces of mail per year through a system of transportation networks – and accommodates many different levels of services to its customers. The USPS network must consider different classes of mail, including Priority, First Class, and Standard, as well as different types of mail, such as letters, flats, and parcels. These complexities of various mail sizes, weights, and classes, coupled with the large scale of the USPS network, create a challenging environment in which to plan and manage transportation.

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Canada Post makes submission to Strategic Review panel – Reinforces service commitment to Canadians

Posted by | Sep 8, 2008 | |

Canada Post has delivered its submission to the Strategic Review Panel. The submission highlights the company’s achievements and challenges, and makes recommendations that will allow Canada Post to fulfill its enduring service promise to Canadians and meet its requirement to be financially self-sustainable.
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, and Minister responsible for Canada Post, announced the strategic review of Canada Post last April, noting that the panel would be guided by established terms of reference, to ensure Canada Post has the right tools and means to fulfill its mandate in the future.
“We recognize the importance of maintaining and improving our service to Canadians”, said Mr. Marc Courtois, Chairman of Canada Post’s Board of Directors. “We value our presence in all communities across the country, both rural and urban, and our proud record of not being a burden on taxpayers for the last 13 years”.
The review comes at an appropriate time for the company. Canada Post has embarked on a major revitalization project, which will see it invest approximately CAD 2.5B in the coming years to modernize its infrastructure and technology. Once complete, it will help to deliver enhanced services to customers more effectively while improving conditions for employees.
“Canada Post remains committed to continuing to meet the evolving needs of our customers”, said Moya Greene, Canada Post’s president and CEO. “But the competitive landscape that we deal with requires innovation to respond to higher customer expectations. Canada Post requires timely capital renewal if we are to remain relevant and to be the service provider of choice in what is increasingly a technology-driven business”.

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UPS celebrates new hub opening (U.S)

Posted by | Sep 5, 2008 | |

UPS executives and local dignitaries officially dedicated a large, state-of-the-art package sorting hub to support ground operations in Louisville.

The 258,390-square-foot sorting and distribution facility, known as the Louisville Centennial Hub, employs more than 1,100 people and houses approximately 180 delivery vehicles with room for future expansion.

UPS built the new ground hub after deciding to expand its Worldport global air hub. Ground operations had been located in a facility on Ashbottom Lane adjacent to the airport but that land was needed for the air hub’s expansion. The Centennial Hub was built on a 54-acre site on Air Commerce Dr.

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USPS looks to change Move Update requirements

Posted by | Sep 5, 2008 | |

New proposed changes to the US Postal Service’s Move Update program would require businesses to update their bulk-mailing lists every 95 days, instead of the current 185 days.

The proposed new standard, which pertains to Standard or First-Class Mail pieces, would take effect on November 23. It is intended to reduce costs and waste from undeliverable bulk mail 50 pct by 2010, the USPS said.

According to the USPS, an estimated 9.7 billion pieces of undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mail are received every year, costing around USD 2 billion to process.

Companies that fail to comply can be charged 7 cents for each piece of mail in a mailing. Previously, there were no fines for mailings that had a considerable amount of undeliverable mail.

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DHL pulls plug on March Air Reserve Base-Hong Kong flight

Posted by | Sep 4, 2008 | |

A DHL flight linking Riverside and Hong Kong cargo will take off and land at Los Angeles International Airport instead starting Oct. 26.

The shift will leave DHL with an average of four daily flights at March Air Reserve Base. DHL landed at the airport in 2005 and had eight daily flights at its height.

A pending agreement with shipping competitor UPS could eventually leave DHL without any flights at its 262,000-square- foot Riverside hub.

The route was considered an international flight, DHL’s only foreign-bound flight from March, because it concluded in Hong Kong after connecting in Alaska.

That leaves DHL with a handful of late-night domestic flights that face an uncertain future at the company’s Inland hub.

Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster said the developer’s master plan and DHL’s cutbacks could give commission members a second chance to take a broader look at what makes good business sense and be more aggressive in seeking landing fees and revenues from the companies that land at March.

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