Tag: North America

UPS freight improves transit times to draw major markets closer

Posted by | Aug 25, 2008 | |

UPS Freight announced improved transit times on more than 1,200 traffic lanes originating in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. This marks the second time in just four months that the heavy freight division of UPS has enhanced its network.

New two-day lanes now in effect include Chicago to Dallas, Boston to St. Louis and Philadelphia to Miami. The enhancements also expand the next-day footprint of UPS Freight. Shipments moving from Cincinnati to Memphis and Columbus, Ohio, to Charlotte, N.C., now will deliver overnight.

Other originating major markets with reduced transit times include Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New York City and Newark, N.J. The faster transit times will bring cities as far as southern California, Arizona and Utah to within two and three days of these originating cities.

Earlier this year, UPS Freight announced new on-time performance guarantees. Those guarantees will be extended to the enhanced transit times announced today at no additional cost.

In May, UPS Freight announced it had improved transit times on nearly 1,000 traffic lanes originating in metropolitan areas in the Southwest and Southeast to points across the United States.

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U.S. Postal Service tests new hydrogen fuel cell vehicle

Posted by | Aug 25, 2008 | |

In an agreement with General Motors, the Postal Service is participating in a two-year test of the fourth-generation electric vehicle in Irvine, Calif. With a fleet of 220,000 vehicles across the country, the Postal Service is in a good position to help drive the hydrogen market, if the vehicles eventually become commercially viable, said Richard Maher, a USPS spokesman in Irvine.

The ultra-quiet vehicle is a little disquieting for most drivers initially, because they wonder if it’s actually running, he said.

Roz Sell, commercial program manager for General Motors fuel cell commercialization office, says the Postal Service offers an ideal setting for testing. The agency is using the vehicle for regular mail delivery six days a week with lots of starts and stops.

It also helps promote the hydrogen fuel cell concept to the public when they see the vehicle being operated safely and effectively.

Every time the vehicle is refueled, the hydrogen pump collects data about the fuel cell and automatically sends it to General Motors engineers, who monitor the vehicle’s performance remotely, Sell said.

The most limiting factor right now is the hydrogen fuel itself. There are only two pumps in the country that offer public access, one in Washington and one near Los Angeles. “It’s been discouraging how slow energy companies have been bringing [hydrogen] online,” she said.

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Canada Post Survey says: Remind me to pay the bills

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

Many Canadians, particularly younger ones, say they would value a friendly email reminder to get their monthly bills paid on time, according to a new national poll.
About 50 per cent of Canadians surveyed in the 18-to-35 age group agreed that a monthly email reminder to get bills paid on time would be helpful. That compares with just 24 per cent in the 55-plus age group and 35 per cent in the 35-to-54 group, according to a survey commissioned by Canada Post’s online bill delivery service epost™.
Considerably more Canadian men overall (43 per cent) said they could use a monthly email reminder to get bills paid on time, compared to 32 per cent of women polled.

Canada Post’s epost service – the secure, online, environmentally-friendly way to receive and pay bills – can provide that email reminder.

The survey also found that 69 per cent of Canadians are paying their bills online. epost extends that convenience by delivering bills to one secure location.

With epost, documents are securely stored for up to seven years, simplifying record keeping for Canadians – good news for the 30 per cent of Canadians who say they currently save bills in a box or envelope, according to the survey. A further one per cent of British Columbians and one per cent of Atlantic Canadians admitted to keeping their bills “in a pile”. Just 11 per cent of Canadians store their bills online, a number that jumps to 18 per cent in the Maritimes.

The survey was conducted online on July 30, 2008 by Angus Reid Strategies and involved a sampling of 1,010 Canadians.

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NUPGE concerned postal review will lead to deregulation

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has written Canada Post expressing concern that a “strategic review process” currently under way by the Crown corporation may set the stage for “deregulation of our public postal system.”

“Our first concern is that the review process does not include public input,” NUPGE secretary-treasurer Larry Brown says in a letter to the agency.

“As the public continues to be the owner of Canada Post, public hearings in multiple locations across Canada would be the most appropriate course of action. This is not happening,” Brown writes.

“Our second concern is the impact that deregulating the postal service will have on the quality, universality and environmental impact of postal delivery.”

Brown says the public, small businesses and non-profit organizations all rely on a regulated post office to provide reasonably priced service in all regions of Canada – one of the largest countries in the world.

“A regulated public postal service that has exclusive rights for letter delivery is able to set fair rates that are sufficient to defray the costs incurred by this vast public service,” he argues.

“Canadians expect that any profits obtained by their postal service will be invested in improvements of the service, like post offices, rural delivery and door-to-door delivery. The non-profit aspect is important to Canadians.”

Brown argues that deregulation threatens affordable service by opening up mail delivery to profit driven businesses, a development that has led in other countries to fewer jobs, less service and higher rates for both the public and business.

“Postal rates in far smaller countries, like the U.K. and Sweden, have increased at a much greater rate than in Canada after these countries deregulated their service,” he notes.

Brown also says a well regulated service ensures that good environmental practices are followed. “With a competitive model and many companies delivering in the same community, greenhouse gas emissions would be multiplied. … A regulated system is more environmentally friendly.”

He also notes that it is in the national interest to protect the jobs – with good wages and working conditions – that now exist at Canada Post. “A deregulated postal system would destroy jobs and transform good jobs to bad jobs with a profit-driven model where wages and benefits compete with bottom line profits,” he adds.

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USPS eyes early retirement offers for 130,000 employees

Posted by | Aug 21, 2008 | |

The U.S. Postal Service extended early retirement offers to 3,200 headquarters employees Wednesday and said the offer could eventually be extended to as many as 130,000 employees nationwide — nearly 20 percent of the work force.

The latest offer is restricted to headquarters employees at least 50 years old and with at least 20 years of service, or to those with 25 years of service regardless of age.
No financial incentives or bonuses will be paid to employees who decide to retire. In addition, employees under the Civil Service Retirement System who take the offer will have their annuities reduced by 2 percent for every year they are under 55. There is no similar reduction for employees in the Federal Employees Retirement System.
Under the plan, announced yesterday, 3,200 headquarters employees and employees in headquarters-related jobs who meet the minimum age and length-of-service restrictions will be able to retire.

This includes career executives and other managers at the agency’s L’Enfant Plaza headquarters in Washington and at related facilities, including the Engineering and Development Center in Merrifield, Va., and at postal data centers, spokesman Greg Frey said.

A timeline for when those eligible employees must decide and take early retirements hasn’t been set, he said.

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