Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail says siphoned-off aid claim ‘nonsense’ (UK)

Posted by | Jul 26, 2008 | |

Royal Mail rejected suggestion that millions of pounds of state aid intended to maintain vital rural post office services may be siphoned off to help pay for postal deliveries.
A spokesman for the group said the suggestion in a report from the all-party Commons business and enterprise committee, which sparked outrage among north and north-east MPs, is “complete nonsense”.
He was replying to a special report from the committee which also urged the independent watchdog National Audit Office “investigate the financial arrangements for outreach services”. Tory Chairman Peter Luff said his committee had heard evidence from Post Office Managing Director Alan Cook that the GBP 358million it receives from Royal Mail does not cover the cost of services it provides.
He said: “It is possible that this is down to inefficiency at Post Office Ltd, but it is also possible that it is because Royal Mail Group is inappropriately using Post Office Ltd, which receives some state support, to cross-subsidise its mail services.”
The spokesman said: “It’s complete nonsense to suggest that Royal Mail uses Post Office to subsidise the mails business and as Post Office Ltd made very clear, the issue is that it costs too much to run the post office network at a time when government and other traditional business is falling away.” He said so-called “outreach” services – which the committee feared are underfunded – “are one way to establish a commercially viable and successful business for a SubPostmaster providing services across a number of communities within the funding available from the government.”

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General debate sets tone for UPU Congress

Posted by | Jul 25, 2008 | |

Decision-makers from the international community today participated in a high-level general debate during the 24th Universal Postal Congress. Themed “The postal sector, an essential component of the global economy”, the debate gathered stakeholders from the larger postal sector.

The World Trade Organization stressed the crucial role infrastructures such as postal services play in international trade. For the International Monetary Fund, the postal sector has a considerable impact on the reduction of trade costs. For its part, the World Bank noted the importance of money transfer services for migrants, adding that postal operators were in a unique position to offer such services so essential to development. The Russian Post said postal networks could work with banks to offer additional services and increase their revenues.

eBay International noted the role of postal services in the distribution of millions of items bought online annually. However, many online shoppers still hesitate to order goods from abroad. Only 20 pct of goods purchased on eBay sites cross borders. Citing high shipment costs and a need for improved quality of service, eBay urged postal operators to find solutions to these issues.

The Tunisian Post showed how the Government has made postal services part of a national policy to promote the information society by using the Post as a trusted intermediary in the electronic world and as a facilitator of e-commerce. On a regional level, the African Union expressed its desire to integrate postal services in its regional infrastructure development plan, as it does with water, electricity, telecommunications and transportation.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) finally invited the postal sector to take part in a worldwide awareness campaign on environment challenges. Thanks to an agreement signed in April between the UPU and UNEP, postal operators will work together on greening the postal sector.

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Postal Operators – Fuel prices hitting profits

Posted by | Jul 24, 2008 | |

Higher fuel prices are having an impact on operating profit for all postal operators, and with many European countries already investing in alternative fuel sources, the U.S. Postal Service is now looking for ways to reduce it’s annual fuel bill, expected to increase by USD 600m this year.

The U.S. Postal Service has around 195,000 local delivery trucks and is already testing alternative transport powered by hydrogen, ethanol, lpg, and electricity.

French postal operator La Poste has a long-term plan to replace as much of its fleet as possible with electrically powered cars and is already using the battery-powered CleaNova, produced by Société de Véhicules Electriques (SVE), a joint venture between Dassault and Heuliez. Italian postal operator, Poste Italiane, has continued to replace many of its vehicles with gas-powered versions and has carried out several trials on alternative fuel vehicles, with special interest on serial-hybrid vans.

Royal mail aims to reduce its fleet fossil fuel usage by 14 pct by 2010 and has already bought Smith Edison and Newton higher function delivery vehicles which have a top speed of up to 50mph and can cover up to 150 miles on one battery charge. Royal Mail recently launched a company wide awareness programme to help its 180,000 people switch to greener driving, whether for social or work driving. And almost 1,000 Royal Mail drivers have received in-depth classroom training to help them adopt more environmentally-friendly motoring practices with plans to train a further 2,000 in the coming months.

With petrol and diesel prices expected to stay high this year, alternative fuels are likely to play a greater part in the selection of replacement vehicles for most postal operators.

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Royal Mail bosses under pressure for closing profitable branches (UK)

Posted by | Jul 24, 2008 | |

MPs warn in a new report that post offices in pubs and shops could be at risk because of inadequate funding and call for more transparency in the way Royal Mail treats its public subsidy.
Ministers have told Royal Mail to close 2,500 out of 14,000 branches in a bid to cut the network’s annual subsidy by GBP 40million to GBP 150million a year and stem losses running at GBP 4million a week.
However, Paula Vennells, Post Office Limited’s branch network director, told MPs on the Business and Enterprise committee that some of the condemned branches were making money.
She disclosed that 10 profitable branches will be closed during the 18 month-long Network Change Programme – or just over one every six weeks.
The committee’s chairman Peter Luff, who is publishing the report into the financial viability of the post office network, said it “made no sense” to allow profitable post offices to close.
The committee calls on the National Audit Office to investigate the financial arrangements for so-called ‘outreach’ services which Royal Mail is setting up when it has to close branches.
They call for close examination of the relationship between Post Office and its parent company Royal Mail Group after finding that money provided by Royal Mail was not enough for the Post Office to run its services.
The MPs also said Royal Mail should provide “clear information” on what services Royal Mail expects to be provided, how it works out what to pay for them, and how much they actually cost to deliver.
They questioned whether Royal Mail was using the Post Office to “cross-subsidise” some of its mail services. Last year the network received GBP 358 million for providing mail services to Royal Mail.

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GLS inaugurates depot in Tyrol

Posted by | Jul 23, 2008 | |

The parcel and express service provider GLS Austria has opened a new EUR 2 million depot in Zirl (Tyrol, Austria). The facility’s 50 workers and drivers can handle up to 15,000 parcels a day. The 1,650 sqm handling hall with 57 docking stations is located on a 12,000 sqm plot of land directly adjacent to the Inntal motorway. Construction was completed in less than three months, the staff and equipment moved in last weekend, and a few hours later the depot went on stream, and has already processed its first shipments.

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