Tag: Royal Mail

GLS opens logistics centre in Hungary

Posted by | Apr 18, 2007 | |

GLS, headquartered in Amsterdam, launched constructions last June and spent a total of EUR 6.2 million to finish the facility.

The new unit of GLS Hungary operates with a staff of 100 employees and can deliver 12 million packages a year, business daily Világgazdaság said.

The logistics centre will give home to the Central European headquarters of GLS, where they will co-ordinate Czech and Slovakian subsidiaries from.

GLS announced a month ago today that it entered into a network partnership with Bulgaria’s Interlogistica Ltd., which started realising nationwide distribution for all GLS companies in February 2007. The network of GLS, one of the three largest CEP (courier, express and parcel) service providers in Europe, now covers 35 states.

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Postcomm announces new safeguards for management of address information

Posted by | Apr 17, 2007 | |

Postcomm, the UK’s independent postal services regulator, has today announced new safeguards for the future management of the postcode and address data contained in Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF).

PAF lists details of every postal address and postcode in the United Kingdom. As such, it is a very valuable asset for Royal Mail, since many other organisations – including new postal operators, banks, insurance companies and firms offering home delivery – need to use the information it contains.

The four key issues covered in today’s document – “Royal Mail’s future management of PAF” – are:

* The definition of PAF – what information should Royal Mail be obliged to supply? Postcomm considers that ‘PAF data’ is not only made up of postcode details, but also includes other information needed to allow users to identify specific addresses.

* The creation of an advisory board. Royal Mail has agreed to set up an advisory board to represent the views of PAF users, and has already started the recruitment process for the board’s independent chairman.

* Ringfencing of PAF. As competition develops in the mail market – and also with other suppliers of similar address data – it is crucial that Royal Mail ringfences PAF from its other activities, in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

* Profits. There is increasing demand for PAF data from a wide range of organisations, which rely very heavily on the information it provides. This puts Royal Mail in a very powerful position where setting prices is concerned. Although PAF does not fall within the ‘price control’ that Postcomm uses to set a pricing and service quality framework for Royal Mail, the company has agreed to aim for an operating profit margin in the range of 8-10%. If profits exceed this range, the excess would be either returned to customers or reinvested in PAF.

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Dutch Parliament delays decision on mail market deregulation

Posted by | Apr 13, 2007 | |

The Dutch parliament decided to postpone its decision on the deregulation of the Dutch mail market until next week, but during its debate on the topic it became clear that a large majority will support the plan to liberalize the market as from Jan. 1, 2008.

The parliament discussed a proposal by Frank Heemskerk, Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, to liberalize the Dutch mail market, which until now is dominated by TNT NV. A large majority seems willing to support the plan, although members of the parliament asked for a bit more time to come to a final decision.

There were several amendments on the proposal and they have to be discussed first. TNT, which has a monopoly in The Netherlands on mail services for all letters up to 50 grams, is against an opening of the Dutch market from the beginning of 2008 because it fears that other European countries will likely wait longer to do so.

The German parliament has already agreed on deregulation of its domestic postal market. Various German government officials, however, have expressed doubts whether the country should pursue the plans, because the French government has said it doesn’t want to open up its postal market before 2012.

There is no fixed date by which E.U. member states need to have fully deregulated their postal markets. E.U. Internal Market and Services commissioner Charlie McGreevy proposed in October last year to open up the entire European Union market by Jan. 1, 2009, but this was met with protests from many member states and a formal decision has yet to be made.

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New Royal Mail service to unite dormant account holders with savings

Posted by | Apr 13, 2007 | |

A new service developed by Royal Mail could help banks trace customers with dormant savings accounts.

A 60 per cent success rate is being claimed by the postal service for a technique which can locate account holders who have moved home but have neglected to inform their banks.

Royal Mail uses information gathered over the last 16 years from its Mail Redirection service to ascertain the whereabouts of lost customers, and the method has already completed a successful trial.

The announcement comes soon after the Commission of Unclaimed Assets confirmed it was to redouble its efforts to unite dormant account holders with their money.

“People moving home without telling their financial provider is one of the key reasons for an account or investment becoming dormant and our unique information on people who have moved home over the past 16 years helps us identify them,” said Leonora Corden, Royal Mail’s head of market development.

It is estimated that GBP15 billion is currently deposited in dormant bank accounts in the UK.

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Computerised Posties

Posted by | Apr 13, 2007 | |

The UK’s postmen and postwomen are having their rounds assessed – by a computer program called ‘Georoute’.

Georoute is routing software, designed to maximise efficiency of collection and delivery arrangements for postal operators. Royal Mail is using Georoute to help improve efficiency by ensuring that routes are well planned.

There are potential problems however. Some postal workers say that it will be used as a method of timing walks without taking into account varying weather conditions and indeed the working speed of any particular postie, let alone extras like recorded or special delivery items which take extra time. Some even claim that it can be as much as an hour out.

To be fair, Georoute isn’t human. It can only work with the information supplied to it and since it doesn’t actually do deliveries itself, it does lack that all imprtant human factor. One wonders if the expence of introducing it will make sufficient savings to make it worthwhile but clearly its difficult to allocate or change existing postal walks purely on a paper map.

Computers are extraordinarily good at working out complex calculations that would tax even Einstein but to be really accurate, the software needs set figures to work from. Variables can only create ‘averages’ at best. The concern for postal workers is that it will be used to create set time frames in which they are expected to carry out their duties, that doesn’t take into account the variables, and could mean they are not paid fairly.

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