Tag: South America

Postal services: providing local access to international markets

Posted by | Nov 21, 2007 | |

Speaking yesterday at the World Trade Organization’s “Aid for Trade” conference in Geneva, the UPU Director General called attention to postal services’ role in stimulating international trade, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. Edouard Dayan cited as an example the Brazilian Post’s successful “Exporta Fácil” (“Easy Exporting”) project, felt to be among the most innovative international trade initiatives. Using Exporta Fácil, available at over 8,000 post offices as well as on the Internet, small and medium-sized Brazilian businesses let the postal operator take care of their exports, handling the entire logistics side, as well as completing customs export formalities. “Using this service, 6,000 businesses that had never exported before were able to access external markets in 2006,” said Dayan. “This is a concrete indicator of the postal network’s impact on a developing country’s ability to engage in world trade.” With over 660,000 post offices in 191 countries, mostly located in outlying areas, the postal sector is the world’s biggest physical distribution network. By revitalizing the trade infrastructure, it can help small and medium-sized businesses take advantage of the globalization of trade. Dayan added that the postal sector, with its physical, electronic and financial capabilities, wished to develop partnerships to help provide greater openness to international trade. The UPU’s regional approach to development and initiatives such as the integrated postal development plans, developed to gain government commitment to the postal sector, are in line with the orientations felt necessary to help developing countries take advantage of worldwide trade.

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UPS Applauds New U.S. – Peru Free Trade Deal

Posted by | Nov 13, 2007 | |

UPS today congratulated members of the House of Representatives for the strong bipartisan support of the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

“The new agreement between the United States and Peru removes significant trade barriers and provides important economic opportunities for the citizens and businesses of both countries,” said Alan Gershenhorn, president of UPS International. “The new trade opportunities will help increase global competitiveness for both economies.”

In the past three years, U.S. commerce with Peru has doubled, totaling more than $8.8 billion in 2006. More than 5,000 U.S. companies currently export to Peru, the vast majority being small- and medium-sized companies that will benefit from the provisions within the trade agreement.

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Bar codes boost Jamaica's mail tracking

Posted by | Nov 5, 2007 | |

The term ‘high-tech’ is usually associated with some element of computer use, so it’s not surprising that the new bar-coded labels being introduced by the Jamaican postal administration for tracking registered mail utilise a digital format for data to be captured by a computerised scanner.

“Incorporating technology, that’s the only way forward,” says Postmaster General/CEO, Michael Gentles. He outlined that this development was born out of ongoing negotiations between the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and all member countries for the creation of a single data-recording format to be used internationally for tracking specific mail items.

Gentles said, “We will be implementing this bar-coded label format for registered letters as an element in advancing the pace of postal service modernisation. This computerised method presents significant advantages for reducing processing time and errors from manual data input, and will boost efficiency in this aspect of our service.”

The bar code begins with the letters ‘RR’ followed by nine digits and end with the letters ‘JM’. Tracking for parcels being sent overseas has been benefiting from this bar-coded label arrangement since 2002. At this time, in concert with many other postal administrations globally, Jamaica has now added the bar-code tracking system to registered mail. This major modernisation project for registered items will, however, initially begin with the bar-coded labels being utilised only for registered mail being sent overseas.

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Sunday collections end

Posted by | Oct 3, 2007 | |

After 17 years, Royal Mail is set to abolish Sunday postal collections throughout the UK from October 28.

With low volumes of mail posted on Sunday the cost of providing this service is disproportionately high.

Claire Prosser, the policy executive at the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group, which includes Swindon, said: “As the vast majority of Royal Mail’s 115,000 letter boxes have never had a Sunday collection, the abolition of this service will have little effect on business.

“Only 50 UK businesses currently have a Sunday collection service, representing only 0.74 per cent of total volume.

“This means that it costs four times as much to handle Sunday post than items collected on other days.

“Royal Mail’s proposals may affect a minority of customers; however there are many clear benefits that abolition of this service will have.

“The reduction in Royal Mail’s overall operating costs will increase the assurance that the service can be delivered at an affordable price.

“It will also help reduce carbon emissions of approximately 10,000 ton per annum.

“Royal Mail must however tread carefully: With continued strikes, decrease in service and increase in costs, many loyal customers may lose confidence in Royal Mail, further spurring them to adopt the services of Royal Mail’s competitors.”

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