Tag: South America

Brazilian postal service may order Embraer C-390 freighters

Posted by | Sep 4, 2007 | |

The Brazilian postal service has emerged as a potential launch customer for Embraer’s proposed C-390 tactical transport aircraft.

Hélio Costa, Brazil’s minister of communications says the Empresa de Correios e Telégrafos (ECT) may launch its own cargo carrier next year to meet its domestic transport requirements.

The airline would initially operate a fleet of five aircraft, which could grow to between 20 and 25 by early next decade. The ECT is yet to select an aircraft type, but chief executive Carlos Henrique Almeida Custódio says that Embraer’s C-390 tactical transport aircraft is under consideration due to its favourable payload compared with other freighters in its class.

Custódio adds that the ECT has held preliminary talks with the Brazilian manufacturer. Meanwhile communications minister Costa says that Brazil’s communications and defence ministries may push for development of the C-390 to be accelerated.

The ECT believes an in-house cargo carrier could generate annual revenues of around USD 255 million by tapping into the growing e-commerce market. During the first half of 2007 e-commerce-related shipments generated USD 1.35 billion in sales for the ECT, up 49 USD compared with the same period last year.

The ECT’s airline studies are steering it towards a joint venture with a private company, although the postal service would retain a controlling stake in the new company. It would make a final decision on aircraft selection with its joint-venture partner.
The ECT spends about USD 230 million annually on air transport services provided by carriers such as Beta, Skymaster and VarigLog, and has struggled to renew these annual contracts at what it considers to be reasonable prices.

Custódio says that the ECT “cannot be [held] hostage to operators”, which led to the country’s public accounting bureau ordering the postal service to find other solutions for its air transport needs.

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UPU and PUASP organize first training workshop for Latin America in Ecuador

Posted by | Aug 31, 2007 | |

Within the framework of a regional development plan (RDP) drawn up jointly by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal (PUASP), the two organizations teamed up with Correos del Ecuador to organize a training course in Quito from 21 to 23 August 2007.

The purpose of this workshop, which brought together specialists from some twenty Latin American postal operators, was two-fold: first, to encourage postal operators to adopt management tools to attract and maintain the loyalty of large customers, strengthen their business relations and increase their revenues; and second, to put in place a regional action plan, based on exchanges of experience, aimed at organizing the management of large customers and small- and medium-sized businesses.

The participants, which included the PUASP Secretary General, Serrana BASSINI, and the UPU Deputy Director General, Guozhong HUANG, as well as experts from their respective organizations and the region’s operators, took careful stock of the situation and identified potential market niches in areas such as parcels, marketing of existing services and value-added products.

This Latin American postal market development agreement, which will be monitored and supported by the PUASP and the UPU, will lead to three pilot projects geared towards increasing operators’ ability to manage large customers. Processes providing for the incorporation of business mail into operators’ market development activities will also be developed.

Through this project, the UPU and the PUASP wish to emphasize the importance of coordinating actions to increase the capacity of Posts to meet the needs of large customers, namely domestic public services and major export companies.

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E-commerce grows 50 pct per year in Brazil

Posted by | Aug 28, 2007 | |

At a growth rate of 50 pct a year, electronic commerce is emerging as a new business alternative for micro- and small businesses. According to the consultant at the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce, Edílson Flausino, business via internet already account for 17 pct of sales by companies that use the system professionally.

Lemuel Costa e Silva, Electronic Commerce manager at the Department of Postal Service Business and Operations on the Internet, said that approximately eight million people throughout the Brazilian territory buy products at virtual stores.

Lemuel cited store chain Lojas Americanas as an example of successful electronic commerce in the country, as he explained that ‘americanas.com’ is responsible for up to 40pct of the company’s business. The manager presented the postal service’s Correios NetShopping as one of the options for entrepreneurs to sell via the internet: “we can host stores and create links to companies in our Website.”

Fabíola Cordeiro, product manager at e-bit Informação, a company that provides information on electronic commerce, was established in 1999, and pioneered the conduction of surveys on e-commerce habits and trends in Brazil, states that around 1,000 virtual stores in the country are currently listed on e-bit: “the figure tends to grow from 41 pct to 76 pct each year.”

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Agreement expands Western Union's intra-country money transfer services in Chile

Posted by | Aug 27, 2007 | |

The Western Union Company announced it has entered into an agreement with EGT of Chile, a holding company for several transportation providers including Tur-Bus, to offer intra-country Western Union-branded services.

With this agreement, Western Union intra-country services will be offered at approximately 500 locations, including all Tur-Bus locations throughout Chile. EGT, in addition to other Western Union Agents in Chile, already offers Western Union outbound money-transfer services to Western Union Agent locations worldwide.

This agreement will enhance Western Union’s domestic money-transfer business using Tur-Bus and EGT’s network of locations. The Agent locations will begin offering Western Union intra-country services by the end of the year.

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DHL delivers help to earthquake victims in Peru

Posted by | Aug 21, 2007 | |

Deutsche Post World Net has joined the international relief effort to help victims of the earthquake disaster in Peru. The DHL Disaster Response Team (DRT) for the Americas region is supporting the National Civil Defense Institute at the Pisco Air Force Base with its logistics know-how. The city of Pisco, 250 kilometers south of Peru’s capital Lima, is located in the region that is severely affected by the earthquake. DHL in 2005 entered into a humanitarian partnership with OCHA, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to improve disaster response. Deutsche Post World Net Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Klaus Zumwinkel: “This is part of our corporate social responsibility program.”

The DRT Americas, based in South Florida, and DRT Asia Pacific, based in Singapore, were both set up last year. A third DRT for the region Middle East and Africa is planned for this year so that DHL will be able to offer its humanitarian support worldwide. The DRTs, whose services are provided, free of charge, each draw on a pool of about 80 DHL employees. Up to 15 DHL expert volunteers are on the scene at any one time.

In recent years, DHL and its employees have gained extensive experience in disaster relief management and are able to react quickly and in a professional manner to sudden natural disasters. The company has already used its transport and logistics skills as part of relief efforts launched after the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast region and the earthquake in northern Pakistan. DHL for years has been active in the countries it does business in to live up to its social responsibility standards.

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