Philip Alliet, 39, was appointed new Chairman of TNT Innight Management Europe GmbH and the German TNT Innight Innight GmbH & CO. Kg branch.
Mr Alliet’s new tasks include focusing on the niche market night express. Mr Alliet was a former Group Director of Parcels and Express at Belgium’s La Poste.
Read MoreTNT Express France expects to triple its home delivery volumes this Christmas thanks to the e-commerce boom in France, and handle a total of about six million express parcels in December.
For the Christmas period this year, the number of online orders is expected to be much higher than for the same period in 2006. The French association Fevad (Federation of e-commerce and mail order trading) expects a turnover of EUR 3 billion in online shopping in France this year which would amount to a 22 pct increase compared to Christmas 2006. Some traders are expecting a tenfold increase in online sales.
TNT Express France, which is the delivery partner for about 150 online retail sites, said it has adapted the capacity and resources of its operational network to cope with the strong rise in the quantity of parcels to be delivered to consumers.
TNT will ensure express delivery of presents on Saturday 22 December as well as Monday 24 December. As part of the special service, TNT will offer a 24-hour delivery service until Christmas Eve.
This innovative service ensures maximum comfort especially when it comes to home delivery, TNT said. If consumers are not at home at the time of delivery, the parcels are automatically transported to the next Relais Colis parcel drop-off point. The recipient is then informed by SMS where the item can be picked up. TNT uses a network of 3,800 Relais Colis networks.
Read More2007 Xerox Corporation Services Mail & Distribution Market Forecast and Process Overview
Read MoreThe liberalisation of the Dutch postal market will not go ahead as planned on 1 January 2008 due to the “lack of a level playing field”, notably caused by the introduction of a minimum wage for postmen in Germany. The delay highlights the difficulties linked to the practical implementation of new EU rules on opening up European postal markets to competition.
The delay, which was announced to members of the Dutch Parliament by Junior Economy Minister Frank Heemskerk on 6 December, came in response to a German government decision last week to introduce a EUR 8- EUR 9.80 per hour minimum wage for postal workers.
In a vote last June, the Dutch Parliament had made full market opening as of 2008 conditional to the existence of a level-playing field in Germany – the main target for market expansion by the Netherlands’ principal mail distributor, TNT.
However, the fear is that the German move to introduce a minimum wage that is 20-30 pct higher than TNT’s current average price per hour will shield the formerly state-owned mail monopoly Deutsche Post from any competition and “endanger the creation of a level playing field” across Europe.
Thus, despite having battled side-by-side with Germany to push through speedier liberalisation of European postal markets, the Dutch government now believes that “the introduction of the postal law from 1 January 2008 would not be prudent,” according to Heemskerk. He did not give another date for full liberalisation, saying things “should become clearer by mid-2008”.
Read MoreThe Netherlands will postpone the full opening of its mail market, originally due in January, partly because the government fears Germany’s plans to introduce a minimum wage for postal workers will impede competition there.
One condition for the market opening in the Netherlands was a level playing field in Germany. Dominant Dutch mail company TNT argues that does not exist because the planned minimum wage is set too high for it to compete effectively with Deutsche Post.
Dutch Junior Economy Minister Frank Heemskerk said it was unclear what would happen in Germany, adding that discussion surrounding labour conditions for mailmen in the Netherlands was also still fluid.
TNT separately announced that it had settled all outstanding tax matters in Britain and that it planned to raise its dividend payout ratio to 40 percent of normalised net income by 2010 from the current 35 percent. “The introduction of the postal law from January 1, 2008, would not be prudent, and we thus should not do it,” Heemskerk told a parliament committee in The Hague. He said he expected the situation to become clearer in the first half of 2008.
The economy ministry has previously said that the market opening should ideally coincide with the fiscal year of mail companies, or at least with the beginning of a quarter. Both Deutsche Post, which competes with TNT in the Netherlands, and privately-held mail company Sandd sharply criticised the move.
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