Tag: UK

Express couriers launch fresh online services

Posted by | Mar 10, 2008 | |

Several leading global and national express companies operating in Asian markets have begun 2008 by introducing new electronic/online service enhancements for customers. On the international front, that group includes TNT, FedEx and DHL, while at a national level, one recent example of such a development involves Indian operator Elbee Express.
Netherlands-based TNT last month announced its intention to offer secured electronic invoices with digital signature in over 30 countries, including several key Asian markets, by the end of March.

TNT explained that the new service, called Express Invoicing, was due to be made available to customers in most European countries, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, adding that the web-based e-invoicing solution would be free of charge.

TNT said it already offered e-invoices in 37 countries around the world, with another 10 countries preparing to introduce the paperless invoice this year. The company estimated it could eventually eliminate up to one million paper invoices per month.

For customers, claimed TNT, the e-invoicing service reduced paper processing costs and improved the accounts payable management process.

The latest electronic enhancement announced by US-based FedEx, also in February, involves providing users of e-mail application Microsoft Office Outlook with the ability to connect directly to FedEx shipping services.

This year has also seen DHL Express, part of German group Deutsche Post World Net, unveil DHL Ship Now, an online programme offering “a fast and seamless method for sending parcels to any destination inside or outside the country”. DHL said that facility enabled shipments to be booked directly over the internet without a DHL account number.

Meanwhile, Elbee Express claims to have become the first Indian express delivery company to offer customers the facility to access business information relating to their consignments and the ability to generate reports based on that data customised to their own needs.

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Fears for hundreds of Liverpool Royal Mail jobs

Posted by | Mar 10, 2008 | |

Empty collection vans outside the Royal Mail depot at Copperas Hill, Liverpool _320

Hundreds of postal jobs are under threat today over fears that Liverpool’s Copperas Hill sorting office could be axed.

Workers’ representatives fear a new review of resources could resurrect plans to shut the city centre site and transfer work to Warrington.

Mail officials tried to switch the work in 1997 in a proposed shake-up.

Royal Mail is half way through a six-week review of north west postal centres.

Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) Merseyside branch secretary Mark Walsh believes Royal Mail are ready to return with closure plans.

He has called a meeting on Sunday lunchtime to bring postal workers up to date with the review.

Since the last study there has been no investment in new technology at Copperas Hill.

Mr Walsh said the most modern machine, which could handle A4 envelopes, was removed last October while his members were on unofficial strike.

The review was a response to a fall in the amount of mail moving around seven mail centres within a 50-mile radius.

Mr Walsh fears redundancies will be necessary adding to what he claimed were 1,000 Merseyside job losses in the past 11 years, including 500 at a former Bootle parcels depot.

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Post-Switch Urges Bulk Mailers to Consider Alternatives to Royal Mail

Posted by | Mar 10, 2008 | |

Independent postal broking agency, Post-Switch is urging high volume mailers to reduce postage costs by switching from Royal Mail before it puts up its prices.

On April 2nd 2007, Royal Mail raised first class postage by 2p and second class by 1p and its commercial service ‘MailSort’ increased tariff prices by 1 pct – 3.8 pct. As part of its pricing agreement up to 2010, Royal Mail is proposing a further price hike in April 2008 of 6p.

Post-Switch is an impartial postal broker, providing expert advice on matching direct mail to the most suitable supplier at the optimum tariff. Set up in 2006, Post-Switch is part of integrated communications group, Kingfisher. It understands where savings can be made on postage and will negotiate with up to 20 rival postal providers including DHL, UPS, and TNT to achieve the best price and the best delivery date.

Post-Switch already handles over one million items of mail each month and is working with high volume mailers like Marie Curie Cancer Care and NSPCC as well as commercial operator, Network Rail. The service offered by Post-Switch delivers direct mail campaigns in 48 hours and can secure savings of up to 22.5 pct against MailSort charges.

To incentivise companies to switch from Royal Mail to another provider, Post-Switch is offering those who sign up before 2nd April a postal price freeze until the end of 2007. This means that mailings will only cost the same unit rate for the rest of the year. So, if the rival operators to Royal Mail also raise their prices, Post-Switch clients will not be affected by the increase.

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Online health check initiative for Royal Mail staff

Posted by | Mar 10, 2008 | |

Royal Mail has launched two schemes to improve the health and wellbeing of its 180,000-strong employees.

An online health checking and assessment service will let staff analyse their lifestyles and design improvement plans by accessing information on a range of areas, from nutrition to stress and exercise.

The organisation is also recruiting of a team of health trainers who will help workers to improve their health through advice and practical support.

Royal Mail is one of the leading organisations in the UK in terms of providing occupational health support to its workforce. Absenteeism at the group has fallen from 7% to 5% in the past three years.

Dr Steve Boorman, Royal Mail director of corporate responsibility, said: “As the government increasingly looks to employers to promote and sustain the health and wellbeing of UK workers, our experience provides a useful benchmark for organisations and businesses looking to reduce the impact of absence on their operations.”

Ben Willmott, employee relations adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: “These two initiatives show that Royal Mail is serious about proactively supporting employee health rather than simply managing employee absence.”

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Royal Mail – pension deal is best we can offer (UK)

Posted by | Mar 10, 2008 | |

The Communication Workers Union and Royal Mail are still in disagreement over plans to introduce reforms to the pension scheme on April 1st 2008.

Royal Mail says that the increasing cost of maintaining the pension fund comes as the business faces intensifying competition in the open postal market with one in five of all letters now collected by rival companies, while mail volumes continue to fall and electronic communications increase. Royal Mail is currently making annual payments of around GBP 850 million to cover both ongoing contributions and the funding of the pension fund deficit

The CWU, in a letter to union representatives, said that it recognised that there is strong opposition to ending the Final Salary Scheme and to moving retirement to age 65.

The CWU said it was committed to listening to the views expressed during the consultation and that Royal Mail had moved ahead with a change to the pension scheme without allowing a proper consultation and ballot to take place. On that basis it would recommend that Royal Mail’s plans be rejected.

The union is asking the government and Trustees to “find alternative and more acceptable solutions.”

It also said that if Royal Mail secure agreement from the Trustees it is likely that Royal Mail would proceed with its decision from the 1st April, in which case, if CWU members supported a rejection of the company’s plans in the Consultative Ballot, the CWU would intensify its campaign.

No mention was made of industrial action or an alternative proposal, other than that one should be sought. The union insisted that any changes introduced by Royal Mail were reversible.

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