Tag: UK

Postcomm consults on Royal Mail's request for exemption from some publication requirements for its Tailor Made Incentives

Posted by | Feb 28, 2008 | |

– On 17 August 2007, Royal Mail applied for a Direction from Postcomm for exemption from certain aspects of Condition 7, regarding publishing on its website particular details relating to Tailor Made Incentives (TMIs).
– On 28 February 2008, Postcomm issued a “minded to” consultation letter seeking views on Royal Mail’s request for exemption and Postcomm’s initial assessment of this request.
It is important for Postcomm to get the views of stakeholders including other licensed postal operators, postal users, Postwatch, trade associations and other interested parties in the postal sector, and we will consider carefully these views in making our decision on Royal Mail’s request.

The consultation will be open for three months and closes on Friday 30 May 2008. Postcomm will then assess the responses received and meet interested parties to discuss the consultation as necessary. A final decision on this application is expected in the summer of 2008.

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Royal Mail needs consultants (UK)

Posted by | Feb 28, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is tendering for up to GBP 40m-worth of IT consultancy services as part of plans to improve the efficiency of its GBP 1.5bn-worth of technology outsourcing contracts.

Increased investment in IT is playing a key part in helping Royal Mail adapt to a more competitive business environment, according to a spokesman.

The business is in a period of modernisation, and part of that programme is upgrading our IT infrastructure, he said.

The scheme, which started last year, involves operational restructuring, as well as new salary and pension schemes for employees.

But the rise of email has eroded Royal Mails letters business, and rival parcel couriers are also increasingly competitive.

The tender is for an initial period of one year, with the option of three year-long extensions.

But Royal Mail already has in place a 10-year outsourcing deal with a consortium led by CSC, which includes subcontractors BT and Xansa.

In the light of these contract provisions, it is surprising that Royal Mail needs extra consultancy, according to Eric Woods, public sector practice director at analyst Ovum.

The organisation obviously needs extra IT capacity, and has been obliged to put it to tender ­ though it is unusual to do this when the company has existing outsourcing contracts, he said.

The current crops of contracts were set up as part of a major technology overhaul between 2001 to 2004.

At the time, the company implemented SAP software for its finance and purchasing systems, and Siebel software for its customer relationship management. It also put in automation tools to improve productivity.

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Opening of EU mail markets to raise competitive pressure on postal companies -S&P

Posted by | Feb 28, 2008 | |

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said the opening of the EU’s 90 bln eur mail markets to full competition from 2011 will raise the competitive pressure on the four large European postal companies, Deutsche Post AG, rated ‘A-‘ with a negative outlook, TNT NV, rated ‘BBB+’, La Poste, rated ‘AA-‘ and Italy’s Poste Italiane Group, rated ‘A’, with stable outlooks.
S&P said the slow pace of liberalisation over a 15-year period has also offered a strong competitive advantage to these incumbent national mail services. This has given the companies the chance to reposition themselves in more lucrative segments of the mail market and expand into non-mail activities like international express and logistics and financial services.
Deutsche Post and TNT are likely to be key players in sector consolidation, and their ratings will continue to benefit from their strongly cash-generative mail segments, the agency added.
S&P said state-owned La Poste will also benefit from the slow pace of full liberalisation of its home market, which gives it more time to streamline and modernize its mail operations, leverage its costly network with its enlarged banking offer, and eventually match competitors’ efficiency and profitability.
While, Poste Italiane, although also not privatised, may be in a stronger position because its financial services contribute a strong 67 pct of its total sales, compared with 22 pct for La Poste, the agency said.
All four players may also face regulation risks because the European Commission liberalisation plan still upholds the controversial ‘universal service obligation on incumbent national postal services, obliging them to continue to provide full territorial collection and delivery at least five days a week at an affordable cost, S&P added.

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Publication of Postal Directive marks start date for real market opening

Posted by | Feb 27, 2008 | |

The publication marks the entry into force of the directive and sets the clock ticking for abolishing legal monopolies on postal services by 31 December 2010. The Directive is the result of a broad political consensus on the way forward for the regulatory framework of European postal services. The Commission will monitor and assist Member States pro-actively in implementing the Directive. In particular, it will pay close attention to potential entry barriers that would deprive users of the benefit of a dynamic and open market.

The mission of EU postal reform continues. Next steps will require close monitoring of the development of competition notably by national regulatory authorities whose role has now been strengthened further. Particular attention will be paid to quality and prices of universal postal service. The Commission services will assist Member States in the transposition of the Directive to ensure that postal reform remains true to its objective of high quality and innovative postal services.

The text published reflects the overall political agreement between the institutions and keeps the key elements of the Commission’s initial proposal and in particular: the accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services via the abolition of the reserved area in all Member States; the confirmation of the scope and standard of universal service; reinforcement of consumers’ rights and upgrading of the role of national regulatory authorities; the offering of a list of measures Member States may take to safeguard and finance, if necessary, the universal service.

With the removal of reserved areas, users of postal services can expect the services available to them to develop and further improve. In this open environment, universal service providers will be motivated to become more reliable and efficient and to further increase their customer focus in the light of potential competition from new market entrants. In line with the goals of the Lisbon agenda, full market opening will also directly foster the creation of new jobs in new postal companies, and, indirectly, in the industries dependent on the postal sector.

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Postcomm consults on licence application for Mr Aaron Leitner (trading as Post 123) (UK)

Posted by | Feb 27, 2008 | |

Postcomm today began a 30-day consultation on the proposed grant of a postal operator’s licence to Mr Aaron Leitner (trading as Post 123).

Under the licensing framework that took effect from 1 January 2006, and was amended in January 2008, the licence would:

– allow Mr Leitner to provide all types of postal service;
– be issued for a rolling ten year period; and
– require the company to comply with copdes of practice on mail integrity (safety and security of the mail) and common operational procedures (designed to ensure the multi-operator market works well in practice).

The consultation notice and proposed licence can be found on the Post 123 consultation page.

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