Tag: UK

Britain to axe 2,500 post offices

Posted by | Feb 9, 2008 | |

British authorities say village post offices are becoming a casualty of the Internet as more people go online to pay bills and use e-mail.

“Customer numbers have gone down about 4 million per week compared to a couple of years ago and the losses are rising,” said Pat McFadden, the man named by the British government to pick 2,500 post offices for closure this year.

The British postal network loses about USD 7 million a week and hundreds of British post offices attract as few as 16 customers a week, on average, The Times of London reported Saturday.

Post offices in Britain, especially those in villages, continue to be used by large numbers of the elderly, who view the closures as a sign of disrespect toward them and fear their communities will change for the worse, the Times reported.

“No one comes into politics to do something that can be very unpopular locally to the people affected, and I am very aware of that,” McFadden said. “But sometimes governments have to take difficult decisions and make difficult changes. This is one of those occasions.”

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UPN partnership expands European offering

Posted by | Feb 9, 2008 | |

UPN has launched a range of new European services, following the announcement of a new partnership with Signet International, covering 12 European countries.

The new partnership allows UPN depots to cost effectively transport palletised freight to France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. It is expected that the partnership will see further countries in Europe added to the UPN network in coming months.

David Brown, UPN Commercial Director, explains, “Europe continues to grow in importance and we are delighted to be working with Signet.

It has a well proven track record and has a real focus on service, just like UPN. Our reputation has been built on quality and it is vital that our partners are able to help us maintain our reputation. This offering allows us to step ahead of other pallet networks who do not offer the same levels of coverage. We have seen significant business growth over the last year and by continually finding new ways to add value we are confident that we can maintain the same levels of growth through 2008.”

Richard Newport, Managing Director at Signet, adds, “We have worked with pallet networks in the past and UPN’s focus on quality does help to set it apart from the rest. We have now been trading for nearly 25 years and have been working across Europe since 1992. I have met with many of the UPN depots already and I look forward to working closely with them in the future.”

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Motor Transport Awards 2008

Posted by | Feb 9, 2008 | |

Pallet-Track has submitted their second successive entry to this year’s Motor Transport Awards.

Following on from last year’s entry and subsequently the only pallet network to be short-listed for Network of the Year the Pallet-Track board felt that a refreshed entry for 2008 was appropriate due to another successful year in the network.

A year which has seen growth of over 37 pct, the network complimented by a further thirteen shareholder members, successful implementation of a central transit insurance scheme, both IT and operating procedural enhancements which have added to increased efficiency, investment in new management teams and significant purchases in plant and machinery.

This year’s event is again being held in the Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.

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DHL awarded Sun deal

Posted by | Feb 8, 2008 | |

DHL has been selected by Sun Microsystems to manage all of the company’s supply chain activities including after-sales logistics. Under an agreement signed between the two companies, DHL will manage the spare-and-repair logistics operations for Sun’s network infrastructure in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Egypt.

With DHL serving as the sole point of contact between Sun customers and suppliers, the network infrastructure solutions provider will be able to increase productivity, reduce cost and ensure faster spare parts turnaround.

In the UAE alone, DHL will be shipping all of Sun’s urgent deliveries in the country, with a delivery time ranging between two to four hours.

In addition, some 300 strategic parts in the two UAE-based spare parts centres will be shipped as same-day orders to over 75 premium customers, and supporting over 15 Sun engineers in the Emirates.

All parts deliveries originating from the main Sun Microsystems warehouse in Venlo, Netherlands, will be transported to the region using various DHL services, such as air freight and Express.

The DHL spare parts centres in Dubai, Muscat, Riyadh, Dhahran, Kuwait City and Abu Dhabi will make sure that these parts are delivered to Sun’s end customer, within two to four hours of placing the order.

DHL’s extensive network, warehouse facilities and services across the Middle East will allow Sun to have total control over, and visibility of, their product stock.

DHL Express product and business development manager Dirk van Doorn said that utilising DHL’s advanced technology and global expertise will help Sun to achieve and maintain an optimal supply chain for delivering important parts to its end customers.

“By outsourcing its inventory and distribution functions to DHL, Sun Microsystems will be able to focus on its core strengths, increase visibility, reduce cost and improve the overall efficiency of its supply chain in the Middle East. DHL will act as a single supplier managing all aspects of Sun’s supply chain including customs clearance,” said van Doorn.

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Royal Mail: Delivering easier ways to work for disabled people (UK)

Posted by | Feb 8, 2008 | |

Royal Mail Group has formed a new partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions as part of the Jobcentre Plus Access to Work programme, which aims to make it easier to bring more of the 6.8 million disabled men and women of working age into employment.

Access to Work currently helps thousands of workers and their employers to overcome barriers resulting from disability by offering practical advice and funding.

Royal Mail will build on the successful scheme by creating a dedicated national team which will respond to managers’ questions relating to the recruitment or the ongoing needs of disabled employees.

Working within a new ‘one-stop-shop’ Accessibility Resource Centre, advisors will support individual team leaders with the application process. Royal Mail will also pay all claims under GBP 1,000 incurred under the scheme, including premises adaptation, travel and ongoing support workers, and will share any costs in excess of this with Access to Work.

In the past, some employers have struggled to take advantage of the benefits of the scheme, but it is hoped that Royal Mail’s pilot will streamline the process considerably, galvanizing other business leaders to invest in similar, simplified arrangements.

Kay Allen, Head of Social Policy and Inclusion at Royal Mail Group, said: “Facilitating the employment of disabled workers is a key priority for us as a diversity-aware business. The best way to do this is to make it as easy as possible for our people to become “disability confident”.

“We’re aiming to use this pilot to demonstrate new ways in which large employers can take advantage of the Access to Work scheme: helping to ease some of the country’s 3.3 million economically inactive disabled people into work.”

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