Tag: UK

European public postal operators show support to 2020 EU emissions target

Posted by | Jan 23, 2008 | |

PostEurop, the association of European public postal operators reiterates today its support to the 2020 EU emission target. 14 of its members have already agreed to an ambitious average 10pct reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years and more PostEurop Members are expected to commit to the voluntary programme.

The European Commission has agreed this week on a package of proposals that will deliver the European Council’s commitments to fight climate change. The proposals demonstrate that the targets agreed last year are technologically and economically possible and provide a unique business opportunity for thousands of European companies. As agreed by its leaders in March 2007, the EU seeks to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 20 pct by 2020.

The postal sector in Europe, through the very nature of its activities, has an impact on the environment, mostly in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. Most of these CO2 emissions result from the use of road transport, aviation and building energy usage also contributing significantly.

There is however considerable scope for improvement and as a vital sector of the European economy, the postal sector is committed to providing an example, by working closely with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in order to reduce the whole sector’s impact in Europe and worldwide.

Elaborated by PostEurop’s Environment Working Group under the authority of the Social Responsibility Committee, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programme is fully in line with the Kyoto Protocol and the European Climate Change Programme targets. Its aim is to measure and assess the reduction efforts of participating postal operators and to create synergies by exchanging best practices in that field.

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Q-Post hit by a huge rise in inflation rate

Posted by | Jan 22, 2008 | |

Rising inflation badly hit the country’s postal sector last year, said Q-Post chairman Ali Mohamed al-Ali yesterday.

The chairman said the country’s postal corporation suffered heavily in 2007 because of the unprecedented inflation witnessed by Qatar.

Al-Ali said premises that the Q-Post used to acquire for as low as Q R1,500 a month for its operations in the city or suburbs was now costing at least five times more.
“As a result, our overheads on various fronts have increased considerably.”

The chairman also informed that the pay rise the Q-Post gave to its staff, both nationals and expatriates, in December 2006 too had taken a heavy toll on the corporation’s operations.

Al-Ali said the annual salary bills of the staff alone amounted to QR65mn.

Answering another query, the chairman said the postal corporation used to receive a financial support of QR52mn a year from the government until a few years ago. “That is no longer there. The absence of such financial support from the government had hit our operations hard.”

The implementation of e-cash in government transactions has also hit the corporation badly as revenues from the sales of tax and other revenue stamps that it used to receive had started going directly to the government, said al-Ali.

Despite all these, the corporation is making efforts to be self-reliant through the diversification of its businesses in a highly competitive environment, said al-Ali.
The chairman pointed out that in all large countries where the postal sector is still active; the governments had provided at least 80 pct budgetary support to their operations.

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Logistics hot spots go East

Posted by | Jan 21, 2008 | |

Retailers looking to improve their pan-European logistics networks should consider countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland, according to new research from supply chain consultancy Total Logistics www.total-logistics.eu.com and logistics property business King Sturge www.kingsturge.co.uk. The study shows that several eastern European countries have overtaken Germany in the race to be the location of choice for European businesses.

The study assessed the relative attractiveness of each country, taking into account such issues as warehousing costs, labour rates and road transport costs.

Kenneth Porter, partner at Total Logistics, said: “Working through a number of different scenarios was a fascinating exercise as it demonstrated the relatively poor performance of Germany from a warehousing perspective, given its central location and otherwise excellent reputation. Even when we factored out the comparatively high cost of labour in the country, Berlin, Bonn and Dusseldorf came out relatively poorly against other cities such as Prague, Warsaw, Katowice and Vilnius.”

“Only when you model a more complex scenario, for instance a UK plus two other warehouse network, do countries such as France and Benelux re-appear.”

The research also highlighted the importance of warehouse design and the differences in understanding between logistics experts and developers when it comes to speculative developments. For example, the report highlights the fact that many developers are taking terms such as ‘cross docking’ too literally by assuming that occupiers with a requirement to cross dock must necessarily have a warehouse with loading docks on two elevations. In reality, most cross docking operations actually involve a U-shaped product flow using a single elevation.

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