Tag: UK

Royal Mail ‘Address Detectives’ prepare for festive postcode challenge

Posted by | Dec 7, 2007 | |

Royal Mail today urged people to postcode their festive greetings as 5,400 “address detectives” face up to the challenge of helping 400 million poorly addressed and written cards to their destination this Christmas,

Millions of people are expected to sit down this weekend to start writing their Christmas cards to friends and family,

Royal Mail expects to deliver more than two billion items over the festive period but estimates 400 million cards and letters will not be able to be read by its automated sorting machinery either because the postcode has not been included, the item has been poorly addressed or the handwriting style is difficult to read.

Nearly 4,200 “address detectives” have been recruited for the festive season to support the 1,200-strong team who will decipher the addresses of items that cannot be read automatically so that the letters can still be processed by the sorting machinery rather than by hand.

Alex Batchelor, Royal Mail’s Marketing Director, said: “Mail volumes almost double on peak days in December and it is important that people properly address their Christmas cards and use the postcode. Letters and cards that have clearly written addresses and a postcode can be read by our machines and handled 20 times faster than by hand.

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Home Delivery Network Limited (HDNL) announces new chief executive

Posted by | Dec 6, 2007 | |

HDNL today announces the appointment of Brian Gaunt as Chief Executive Officer. He will take over in the New Year from Walter Blackwood, Managing Director, who will take on the role of Chairman. Brian Gaunt is currently UK Managing Director, Food and Consumer, at Christian Salvesen Plc, where he manages the provision of logistics services for a number of major UK retailers and is responsible for annual revenues of more than GBP 300 million and 6,000 colleagues spread over 45 sites.

Prior to joining Christian Salvesen, Brian Gaunt held a number of senior director level logistics and supply chain positions with various retailers including The Big Food Group plc and Asda-Walmart. Brian Gaunt will have overall responsibility for the strategy and performance of HDNL, at a time when the company has a substantial opportunity to grow in size and profitability. He brings a wealth of experience to ensuring that HDNL will continue to deliver a ‘best in class’ service proposition to existing and future clients. Under Walter Blackwood, HDNL was formed through the successful integration of Business Express and Reality Group, and in two years has built a reputation for high quality home delivery. He will continue to represent the business at an industry level, working with Brian Gaunt to build the brand reputation of the business. Brian Gaunt said: “I am delighted to be joining HDNL at this exciting time. Given that UK retail is increasingly transacted online and delivered directly to customers’ doorsteps, HDNL is well positioned to take advantage of a huge market opportunity. I look forward to leading the company through the next phase of its development”.

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Contract win for DHL

Posted by | Dec 6, 2007 | |

DHL Exel Supply Chain has been awarded a contract to handle the delivery of “The OWL” wireless electricity monitors by UK business 2 Save Energy. The agreement will see DHL managing the whole logistics process, delivering the devices from the Far East to the UK consumer’s door.

The wireless electricity monitor shows households the cost of electricity used in the home, as well as their greenhouse gas emissions, on a portable LED display and, it is claimed, could help households reduce their energy bills and carbon emissions by 15 per cent. DHL collects devices from 2 Save Energy’s manufacturing partner in mainland China and moves them to its UK-based distribution centre before arranging for final delivery.

DHL interfaces directly with 2 Save Energy’s website, processing individual orders and arranging delivery of up to two million energy monitors to customers each year. This makes the monitoring, control of stock levels and visibility of the entire supply chain crucial factors in the success of the operation. In essence, DHL has created a tailored and comprehensive end to end service, managing the supply chain for 2 Save Energy and allowing the company to focus on its core strength – developing energy saving technology.

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Royal Mail Retail Compensation to Receive Overhaul

Posted by | Dec 6, 2007 | |

After a public consultation and a close look at Royal Mail’s compensation scheme, Postcomm is proposing changes to the way in which compensation claims are dealt with. The idea is to simplify the process and make it fairer.

Postcomm was concerned that there were inconsistencies in the way in which claims for retail customers were processed and with guidance from Postwatch, a new scheme is being proposed.

Retail customers should, say Postcomm, face less difficulty for claims where post has been lost, damaged or delayed with changes to:

– the processes for making a claim;
– the evidence required to support a claim; and
– the compensation payments themselves.

Nigel Stapleton, Chairman of Postcomm said: “Royal Mail’s compensation schemes for their retail customers have developed over many years and have become difficult for customers to understand. Recognising this, Postcomm has worked closely with Royal Mail and Postwatch to try and find ways to cut through the complexity and make sure mail customers have access to a clear, fair and user-friendly compensation system.”

“Postcomm is committed to remove prescriptive regulation where possible and the development of competition for the business of the largest mailers means we are proposing to do so by withdrawing the regulated bulk mail compensation scheme from April 2009 in favour of solutions based on individual customer need.

“While the overall volume of lost, damaged and delayed post is very small in the context of the total amount of mail carried by Royal Mail, every item is valued by customers and they should be properly compensated when there are such problems.”

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TNT update on 'Focus on Networks' strategy – UK tax matters settled, Dividend pay-out up to 40 pct by 2010, Next tranche share buyback of EUR 100 million announced

Posted by | Dec 6, 2007 | |

Key announcements by the Board of Management include:

– The outlook for the year 2007 is confirmed;
-The Express business segment sharpens its growth objectives for the period 2008-2012 and enhances transparency by adding objectives for its emerging platforms;
– The Mail business gives an update on the negotiations with the unions regarding the restructuring in Mail Netherlands and refines the objectives for its emerging businesses to include Parcels and European Mail Networks;
– TNT indicates restructuring charges in a range of GBP 125-175 million in Mail for the period 2007-2009, following earlier announcements, leading to GBP 150 million savings in 2008/2009, growing to GBP 360 million annually as of 2015;
– The indicated range includes all charges for the earlier announced Master plans and restructuring of Parcels UK;
– The recent protectionist developments on postal liberalisation in Germany have led to a full revision of TNT’s position in the German mail market, with further restructuring as a possible outcome;
-TNT has notified the appropriate Government authorities in The Netherlands about its concerns that there is clearly no level playing field in Germany and the UK;
-The Group has begun to investigate further accelerated growth in the shifting competitive environment of delivery networks;

As for the financial strategy, TNT makes various announcements, of which the main ones are:
– Sharper and more transparent financial objectives for all businesses;
– The objective to reduce the effective tax rate from 32 pct in 2006 to a range of 25-26 pct by 2010;
– The intention to grow the dividend pay-out from today’s ~35% of normalised net income to 40 pct by 2010. Including the underlying growth of TNT’s earnings, this will further fuel the growth of cash returns per share;
– An additional tranche of EUR100 million of share buybacks, under the earlier announced EUR 500 million programme, on top of the EUR 200 million currently underway.
In its financial strategy, TNT will continue to drive value aimed at its shareholders and other stakeholders in the short, medium and long term. This will include incidental share buybacks from excess cash going forward.

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