Tag: USA

USPS and APWU reach contract agreement

Posted by | Dec 7, 2006 | |

The U.S. Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, have reached a tentative four-year contract agreement.

Upon ratification by union members, the agreement will run through Nov. 20, 2010, and affect approximately 272,000 career employees in the clerk, maintenance and motor vehicle crafts.

APWU president William Burrus called the new agreement “outstanding” and said it would be presented to the Rank-and-File Bargaining Committee on Dec. 7.

Upon the committee’s approval, specific terms of the agreement will be announced. The committee must approve a tentative agreement before it can be sent to union members for a ratification vote.

The USPS and the APWU formally opened national contract negotiations on Aug. 29. This year was the first time new contracts were negotiated separately at the same time with all four of the postal service’s largest unions.

Negotiations continue with two other unions, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union.

Negotiations with the National Association of Letter Carriers were not successful. The two parties will now enter the dispute resolution process, which may include binding interest arbitration that could begin next spring.

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U.S. Postal Service expands mail-sorting technology

Posted by | Dec 6, 2006 | |

Technology that successfully boosted postal efficiencies in the processing, distribution, and delivery of letter mail will soon be applied to the sorting of what the Postal Service refers to as “flats”- large envelopes, magazines, catalogs, and circulars.
Known as the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) program, the initiative approved today by the Postal Service Board of Governors allows the agency to move forward with plans to employ sophisticated equipment to sort flat-mail pieces for letter carriers, who now must manually sequence this mail before leaving the office for their routes.
The FSS equipment is designed to sequence flat mail at a rate of approximately 16,500 pieces per hour. Scheduled to operate 17 hours per day, each machine will be capable of sequencing 280,500 pieces per day to more than 125,000 delivery addresses.
Phase I of the program calls for an initial order of 100 FSS machines to be deployed to 33 postal facilities beginning in the summer of 2008.

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Eskew named to Commerce Panel on measuring Innovation

Posted by | Dec 6, 2006 | |

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez has named Mike Eskew, the chairman and CEO of UPS, to serve on a new panel to better understand how U.S. innovation contributes to American economic prosperity and high living standards. Eskew is part of an advisory committee that includes 15 business and academic leaders – including six Fortune 500 executives.

The Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century Economy Advisory Committee will help develop better ways to measure innovation so that the public and policy makers can understand better its impact on economic growth and productivity. The committee will study metrics on effectiveness of innovation in various businesses and sectors, and work to identify which data can be used to develop a broader measure of innovation’s impact on the economy.

“American innovation is important to the vitality of our economy, and it is important to understand the impact innovation has on productivity and economic growth,” said Secretary Gutierrez. “Getting a better understanding of how innovation contributes to our economy will help us craft better policies to continue to grow and prosper.”

The panel selection follows an extensive three-month public outreach to business and academic associations, institutions and think tanks to find qualified CEOs and academic experts representing the diversity of the American economy. The Secretary received an overwhelming response representing every major sector of the U.S. economy.

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Deutsche Post sees DHL breaking even in U.S. in 2-3 years

Posted by | Dec 5, 2006 | |

Deutsche Post expects its DHL Express business in the United States to break even in two to three years as it takes on larger U.S. rivals UPS and FedEx.

The company wants to achieve a return on sales of 3 to 5 percent at the U.S. business in the mid to long term, DHL Express head John Mullen said at a capital markets day in New York on Tuesday.

“The United States is a long, hard road,” Mullen said. “I think we are making good progress. At the moment, our focus is clearly to break even.”

The company had previously said it did not expect DHL Express to break even in the U.S. before 2009.

Shares in Deutsche Post rose 3.6 percent to 23.35 euros following Mullen’s comments, making them the second-best performers on the German DAX index.

Deutsche Post is struggling with losses at DHL Express in the United States as it tries to boost its presence in a market dominated by FedEx and UPS. Deutsche Post has expanded into new markets, in particular through its DHL logistics and express delivery divisions, as it prepares to lose its domestic mail monopoly.

Mullen said the 3 to 5 percent return-on-sales target for DHL Express in the United States was “hardly on the radar screen,” but added: “It’s there as an aspirational goal.”

The company is aiming to achieve an eventual return on sales of 10 percent across DHL Express worldwide.

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FedEx raises ground, home delivery rates by 4.9 percent

Posted by | Dec 5, 2006 | |

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) will increase standard list rates for FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery shipments by an average 4.9 percent on January 1.

Rival United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) will raise list rates by 4.9 percent for ground shipments and 4.9 percent for air express shipments, when factoring in a 2 percentage point reduction in fuel surcharges.

FedEx announced last month that rates for its FedEx Express shipments in the United States and for export will increase by 3.5 percent at the first of the year, when a decrease in fuel surcharges of 2 percentage points is factored in.

The company also will begin adding other transportation-related surcharges, such as those for rural or home delivery, to total costs before figuring fuel surcharges on FedEx Ground shipments.

In February, FedEx Ground will begin using a “dimensional weight system” for figuring rates on large but relatively lightweight packages, rather than relying on weight alone.

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