Siemens AG said it won a 460 mln eur order from the US Postal Service (USPS) to expand its PARS mail sorting system at all of its domestic centres. The Postal Automated Redirection System (PARS) expedites mail forwarding and other postal processes. Siemens will expand this system over the next 28 months.
Read MoreDeutsche Post may have made the first move on Exel but it is unlikely to be the sole bidder. UPS, the US package delivery company, and TPG, the Dutch logistics group, have also been touted as possible bidders. Alastair Gunn, analyst at Arbuthnot Securities, says: “Whether it is Deutsche Post who ends up with Exel, is doubtful. I think UPS is likely to outbid them.” He adds: “In terms of other companies coming in, nobody else can compete. It would be a waste of management time and energy.” An acquisition of Exel by UPS would underline the Atlanta-based company’s ambition to increase its presence in Europe, where it is challenging the dominance of DHL, owned by Deutsche Post, and TNT, owned by TPG.
UPS has become increasingly reliant on international revenues, especially in Europe and Asia, to offset slowing growth and increasing competition in the US.
The US Postal Service needs to develop more detailed training to prepare its workers to handle suspicious mail more carefully, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.
The GAO cited mistakes in the handling of a letter containing the poison ricin that was found in the Greenville, S.C. post office in October 2003.
The letter, which contained a sealed vial, was labeled “Caution: Ricin Poison,” GAO noted.
It said the letter was discovered around midnight and postal officials double wrapped it and removed it to an area away from workers, but did not call postal inspectors until the next day. Inspectors then called in local emergency officials and the letter was sent to the state health department and later to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Read MoreThe U.S. Postal Service once again reached its all-time high-score of 96 percent on-time performance for overnight delivery of First-Class Mail. The assessment, measured independently by IBM Consulting Services, was announced today during the agency’s Board of Governors meeting in California. This achievement marks ten consecutive measurement periods that the organization reached a 95 percent or better score for on-time overnight delivery of First-Class Mail. This third quarter measurement for fiscal year 2005 also cites increases in two- and three-day service performance scores from the previous reporting. Two-day is 92 percent, up from 90 percent; and three-day – which is carried by air – is at 90 percent, up from 83 percent. This report provides an independent assessment of the time it takes a piece of First-Class Mail, once it’s deposited into a collection box, to be delivered to one of more than 143.7 million American homes, businesses and Post Office boxes.
Read MoreThe postal-reform legislation that passed overwhelmingly in the House on Tuesday has been hailed as a much-needed repair to the ailing United States Postal Service. Unfortunately it doesn’t fix the postal service’s biggest problem. In the face of falling mail volumes and massive liabilities, the USPS has claimed for years that greater pricing flexibility would solve its financial woes. Free of existing regulation, its managers argued, the USPS could respond quickly to market opportunities and thereby increase earnings. It looks like the USPS is finally getting what it wanted: At the core of the new bill are measures that free up the pricing system. To really mend itself, however, the postal service needs not so much flexibility on pricing as the flexibility to cut its massive labor costs. And the new legislation doesn’t give it that.
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