Taiwan, China Urged to Launch Direct Mail - September 5, 2008
[China Post.]Taiwanese and Chinese mail operators on Wednesday called on their governments to allow direct mail delivery across the Taiwan Strait soon.
"It takes five days to send an ordinary piece of mail from Taipei to Beijing because the mail has to go through Japan or Kong Kong, "
aid Huang Shu-chien, chairman of the Taiwan Postal Association and vice president of Taiwan's state-run Chunghwa Post Co.
Huang, along with other senior postal officials and company executives from the two sides, made the appeal at a seminar during his visit to Beijing.
Taiwan and China, which split during a Chinese civil war in 1949, began allowing mail to be delivered between the two sides through a third place in 1979.
Huang noted that there are no technical problems with bypassing a third location to directly deliver mail between Taiwan and China, but he said it requires negotiations to solve the issue of direct transportation.
"The opening of direct mail delivery would halve the time and money," Huang said.
Wang Yuci, deputy head of the State Postal Bureau of the People's Republic of China, also urged both sides to grasp the historic opportunity to enhance and expand cooperation in the area of postal services and to soon make possible direct cross-strait mail delivery.
Taiwan-China relations have been improving since Taiwan's new President Ma Ying-jeou, who favors closer ties with China, took office in May.
Taiwan opened itself to more Chinese tourists and the two sides launched direct weekend cross-strait charter flights in July.
UPS: Making Loans to Small Businesses - September 5, 2008
[Business Week.]Package delivery giants United Parcel Service and FedEx are making aggressive moves to pare back rising fuel costs. But UPS is also taking a more unusual step: trying to boost customer demand by loaning money to small businesses. On Sept. 9 the Atlanta company plans to unveil Cargo Finance, aimed at helping small customers that need funds to keep their product orders flowing. "We found that entrepreneurs would love to have someone provide them with working capital," says UPS Capital Senior Managing Director Chris Vukas.
Given that the lending business has long been an albatross for nonfinancial companiesand isn't exactly a sweet spot for anyone these daysUPS's move reflects the lengths to which shippers are willing to go to get out of a bind. Having already watched their stocks drop 12% ad 23%, espectively, over the past year, UPS and FedEx are trying to drum up new business and cut costs as the critical holiday shipping season approaches. Even with oil prices easing, analysts expect shipping volume to remain weak through 2009.
Eastern Europe Postal Operators Takes Part In ACTIN - September 5, 2008
[Hellmail.]Romanian Post announces that this week sees the start of the ACTIN project with session communications focusing on quality of service.??ACTIN stands for Acquis Communautaire Training Initiative. The project aims to help prepare eastern european postal operators for the changes to internal markets as a result of postal liberalisation and in particular, competition. ACTIN is supported by the European Commission under its BSP2 Business Support Programme, a part of the PHARE initiative, and is coordinated by PostEurop (the Association of European Public Postal Operators), in cooperation with FEDMA and IPALMO (an Italian Research Institute).
The main beneficiaries are said to be Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey. The Pro Actin goal is to help operators adapt their business practices so they can compete successfully in the enlarged Union. The project works on a “training the trainers” model; this means that the people who benefit directly from the ACTIN training sessions will be able to go back to their home countries and businesses and pass on the knowledge they have acquired.
The seminar is supported by Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and the Slovak Republic. Romanian Post was nominated to host the 'quality of service' seminar.??The event runs from September 2-4, is conducted under the aegis of two major organizations: the European Commission represented by Mr. Denis Sparas, Project Manager and PostEurop Represenative Mr Ingemar Persson, general secretary of PostEurop.
Latvijas Pasts to Increase Tariffs by 30% - September 4, 2008
[Baltic-course.com.]Latvijas Pasts has submitted its new draft tariffs to the Public Utilities Commission, the new tariffs are an average 30% higher than the current postal tariffs, Latvijas Pasts Director General Ivars Krauklis said in an interview on the Latvian State Radio today.
Krauklis pointed out that 30% is the average figure: there are services that will cost as much as they cost now, or slightly more, for instance, tariffs for international mail.
Latvijas Pasts is planning to differentiate tariffs for letter and parcel deliveries to legal entities and private individuals: the tariff for centralized letter delivery to legal entities will increase from LVL 0.22 to LVL 0.25, whereas the tariff for private letters and parcels – from LVL 0.22 to LVL 0.35.
Krauklis pointed out that the new tariffs will have little effect on residents, because the number of letters written by private individuals is not large. "It will rather affect businessmen, which form the majority of Latvijas Pasts customers," Krauklis said, adding that the new tariffs are based on the actual costs of the service.
"Latvijas Pasts" requests the Public Utilities Commission to review the new tariffs as soon as possible so they could come into force on December 1 already.
"The sooner the new tariffs come into force, the sooner will we be able to improve the quality of service," said Krauklis. "We want to have the financial basis to motivate our employees, and also hold them responsible when necessary. Then there will be no more such cases as postmen going missing with large amounts of money on them."
As reported, Latvijas Pasts turnover reached LVL 44 million last year, whereas losses amounted to LVL 14 million. In the first six months this year, the company managed to reduce the losses more than fivefold. The company hopes to operate without losses in 2009, and with a profit in 2010.
Royal Mail Partners With Advertisers - September 4, 2008
[Brand Republic.]Royal Mail has launched a direct marketing initiative which involves the delivery of boxes of free branded goods to consumers.
Royal Mail is delivering a box that fits into household letterboxes, containing free mini-versions of various products. After an initial stage of test mailing 30,000 people have signed up receive the boxes, which contain a range of goods designed to drive brand awareness among target consumers.
The test mailing, to just under 1000 ABC1 males, included a range of brands including a small tub of Play Doh from Sony Bravia, reflecting its ‘plasticine bunnies' advertisement, while Nissan provided a branded box of soap crayons and Nintendo Wii included a sweatband.
Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman at Ogilvy Group UK, described the initiative as ‘one of the biggest ideas in direct marketing in years.'
Royal Mail, which developed the solution in partnership with Matter Media Limited, is now talking to advertisers that want to be involved in the next Matter mailing scheduled for October.
Fraser Chisholm, head of media propositions at Royal Mail added: ‘Media is changing and advertisers can no longer rely on consumers seeing or hearing their messages - they really have to engage to create standout and there is no better way than putting the brand directly into their hands.
Deutsche Post Says DHL U.S. Talks With UPS Going Well - September 4, 2008
[Matthias Inverardi and Will Waterman, Reuters.]Deutsche Post said it was making progress in talks with rival UPS as part of a $2 billion restructuring of its loss-making DHL Express unit in the U.S.
Deutsche Post said in May it hoped to conclude a deal for UPS to haul DHL's express, deferred and international packages within the United States and between the U.S., Canada and Mexico by the end of August.
Germany's Financial Times Deutschland newspaper reported that it could take Post two more months to reach a deal.
A Deutsche Post spokeswoman said the companies just had to iron out some details as part of the 10-year agreement, designed to help Post stem losses at the DHL U.S. business.
Postbank Deal May Be Held Back - September 4, 2008
[Efinancialnews.com.]Deutsche Post may wait until next year to sell Deutsche Postbank, the German retail bank, as bankers caution against further deals this year after Commerzbank agreed on Sunday to buy Dresdner Bank from Allianz for €9.8bn ($14.2bn).
TNT Sustains Leadership in Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes - September 4, 2008
[Press Release.]TNT confirms its leadership in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) for the industrial transportation sector and the super sector ‘industrial goods and services.’ In addition, TNT reached the highest score of all companies included in the DJSI for the second year in a row. These are the conclusions of a report published today in Zurich by SAM, which assessed the sustainability reporting and performance of over 1,100 companies. TNT reached the overall score of 92% out of a possible 100%. In addition, TNT got the highest score in each of the three dimensions –Economic, Environmental, and Social- that make up the index.
TNT achieved the best scores (100%) in the following areas: customer relationship management, fuel efficiency, codes of conduct/compliance, and risk and crisis management.
Peter Bakker, CEO of TNT, commented: “We are delighted to confirm our leadership position in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. The consistency of our results demonstrates TNT’s commitment to economic, environmental, and social performance. I want to thank all TNT employees for this outstanding achievement.”
India’s Post Offices To Sell Over-The-Counter Medicine - September 4, 2008
[Press Release.]Here’s one way to increase market share - strike a deal with the government postal service to sell your over-the-counter meds alongside stamps and envelopes. To validate the concept, a half dozen drugmakers will soon begin a pilot project, according to The Economic Times.
Among the drugs to be sold next quarter will be painkillers, diarrhea treatments, cold and cough meds and contraceptives in three regions - Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra - according to Ranjit Shahani, a Novartis managing director.
The move is aimed at ensuring accessibility of over-the-counter drugs in the rural areas, although there are about 150,000 post offices across the country, the paper writes. “We have been in talks with the government to use the network to sell over-the-counter drugs. However, since different ministries are involved, implementation of the proposal is taking a bit of a time. So, we have decided to start with the pilot project in three states for the time being,” Shahani tells the paper.
“While there are close to 450,000 chemists across the country, companies are willing to use the supply chain and logistic facilities of the post offices and petrol pumps to make medicines available in remote areas,” a pharma analyst said.
Poll: Large Majority Oppose Canada Post Deregulation - September 3, 2008
[Energy News.]A new Ipsos Reid poll shows 69 per cent of the public oppose allowing private companies to deliver letters in Canada. The release of this poll coincides with the final day for submissions to the Canada Post Corporation Strategic Review, a government-appointed panel which is considering postal deregulation.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) delivered its submission, which includes the poll results, and over 10,000 post cards to the review's advisory panel today.
"The public is overwhelmingly against postal deregulation and supports a strong universal public postal system," said Denis Lemelin, CUPW National President. "Hopefully, the review panel will remember these results when making their recommendations."
The poll CUPW commissioned shows that 46 per cent strongly oppose and 23 per cent of people somewhat oppose allowing private companies to deliver letters in Canada. Conversely, 9 per cent of people strongly support and 18 per cent of people somewhat support allowing private sector competition.
The public isn't alone in their opposition to postal deregulation. Close to 400 municipal councils from across the country have also passed resolutions against postal deregulation.
"Postal deregulation would allow private companies to deliver mail in the lucrative urban areas while the public post office is left to service the higher-cost rural and isolated areas," added Lemelin. "This is a recipe for drastic service cuts, job loss and post office closures."
The strategic review panel will release a final report with recommendations in December. The survey was conducted from August 12-14, 2008. With a sample size of 1007 adult Canadians, the results are considered accurate to within /-3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population of Canada been polled. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.
Taiwan, China Urged to Launch Direct Mail - September 5, 2008
UPS: Making Loans to Small Businesses - September 5, 2008
Eastern Europe Postal Operators Takes Part In ACTIN - September 5, 2008
Latvijas Pasts to Increase Tariffs by 30% - September 4, 2008
Royal Mail Partners With Advertisers - September 4, 2008
Postbank Deal May Be Held Back - September 4, 2008
TNT Sustains Leadership in Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes - September 4, 2008
India’s Post Offices To Sell Over-The-Counter Medicine - September 4, 2008
Poll: Large Majority Oppose Canada Post Deregulation - September 3, 2008
