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DHL to provide German deliveries on final Sunday before Christmas
DHL has once again added an extra day’s delivery services to its schedule in Germany, to cope with the Christmas boom in parcel shipments. The company confirmed yesterday that it will be operating on...
View ArticleUSPS to simplify pricing policy that offers 7,600 domestic options
The US Postal Service is set to simplify its pricing system from January, after the Inspector General found that it has more than 7,600 different prices for its domestic products alone. Along with...
View ArticleBidding opens for 818 post office franchises in Brazil
Brazil’s Post and Telegraph Company (ECT) has launched an auction of 818 potential franchises to operate post offices throughout Brazil. From today, those interested in running a franchise have 45 days...
View ArticleDHL's Blue Dart launches "carbon neutral" shipping in India
DHL and its Indian express courier subsidiary Blue Dart Express have launched the country’s first end-to-end “carbon neutral” service for international and domestic shipments. The service is an...
View ArticlePortuguese government approves postal liberalisation law
Portugal’s government has approved a draft law that will open the country’s postal market up to competition from the private sector. The move brings the Portuguese market in line with European Union...
View ArticleIndian government to restrict India Post's letter monopoly
The Indian government is working towards phasing in competition within the country’s letter mail market, under a draft Post Office Bill currently under consideration. Ministers confirmed last week that...
View ArticleUSPS ranked top postal service in world's 20 biggest economies
The US Postal Service has been named as the best postal service within the world’s top 20 largest economies for access to services, resource efficiency and public trust. Analysis from UK consultancy...
View ArticleFedEx revises air fleet upgrade plan, signs deal for 27 767s
FedEx has signed a deal with Boeing to purchase 27 new 767-300F aircraft, to replace its medium widebody MD10 cargo aircraft, some of which are now 40 years old. As it released its latest financial...
View ArticleSwiss Post Solutions expands in Asia with Singapore office
Swiss Post Solutions, the business services division of the Swiss postal service, has expanded its presence in the Asian market by opening a new office in Singapore. The company said clients...
View ArticleItaly's antitrust authority fines Poste Italiane €40m
Poste Italiane has been fined EUR 39.4m by national competition authorities for abusing its dominant position in the Italian postal market. The Antitrust Authority said yesterday that the state-owned...
View ArticleLa Poste teams with utility to develop vehicle charging networks
France’s La Poste has formed a partnership with the power transmission division of the second largest French utility company, EDF, to develop recharging networks for electric delivery vehicles. The...
View ArticleCorreos orders EUR 41m cloud-based IT system
Spain’s national postal service Correos has ordered a cloud-based IT system from T-Systems, a subsidiary of German telecommunications company Deutsche Telecom. The four-year project, worth EUR 41m,...
View ArticleSwiss Post to keep basic postal rates stable in 2012
Swiss Post has said prices for its basic letters and domestic parcels will remain unchanged in 2012, but will be making rate changes for some of its other mail services. Switzerland’s postal service...
View ArticleRemoving mail price controls "could drive UK firms away", warns DMA
Businesses could be driven away from using the mail in the UK if regulators remove price controls from Royal Mail’s commercial bulk mail services. That was the warning this week from the Direct...
View ArticleUSPS union negotiations extended into January
Negotiations between the US Postal Service and two major unions will extend into the New Year, with the organisations agreeing to put back their deadline once again, this time to January 20. The...
View ArticlePostNL seeks pension reform to counter €500m deficit
PostNL said today it must find a way to cut its pension contributions, with turbulence in the financial markets opening up a EUR 500m black hole in its pension fund. The Dutch postal service is opening...
View ArticleEscher wins retail technology deal with Armenia's Haypost
US retail and communications software firm Escher Group has won a contract to provide postal counter automation technology for the Armenian postal service, Haypost. The company said today its...
View ArticlePostal workers strike in Kenya over delay to pay talks
Thousands of postal workers went on strike in Kenya on Friday, seeking a 30% pay rise and improved benefits from Kenya Post. The strike followed a meeting between the Communications Workers Union...
View ArticleDPD Germany planning €90m investment in network next year
Parcel and express delivery company DPD Germany is planning to invest EUR 90m in expanding its network next year, after a record 2011. The company, part of La Poste’s GeoPost Group, said interim...
View ArticleRural Scots find delivery difficult shopping online, says survey
Consumers in rural and remote areas of Scotland are finding it difficult to shop online because of delivery problems, according to consumer groups. A survey of 900 people carried out by Citizens Advice...
View ArticleUK's outbound parcel volumes jump thanks to cross-border e-commerce
Online retailers and catalogue companies in the UK are seizing on opportunities to sell into international markets – resulting in significant growth in international package volumes this Christmas....
View ArticleCall to boost competition in "stagnant" German letters market
Germany’s Monopolies Commission has called for an end to Deutsche Post’s VAT exemptions and various other measures to counter the “stagnant” competition levels within the German letters market. The...
View ArticleNorway Post reviews driver controls after rule breach
Norway Post has launched a full review of its transport network after its freight division Bring was found to be breaking the law on foreign drivers. The postal service found itself in trouble last...
View ArticlePostal Digest: UNI condemns sackings; USPS upgrades website
A round-up of some of the other headlines in the global postal industry, also including Poste Italiane’s consumer agreement and cut in Uruguayan Post’s debt… Union movement condemns sacking of Kenyan...
View ArticleFedEx widens mobile access as customer usage evolves
FedEx has expanded its FedEx Mobile website to 206 countries, in 25 different languages, with more of its customers now accessing shipping information through their mobile phones. The company said that...
View ArticleDutch postal reforms to eliminate Monday deliveries
The Dutch government wants to allow the country’s universal postal service provider to cut back to five days’ delivery per week to avoid “significant” rate rises. Henk Bleacher, the secretary for...
View ArticleSiemens to provide eight sorters for UPS Cologne hub expansion
UPS has ordered eight sorting machines from German engineering giant Siemens as it expands its European hub at Cologne/Bonn Airport. Siemens said the order of eight Variosort EXB 120 cross-belt sorters...
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La Poste and Swiss Post to combine international operations
Two of Europe’s leading national postal operators have formed an important alliance to combine their respective cross-border mail activities, in order to take on the major players in the international...
View ArticleDeutsche Post agrees sweetener, union talks to resume in January
Deutsche Post is set to pay a EUR 400 bonus to 130,000 German employees that are subject to the collective bargaining agreement with the Ver.di union, it confirmed today. The one-time payment was...
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FedEx "upset, embarrassed" as YouTube video goes viral
FedEx has found itself severely mauled by a YouTube video displaying “unacceptable” behaviour by one of its delivery staff, which went viral in the United States. The video clip, showing an employee...
View ArticlePostNL ties mail carrier salaries to national minimum wage
PostNL has reached an agreement with leaders of the BVPP union on a new collective bargaining deal for 17,000 mail carriers, to run throughout 2012. The agreement, which is subject to ratification by...
View ArticleTighter US pilot safety rules leave cargo operators exempt
Air cargo carriers in the United States have escaped new federal regulations that require airline pilots more rest between flights. The Federal Aviation Administration announced “sweeping” changes...
View ArticlePostal Digest: Milestone for Sandd; La Poste budget approval
Rounding up some more of the world’s postal sector news, including celebrations for Sandd, “conservative” budget approvals for La Poste and Estonian Post, and money transfer success for Latvian Post…...
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UK's APC Overnight gains green light for £14m parcel hub
Local planning officials have given the green light to parcel and express delivery company APC Overnight to build a new head office and hub site in the English Midlands region. The new site at...
View ArticleAustrian Post takes delivery of 10 Renault electric vehicles
Motor manufacturer Renault has delivered 10 of its Kangoo electric vehicles to Austrian Post for use across the particular landscape of Austria. The addition of the zero-emission vehicles comes as part...
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UK parcel delivery firms avoid snow, but snowed under by parcels
The UK’s package delivery industry has escaped severe weather disruption in the run-up to Christmas this year, but has been snowed under by the sheer numbers of e-commerce packages coming through their...
View Article50,000 Danes snap up mobile app for e-boks digital mail
Danish digital mail service e-boks has said more than 50,000 people have downloaded its new smartphone application in just nine days since the application was launched. e-boks, which is joint-owned by...
View ArticleTNT Post UK and QVC deliver gifts to the troops
Mail company TNT Post UK has been working with online shopping channel QVC to ensure that the troops in Afghanistan receive presents from loved ones this Christmas. As part of QVC’s ‘Gifts for...
View ArticleThe week that was: 23 December 2011
Summing up some of the top stories of this week on Post&Parcel, including La Poste’s international alliance with Swiss Post… This week, a special festive edition of our popular round-up of the...
View ArticleNew Zealand Post evacuates mail plant after Christchurch quake
New Zealand Post evacuated its mail processing facility in Christchurch on Friday after the area was once again hit by an earthquake and strong subesequent aftershocks. The country’s third largest...
View ArticleUS regulators savage post office closure plan
US regulators have criticised plans by the US Postal Service to close thousands of post offices. The Postal Regulatory Commission issued its Advisory Opinion last week, stating that the USPS initiative...
View ArticleThe year that was: 2011 (Part One)
Our annual review of the year begins with a look back at the key events that shaped the mail and express industry in the first quarter of the 2011 calendar year… In the first quarter of the year, the...
View ArticlePostNL uncovers counterfeit postage websites
Dutch postal service PostNL has tipped off police to a series of websites selling counterfeit postage stamps. The company said the fake stamps were being sold well under face value, estimating that the...
View ArticleRussian Post expands cross-border mail capacity
Russian Post is planning to continue expanding its international mail processing capacity next year, as the number of incoming mailpieces from abroad continues to soar. During 2011, the state-owned...
View ArticleThe year that was: 2011 (Part Two)
Our annual review of the year continues with a look back at the key events that shaped the mail and express industry in the second quarter of the 2011 calendar year… This quarter saw USPS struggling as...
View ArticlePhilpost deal to give 188 post offices internet access
The Philippine Postal Corporation (Philpost) has signed a deal to work with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) to connect all the country’s post offices to the Internet. The deal...
View ArticleAramex reveals 24% cut in fuel consumption in first carbon report
Aramex has cut its fuel consumption by nearly a quarter in the last five years despite 7% growth in its fleet, according to its first ever Carbon Footprint Report, out this week. The Middle Eastern...
View ArticleThe year that was: 2011 (Part Three)
Our annual review of the year continues with a look back at the key events that shaped the mail and express industry in the third quarter of the 2011 calendar year… The global economy began to slow...
View ArticleScottish Nationalists warn against Royal Mail pricing freedom
Scotland’s governing political party has called on the UK postal regulator to rethink plans to allow Royal Mail more powers to set its own postal rates. The Scottish Nationalist Party’s postal affairs...
View ArticleThe year that was: 2011 (Part Four)
Our annual review of the year concludes with a look back at the key events that shaped the mail and express industry in the fourth quarter of the 2011 calendar year… In the final three months of 2011,...
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