WORLD POSTAL NEWS
No.01 -2018
Formulated by UNI Apro Post and Logistics Sector
Altogether, Posti delivered more than 37 million parcels in 2017. January 03, 2018 .
SWISS POST Delivered 18m Parcels In Pre-Christmas December. January 1, 2018.
The Postal Service faces a losing streak as Amazon cashes in on record holiday sales. December 29, 2017.
Festive season: Swiss Post processes 18 million parcels. December 26, 2017.
Sweden threatened Postnord Denmark with bankruptcy. December 18, 2017.
Altogether, Posti delivered more than 37 million parcels in 2017. January 03, 2018 .
January 03, 2018
The record-breaking online sales during the holiday season grew Posti's parcel volume to 37 million postal items in 2017. Parcel volume increased by 9% compared to the previous year.
"During the year, e-commerce picked up and the number of e-commerce parcels grew by more than 15%. Posti provides e-commerce with the most popular ways of receiving postal items together with the most comprehensive and fast delivery network in Finland. We deliver parcels to online store customers also on
Saturdays in the capital region, Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Seinäjoki and Kuopio," says Toni Laaksonen, Vice President, Parcel Services at Posti.
Posti has ensured the smoothness of deliveries and strengthened its service point network, for instance, by adding more lockers to the Posti parcel locker network and by opening temporary pop-up pickup points for the Christmas season. The number of Posti service points has continued to increase by 40% during the last six years.
Increasing numbers of online stores offer Posti parcel lockers as a delivery type. Posti has more than 1,500 service points, of which 500 are parcel lockers. The number of parcels going through them grew by 42%. Posti will open 1,000 new parcel lockers. The new Smartpost parcel locker service can be ordered for a housing company or office.
In addition to parcel volume, Posti delivered approximately one million letters containing goods per month, mainly sent from Chinese online stores.
Friends and family remembered with millions of Christmas cards
Personal, handwritten Christmas greetings are part of the Finnish Christmas tradition. More than 26 million Christmas cards were sent this year in Finland. The majority of the 3,700 seasonal workers employed by Posti worked in Christmas mail sorting, which is done mainly manually.
Due to an insufficient or incorrect address, approximately 50,000 Christmas greetings needed further address clarification. Christmas cards gone through address clarification will be delivered until early January.
Christmas is Finland's largest card season. Posti has published postage stamps designed for Christmas greetings each year since 1973. Sending cards is also an essential part of Valentine's Day celebrations in February. Stamps celebrating friendship will be released on January 24.
Source: Posti
SWISS POST Delivered 18m Parcels In Pre-Christmas December. January 1, 2018.
January 1 , 2018
Swiss Post has reported that it processed more than 18m parcels between 1 and 23 December.
The postal operator also reported that, on peak days in December, over one million parcels a day passed through the systems at the sorting centers in Frauenfeld, Härkingen and Daillens. On 19 December,the three centres processed more than 1.3m parcels, which was a new record for the company.
Swiss Post said that these increased volumes were made possible by the upgrades it has made to its parcel centres, with new sorting systems that offer 25% more capacity.
The company added: “The construction of three additional regional parcel centers in Cadenazzo (TI), Untervaz (GR) and Vétroz (VS) has already been planned. This will enable punctual processing of parcel volumes, which are growing each year – thanks in particular to mail order business.”
Source : Post & Parcel
The Postal Service faces a losing streak as Amazon cashes in on record holiday sales. December 29, 2017.
December 29, 2017
Trump: Amazon's Getting Richer and USPS 'Dumber and Poorer'
President Donald Trump thinks the USPS should be charging "much more" for its services. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Donald Trump took aim at online retailer Amazon on Friday while calling on the U.S. Postal Service to raise its low prices, which he said are making the service "dumber and poorer."
The postal service, Trump said in a tweet, is losing billions as it gives online retailers too good of a deal. The president suggested the agency charge more for its delivery services in order to make back its losses.
"Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!" Trump wrote.
While the online retail giant does use the Postal Service, it ships packages primarily through private companies UPS and FedEx and is reportedly developing its own delivery service.
The Postal Service is a federal agency, but operates independently and does not receive tax revenue to cover costs, according to its website. The Associated Press
reports the service has faced cash crunches and flirted with bankruptcy in recent years as a result of declining first
class mail volume and expensive health care and pensions costs. Per AP, the agency has lost money for 11 consecutive years.
But according to the Postal Service, the package-delivery part of the post office is actually doing well and helps to offset the costs of mail delivery in rural areas.
"In 2017, mail volumes declined by approximately 5.0 billion pieces, or 3.6 percent, while package volumes grew by 589 million pieces, or 11.4 percent, continuing a multi-year trend of declining mail volumes and increasing package volume," the agency pointed out in a November press release about its fiscal 2017 results. "The growth in our Shipping and Packages business provided some help to the financial picture of the Postal Service as revenue increased $2.1 billion, or 11.8 percent."
Amazon finished strong in 2017 with record holiday sales.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the company's chief executive, and also owns The Washington Post. Trump has before taken issue with the newspaper in his continued attacks on traditional news media, which he often derides as "fake news."
Source: US. News. Com
Festive season: Swiss Post processes 18 million parcels. December 26, 2017.
December 26, 2017
The sorting systems at Swiss Post have been running at near full capacity in the run-up to Christmas: Swiss Post processed more than 18 million parcels in December alone – even though there was one fewer sorting day before Christmas than in previous years. Sorting center and delivery staff worked extra shifts to achieve this result. Since 24 December, the “2 x Christmas” campaign, which supports those in need in Switzerland and abroad, has also been running for the twenty-first time.
Between 1 and 23 December 2017, Swiss Post employees processed more than 18 million parcels, despite the fact that the calendar left one fewer day for sorting this year than in previous years. On peak days in December, over one million parcels a day passed through the systems at the sorting centers
in Frauenfeld (TG), Härkingen (SO) and Daillens (VD). On 19 December, Swiss Post set a new record: the three centers processed more than
1.3 million parcels, more than ever before on a single day. To be able to handle these kinds of peak loads more efficiently, Swiss Post has upgraded its parcel centers with additional high-performance sorting systems, increasing capacity by 25 percent over the past few years. The construction of three additional regional parcel centers in Cadenazzo (TI), Untervaz (GR) and Vétroz (VS) has already been planned. This will enable punctual processing of parcel volumes, which are growing each year – thanks in particular to mail order business.
During the pre-Christmas period, Swiss Post’s mail carriers delivered up to 18 million consignments (letters, promotional mailings and newspapers) on peak days. Despite declining volumes, Swiss Post processed a total of around two billion addressed letters in 2017.
Swiss Post staff show great commitment before and after Christmas
To keep things running smoothly during the Christmas rush, Swiss Post employees undertook additional assignments on several occasions, with all available staff reporting for work and the machines in the letter centers running almost round the clock, including weekends. Staff at the three big parcel centers reported for work on two Saturdays before Christmas to sort the enormous volume of parcels, ensuring that the parcels reached their recipients’ homes on time. Delivery staff also worked an extra shift on Saturday, 23 December 2017, to deliver additional parcels in time for Christmas Eve. The rush at Swiss Post’s parcel centers does not end once Christmas is over, however. Online retail continues to boom even beyond the festive season.
“2 x Christmas” with more focus
Swiss Post has been committed to the “2 x Christmas” solidarity campaign for 21 years now, working together with the Swiss Red Cross (SRC), the broadcaster SRG SSR and retailer Coop. Donated goods parcels containing non-perishable food (e.g. rice, oil, coffee or tinned goods) and hygiene products and toiletries (e.g. soap, toothpaste or cotton wool) can still be handed in free of charge at all branches until 6 January 2018. Those who wish to donate can visit www.swisspost.ch/2xchristmas to have parcels collected free of charge from their homes or from another address with pick@home. Donations in kind will this year benefit people in need in Switzerland. The Red Cross will use online parcels donated via www.2xchristmas.ch to purchase goods which are needed urgently in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova and Kyrgyzstan. These will be purchased in the countries themselves and distributed to people in need.
Source : swisspost.ch
Sweden threatened Postnord Denmark with bankruptcy. December 18, 2017.
December 18, 2017
When Postnord Denmark last autumn fought for its survivor and demanded state aid from its owners, that is, the Danish and Swedish state - the Swedes allegedly threatened to put the company into bankruptcy unless the Danes accounted for the majority of the money the company needed for its survival, paid most of the aid.
The threat was negotiating tactics
The Swedish negotiating team was led by staff from Mikael Damberg's office.
It would have been a pure war declaration against Denmark unless the Swedes backed Postnord Denmark by chapter.
The agreement ended with the Danish state accounting for a total of 1.8 billion kronor and the Swedish taxpayers' contributions amount to 400 million kronor.
In fact, a large part of the 2.2 billion is earmarked for Danish postal workers to be kicked when business is shrinking. The staff concerned have gold-pledged agreements that give them three annual salaries - without having to work during the notice period.
The planned Danish / Swedish state aid will make the Danish Farmers Association, DTL, look red
DTL considers inter alia that the aid distorts competition and that Postnord probably uses state money to subsidize other activities within the company.
Since it is the European Commission that has to approve Danish / Swedish state aid to Postnord Denmark, DTL has turned to the Commission in Brussels and protested against Postnord Denmark receiving the 2.2 billion vital kronor.
Letter to EU Margrethe Vestager
In a letter to the EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, formerly Danish economy and Minister for the Left-wing Left, DTL poses a series of questions that they want the Commission to address with the two owners, says Dagens Nyheter.
"It is clear that we have a lot of concerns about adding money to Postnord," says DTL CEO Erik Østergaard to the newspaper.
"We get information from our members that Postnord works with unrealistic prices, not only in terms of packages but also pieceware and other segments," says Østergaard.
The Danish part of Postnord, like the Swedish part, has a number of ways in which they simply have to perform certain services so that residents receive a functional postal service across the country. DTL thinks that it can be procured in the usual manner with private actors.POSTAL NEWS
No.02 -2018
Formulated by UNI Apro Post and Logistics Sector
Australia Post Delivered 37 M Parcels In December.January 5, 2018.
Over £2.5bn Of Online Orders To Be Returned To Retailers This Christmas”. January 2, 2018.
Holiday returns to reach 1.4M in one day. January 2, 2018.
Behind the scenes at FedEx this Christmas. December 13,2018.
NPMHU Files Direct Challenge To Function-1 Scheduler. December 7 , 2017.
Australia Post Delivered 37m Parcels In December.
January 05, 2018
Australia Post has announced that it made more than 37m parcel deliveries during December.
Australia Post Chief Operations Officer and Executive General Manager, E- Commerce Delivery, Bob Black said more than 2,000 extra staff were employed to handle the record volumes and help ensure Australians received their Christmas goodies.
“We made more than 37m parcel deliveries in the four weeks leading up to Christmas, that’s almost 20% more deliveries per day compared to last year, making 2017 our biggest festive season ever,” said Black.
“On average our drivers and posties made more than 5 deliveries per household across Australia, making it a huge team effort.”
“In the final week before Christmas, we delivered more than 11m parcels alone, and more than 100m greeting cards and letters. Speed of delivery was a key consideration for many customers, with several days in the week before Christmas recording increases of more than 30% across our Premium and Express services.”
Black said that customers had also made extensive use of Australia Post’s delivery options, including weekend deliveries and extended trading hours, as well as parcel redirections, parcel pick up directly from Australia Post facilities, and safe drop, which allows a resident to nominate a safe place for parcels to be left at their property when they are not at home.
Black added that the parcel rush is not yet other and it is “very much all hands on deck still”, as Australia Post is still seeing record volumes through its network “due to some amazing sales”.
Overall, said Australia Post, online shopping purchases in Australia grew 15% in 2017 compared with 2016.
Source : Post and Parcel
Over £2.5bn Of Online Orders To Be Returned To Retailers This Christmas”.
January 02, 2018
The continued surge in online shopping will see over £2.5bn of unwanted Christmas presents returned to retailers this year in the UK, according to estimates from LCP Consulting.
The majority will be returned between mid-December (following Black Friday) to mid-January.
Commenting on the findings, Stuart Higgins, Director – Retail, at LCP Consulting, said: “The price retailers have to pay for online growth is pretty substantial. Not only will this flood of returns put additional demands on retailers back-end operations during their busiest online sales week of the year, it will also impact their stores as a third of returns will come back into stores just as they’re launching their Christmas and January sales.”
In a statement sent to Post&Parcel, LCP Consulting said that it is not just the cost of receiving the return that puts additional strain on retailers, as there are four other factors which have an impact:
Cost of an online order. An online order typically costs £2 to £3 more to process than an in-store purchase. “This investment by the retailer to encourage online sales will be lost if the customer returns the goods,” said LCP Consulting.
Free returns. “The High Street standard is now to offer free returns – great if the consumer walks the item back into a store, but not if the retailer pays a carrier to collect the parcel from the customer’s home, or if the customer posts the item back at the retailer’s expense.”
“Making new”. Each return has to be processed by the retailer to check it’s in an ‘as new’ condition and can go back onto the shelf for resale. A fashion garment may need creases steamed out, and Electrical items need to be safety tested.
Not fit for resale. Some items will simply not be fit for resale and will have to be either discounted or scrapped altogether, which add further costs to the retailer.
LCP said that, in order that to improve the efficiency of returns, successful retailers are implementing :
Returns-ready packaging
Returns labels in original package
Easy drop off/collection points
Credit on first scan, not after the retailer has processed the return.
Higgins concluded: “Retailer returns processes are improving, but our annual survey of leading retailers continues to highlight that returns speed/efficiency ranks less important in the minds of retail directors than other supply chain factors, which is surprising given that 70% of consumers say that returns capability is top of mind when selecting where to buy from online.
“With online returns exceeding £2.5billion from this year’s festive shopping period, forward-thinking retailers need to ensure that they’re operating fast efficient, customer-centric returns processes so customers get their cash back faster – an important part of over customer satisfaction.”
Source: Post & Parcel
Holiday returns to reach 1.4M in one day.
January 2, 2018
It's been one crazy holiday stretch for UPS and other shipping companies. As The Wall Street Journal reported, UPS was forced to draft many of its own office workers (even accountants, poor things) to help ensure deliveries would arrive before Christmas. Massive e-commerce growth was a big part of the reason shippers were overloaded with packages, but some companies also reported a shortage of seasonal employees, according to the Journal.
Now, consumers are getting ready to ship some of those packages back where they came from. Indeed, holiday gift returns are becoming an increasingly big deal, and it's not necessarily because people are getting worse at shopping for holiday gifts for their friends
and families. One reason for the increase could be that retailers and their shipping partners have started to make it much easier and cheaper for shoppers and gift recipients to send items back.
UPS' own 2017 Pulse of the Online Shopper study backs up this notion. The study found that that about 75% of consumers have shipped returns back to retailers, a figure up from 68% a year earlier. The study also found that a retailer's returns policies and capabilities figure prominently in a consumer's shopping process.
For example, 79% of those surveyed said free shipping on returns is a factor they consider when first buying from an online retailer. In addition, 44% said the biggest issue they faced when returning an item purchased online is the cost for return shipping. Other studies, such as a recent one from Deloitte, have suggested that shoppers also want more time and flexibility to make returns.
Walmart is one retailer that has obviously gotten the message, with Mobile Express Returns setting a perfect example for how some retailers have focused on making the returns process easier and more convenient for their customers.
No retailer likes to see products returned, and increasing returns can play a major role in rising e-commerce logistics costs, as the experiences of Amazon and other retailers have shown. But making returns less painful for consumers can also create a positive customer experience, which could mean more revenue than returns in the long run.
Source : Retaildive.com
Behind the scenes at FedEx this Christmas.
December 13, 2017
The rapid growth of e-commerce will drive volume over the 2017 Christmas season. FedEx expects to see between 380-400million packages to be pass through its global network between Black Friday (24 November) to Christmas Eve, while it predicts three Mondays over the Christmas period to more than double its average daily volume (13 million shipments are normally sent per day, outside of the Christmas season).
As consumer habits change, and e-commerce and last-minute purchases grow – FedEx is busy preparing for the Christmas season…
Over 300 aircraft movements per week pass through the main FedEx hub for Europe, Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) hub, into and outside Europe and the world over 6 days a week – on average more than one take off or landing every half-hour
At CDG, approximately 1,200 tons of freight are handled per day – the equivalent of 240 5-ton elephants
At the Central and Eastern Europe hub in Cologne, 58 weekly flights to/from Europe, the US, and Asia pass through the CGN hub
Globally, more than 400,000 FedEx team members are busy preparing for the peak season
The FedEx global network, consists of more than 650 planes (making FedEx the second largest airline in the world in terms of number of aircraft), and more than 150,000 motorised vehicles.
Source : couriernews.co.uk
NPMHU Files Direct Challenge To Function-1 Scheduler.
December 7, 2017
Mail Handlers across the country continue to be adversely affected by the Postal Service implementation of wholesale and unwarranted bid reversions, job abolishments, and excessing. Management also has been indiscriminately changing the schedules, start times, and rest days of thousands of duty assignments without regard to how this affects the lives of Mail Handlers and without concern on how these changes affect the service that we provide to the American public.
During ongoing discussions with the NPMHU, postal management argues that these changes are necessary because of the continuing decline in mail volumes, especially in First-Class Mail, and the resulting drop in revenue. Postal management further claims that it must reduce its work hours and transportation costs. USPS Headquarters therefore has directed all Postal Areas to assess their current workforce complements and make the necessary adjustments (cuts) to reflect the decline in mail volume. This decision to implement wholesale schedule changes and potential closings and consolidations is an extremely bad idea.
At the bottom of these planned changes is the Function-1 Scheduler, a management tool that is being used by the Postal Service to “justify,” with charts and graphs and numbers, these unwarranted schedule changes and possible excessing of employees, both within and outside of each installation. NPMHU representatives at the Regional, Local, and Branch levels are meeting with their counterparts from the Postal Service to discuss the impacts at each individual installation. All of the appropriate and necessary grievances are being filed at the Local level to contest the Postal Service’s unwarranted attacks on its own employees.
In November, the National Office filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, trying to compel the Postal Service into disclosing more information about the F-1 Scheduler and its impact on mail handlers and other postal employees. Now, as more information has been obtained, the NPMHU believes that substantial parts of the F-1 Scheduler have been designed and are based on time and work studies that have been adopted and implemented in a manner that violates Article 34 of the National Agreement. Thus, the Contract Administration Department in the National
Office has filed a grievance under Article 34 of the National Agreement to challenge this contract violation.
As further explained in that grievance:
[A]s the contents of the F-1 Scheduler have been explained by the Postal Service during several informational meetings and in several informational disclosures, much of the data input into the F-1 Scheduler for mail handler work is based on information about Platform Operations or Allied Labor that relies on Manual Staffing Inputs. For example, for Platform Operations, USPS representatives have explained that they have conducted time or work studies to determine how long it should take to load and/or unload particular trucks. Reference was made during our meetings to “minutes per trip type” and mail handler “input staffing requirements” for Platform and similar operations. A similar process was described with regard to PIV Inputs for Powered Industrial Vehicles. Again, USPS representatives explained that the Postal Service has changed its evaluations for some of the operations based on prior studies.
To this extent, the NPMHU contends that the Postal Service’s establishment and implementation of these work measurement systems and/or time or work standards have not complied with the requirements of Article 34.
First, . . . before making any changes in current or instituting any new work measurement systems or work or time standards, the Postal Service must give timely advance notification to the Union. [The] Union must be kept informed during the making of time or work studies which are to be used as a basis for changing current or instituting new work measurement systems or work or time standards, and the Union may designate a representative to observe such studies in postal installations. With regard to the F-1 Scheduler, the Postal Service complied with none of these notification, information, or observation requirements.
Moreover, should the Postal Service determine a need to implement any new nationally developed and nationally applicable work or time standards, Article 34 requires that it first conduct a test or tests of those standards in one or more installations. The Union must receive at least 15 days advance notice of such a test. Article 34 also requires that the Postal Service notify the Union at least 30 days in advance of any live implementation of satisfactory tests of changes in work or time standards. After receiving such notification, the Union must be allowed to conduct its own time or work studies, during a period not to exceed 90 days, and during this period the Postal Service may not implement its revised work or time standards. Again, with regard to the F-1 Scheduler, the Postal Service has complied with none of these prerequisites.
Second, Article 34 also . . . require[s] that the introduction of new work measurement systems or the establishment of new time or work standards be fair, reasonable and equitable... [T]he NPMHU [believes] that the new systems and standards being implemented through the F-1 Scheduler are not fair, reasonable and equitable, as those standards [have been] set under Article 34.
The National parties will be meeting to process this grievance during the third week in December, and you should watch your bulletin boards for reports about future developments.
Source : NPMHU. Org