industryterm:postal services

  • Trump pulls US out of UN postal scheme on China price concerns | US news | The Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/17/trump-universal-postal-union-withdraw-foreign-postal-rates

    The Trump administration will begin withdrawing from a United Nations treaty that offered low rates for foreign postal deliveries of small packages in the US – the latest move to challenge practices it sees as unfairly advantageous to China.

    White House officials said on Wednesday the US would start the process of leaving the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a Switzerland-based organisation that connects postal services worldwide.

    The White House said the UPU enabled foreign postal services to take advantage of cheap shipments to the US, creating an unfair cost advantage over US companies that shipped goods, and hurting the US Postal Service.

    Shares of internet-based mailing and shipping provider Stamps.com fell nearly 9% after the announcement. Online shoppers in the US have often benefited from the arrangement, gaining access to foreign goods at little cost.

    Donald Trump is distancing the US from international multilateral organisations and accompanying policies that he says hurt US interests.

    #Union_Postale_Universelle, fondée en 1874 …

  • ’We need more data-sharing and visibility in e-commerce air freight supply chains’ - The Loadstar
    https://theloadstar.co.uk/need-data-sharing-visibility-e-commerce-air-freight-supply-chains

    Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics arm, has called on the air cargo industry to support data-sharing and visibility across its e-commerce supply chain network.

    Roger Su, head of global network planning and operations for the company, told delegates at the World Cargo Symposium in Dallas yesterday it needed better visibility across its ecosystem of handlers, carriers, truckers and forwarders.
    […]
    Chinese company #Alibaba has pledges to deliver within 24 hours in China and 72 hours globally, and is investing $15.2bn in logistics over the next four years, much of which will go into technology, said Mr Su.

    We need infrastructure investment and to get physical process points closer together to consolidate. And we are looking at how we can use technology to innovate and exchange data and streamline processes.

    World Customs Organisation (WCO) director of compliance and facilitation Ana Hinojosa said that, today, Customs was not quite ready for Alibaba’s plans.

    The maturity and development of countries around the world varies greatly, but over the last two years we have focused heavily on e-commerce.

    There has been a tsunami of small packages – for many countries, the volume has been exponential.

    Several players in the air cargo industry have already stepped up to the challenge. Swiss World Cargo, which as a capacity-limited belly carrier has an interest in small packages, is set to offer an e-commerce product.

    It has been piloting a proof of concept in two lanes, between London and Hong Kong, and London and Spain, which, according to Silvia Chacon Ramos, senior manager for postal services and e-commerce, has been very successful.

    The concept is integrating virtually with last-mile delivery partners,” she told The Loadstar. “That includes Customs clearance. We won’t do the delivery ourselves, but we have created a platform that can link and connect all the partners from origin to destination, starting from the etailer.

    It’s a #blockchain-based platform, visible regardless of where you are in the chain. It allows the final consumer to see every point of touch.

    One of the upcoming challenges for the e-commerce industry is new EU regulations which state that, from 2021, online marketplaces must collect VAT on their platforms and that the current VAT exemption for small consignments will be shelved.

  • The Economist explains: Why is the Royal Mail being privatised? | The Economist
    http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/10/economist-explains-9?fsrc=rss

    ON October 11th the British government will sell around 60% of its stake in the Royal Mail, the state-owned postal service, via a flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Unlike other former state-owned businesses such as telecoms firms, energy providers and the railways, Royal Mail has so far avoided privatisation. Previous attempts failed due to backbench revolts by wayward MPs. Even Margaret Thatcher, who as prime minister started Britain’s sell-off of public assets, was “not prepared to have the Queen’s head privatised”, a reference to the iconic stamps which bear a motif of the bejewelled monarch. So why is the Royal Mail being privatised now?
     
    The British government claims privatisation will give the company access to private capital and improve its competitiveness. The need for more investment is urgent. Changing demand for postal services have transformed its business model. Parcel volumes are increasing because of the boom in internet shopping, but the numbers of letters sent daily fell from 82m in 2004 to just 58m in 2013. The government says it cannot afford to invest itself to help Royal Mail cope with this shift. It has already ploughed £3 billion ($4.7 billion) into modernising the Post Office’s network of 11,500 branches, which are not included in the sale. Last month George Osborne, the chancellor, said that public-sector spending cuts may last until 2020. Tapping the stockmarket is seen as the only way of ensuring sufficient investment over the next few years. The government notes that the injection of private capital into postal services seems to have worked elsewhere. Belgium’s postal service returned to profitability soon after its part-privatisation in 2006 and it now enjoys profit margins of 17%. Similar increases in productivity and profitability can be seen at Austria Post and at Deutsche Post. Both companies have profit margins double that of Royal Mail.
     
    Privatisation also offers the government other benefits. A privately owned Royal Mail would mean that future disputes with the Communications Workers Union over postmen’s pay and conditions might cause less political damage to ministers. The sale will also help Mr Osborne meet his deficit-reduction targets; this week’s sale will produce up to £2 billion for the Treasury. A privatised Royal Mail would be less likely to be a liability in the future, as it would be harder to justify a public bail-out if it got into financial difficulties. Political motivations may play a role too. The coalition government privately hopes that a large sale of discounted shares to the public will bring back positive memories of the popular sell-offs of the 1980s, boosting its flagging poll ratings.
     
    But it is doubtful whether floating Royal Mail as a public company, rather than selling it to a single buyer, is the best way to achieve some of these aims. New research suggests that private companies invest more in the long term than publicly listed ones, which tend to focus on short-run profitability. Private companies are more able to absorb the financial costs associated with breaking intransigent unions and making big long-term investments, problems Royal Mail will face in the coming years. A private buyer might also make more money for the government than a flotation. Analysts at Canaccord Genuity, a bank, have suggested that Royal Mail is worth as much as 80% more than the value the government is floating it at. As Harold Macmillan, a former prime minister, once suggested, the British government may well find it is selling off the family silver too cheaply and to poor effect.

    –> “New research suggests that private companies invest more in the long term than publicly listed ones, which tend to focus on short-run profitability” !

    #Royal_Mail
    #privatization