Wednesday, June 30, 2021

World Postal News


1 POSTAL NEWSNo 49-2021   Formulated by UNI Apro Post and Logistics Sector1.FedEx to add freighters and boost spending to meet demand. June 25, 2021.2.Poste Italiane opens e-commerce sorting hub. June 24, 2021.3.New and Expanded Financial Services Coming to Canada Post. June 24, 2021.4.Sign For Me, the new free bpost service that makes it easier for addressees to receive registered mail, even when they are not at home. June 23, 2021.5.Letterbox sensor plan delivers success in Jersey Post contest.June 20, 2021.1.FedEx to add freighters and boost spending to meet demand June 25, 2021 FedEx will boost spending over the coming year and add more freighter orders to meet growing e-commerce demand.Announcing its results full-year results for fiscal year ended May 31, the express giant said it expected to spend around $7.2bn in FY 2022 compared with around $5.9bn last year.Meanwhile, FedEx will exercise options to purchase 20 additional B767Fs, 10 for delivery in fiscal year 2024 and 10 for delivery in fiscal year 2025.The investments will also include 16 new automated facilities and the implementation of nearly 100 expansion projects at its ground division. “To handle future ground volumes, we are significantly increasing capacity to deliver both, great service and improved financial results,” chairman and chief executive Fred Smith said.“This summer, we are intently focused on improving network and delivery operations prior to the volume surge in the fallLooking to the air cargo market, FedEx said that trade volumes have surpassed pre-pandemic levels and are on course for the fastest year of growth in over a decade.It said that global air cargo capacity remained down 10% year-on-year in April as a result of lower bellyhold capacity. FedEx expects air cargo capacity to remain constrained at least in the first half year and capacity recovery to be slow and possibly episodic. A full recovery is not anticipated until 2024. The company also believes that “favourable” pricing internationally should continue through fiscal year 2022. It will manage international demand through yield management and peak surcharges, especially on transpacific and transatlantic lanes. Currently it is seeing a “very good capture rate” on surcharges. Last fiscal year, the company saw revenues increase to $84bn from $69.2bn the prior year and operating income was a $5.9bn against $2.4bn. In its fourth quarter, revenues stood at $22.6bn against $17.4bn in the prior year and operating income was $1.8bn compared with $475m 12 months earlier.“Fourth quarter operating results increased primarily due to volume growth and disciplined revenue and portfolio management,” the company said. “These factors were partially offset by costs to support strong demand, increased variable compensation expense, and higher labour rates.”FedEx Express fourth quarter operating income more than doubled year over year, driven by exceptional growth in international export and US domestic package services. 3 FedEx Ground reported record earnings for the quarter and revenue growth of 27%. The revenue increase was primarily driven by strong growth in business-to-business shipments and a 14% rise in revenue per package.FedEx Freight reported record earnings and operating margin of 16.1% for the quarter, as average daily shipments grew 30% and revenue per shipment increased 6%.Source : https://www.aircargonews.net/airlines2.Poste Italiane opens e-commerce sorting hub June 24, 2021 Italian postal service Poste Italiane has opened a logistics hub in Landriano, which it says is the largest in Europe for e-commerce and express courier services. The facility covers a total area of 80,000m2 , and its 600 employees can process up to 300,000 parcels per day. The hub is equipped with an advanced automatic sorting system, augmented by 17 robots. Furthermore, 2,500 photovoltaic panels have been installed on the roof, which generate electricity capable of covering 80% of the plant’s consumption, reducing annual CO2 emissions by 210 tons. Poste Italiane says it has invested a total of €60m (US$72m) in the construction of the hub. Source : https://www.parcelandpostaltechnologyinternational.com/news/e-commerce 3.New and Expanded Financial Services Coming to Canada PostJune 24, 2021 The members of Appendix “T” (Service Expansion, Innovation and Change Committee) are happy to announce that Canada Post has confirmed concrete plans.4 to launch a market test for new and expanded financial services with a financial partner in the fall of this year.Beginning in September and October, alongside financial services currently offered at Canada Post, a new service will be piloted at retail counters in both major market locations and rural communities with the goal of testing customer response. If this project is successful, there is a possibility that this new financial service will be rolled out across Canada Post’s network in the future. Pilot project locations will include CUPW and CPAA retail counters in a number of locations.In the coming days, Appendix “T” is looking forward to sharing more information, including:•The new financial service that will be offered;•The exact location and number of pilot project locations involved in the market test;•The name of the financial partner working with Canada Post.A win for postal workers!The introduction of a new financial service and these pilot projects represent a real win for our union and its decade-long campaign for postal banking. Postal workers can take pride in knowing their efforts are paying off and that the“struggle for financial inclusion for everyone continues”.Source : https://www.cupw.ca/en4.Sign For Me, the new free bpost service that makes it easier for addressees to receive registered mail, even when they are not at home June 23, 2021 bpost is launching a free service across the country that saves customers time. With Sign For Me, they can receive registered items straight away in the letterbox at home, even if they are not present.They simply give a power of attorney to bpost at a post office or postal point. No more waiting, stress, going to a pick-up point, queues and parking problems!More customer-friendly processFor registered mail, the addressee must sign when it is accepted. If the addressee is not at home, the postman puts a message in the letterbox. That message states the post office where the shipment can be picked up within 15 days. bpost works every day to improve the customer experience, including for receiving registered mail. You can now give bpost and therefore the postman permission to have5 registered items, or most of them, delivered directly to the letterbox without the items losing their legal value. All you have to do is sign up for that service with your identity card at a post office or postal point. You will then receive a confirmation email asking you to validate your registration. This service is only available to private individualsfrom the beginning of August 2021 in all post offices and postal points of the country. Soon you will also be able to register via the My bpost app, which will now allow you to track all your parcels and registered items.Attention! Certain registered items may not be put in the letterbox. The postman will still ring the bell for registered items with acknowledgment of receipt (including court letters), because the signature of the addressee is still required.In addition, Sign For Me is also not valid for registered mail with customs charges, for which an amount must be paid, for registered voting papers, registered mail with a declared value and registered mail that is too large for the letterbox. Even if the letterbox does not conform and is not sufficiently secure, registered mail may not be delivered.Signature required without power of attorneyIn March 2020, in order to comply with social distancing and limit contact during the corona crisis, bpost changed the process for the delivery of, among other things, registered mail, parcels and pensions. For shipments requiring a signature on delivery, the postman was allowed to sign in the customer's place, provided the customer was present. Now that the health situation has improved and the government has decided to gradually return to normal life, these temporary measures are coming to an end. From 1 July 2021, addressees must again sign themselves on the postman's device in order to receive their sent shipment in a secure manner. Unless they sign up for the new Sign For Me service.Source : https://press.bpost.be/

UNI Apro Post & Logistics6 5.Letterbox sensor plan delivers success in Jersey Post contestJune 20, 2021Students have been awarded for their vision to put letter-counting sensors on each of the island’s postboxes to help local posties reduce their daily travel times.Over the past 12 weeks, Key Stage 4 students from Les Quennevais, Victoria College, Jersey College for Girls and Beaulieu had been developing digital prototypes using Internet of Things (IoT) technology as part of Jersey’s Post ‘Postbox Challenge’.The goal was to come up innovative digital solutions which would help eliminate unnecessary daily journeys for postal workers to 120 potentially empty postboxes across the island.The students were asked to design a solution which would enable Jersey Post to know which postboxes contain mail and which do not.They presented their designs on 9 June to a panel of industry experts that included Tim Brown, Chief Executive Officer at Jersey Post; Professor Andy Stanford-Clark, Chief Technology Officer at IBM UK; Alexia McClure, Chief Operating Officer at Jersey Business and Alexa Munn, Head of Governance at Children, Young People, Education and Skills (CYPES) at the Government of Jersey.The winning team of Victoria College Year 10 students created a “well thought out” digital sensor able to count the number of items landing in a postbox. They presented a complete and functional workflow, from posting a letter to a user interface for postal workers. The team also included a worked analysis of power consumption and had a fully costed bill for materials, and understood the manufacturing/mass production process.

UNI Apro Post & Logistics7 Thomas Waller was nominated for being the team's driving force and received the ‘Superstar Award’.The team will now be invited to the Digital Jersey Hub to polish their prototype so that it can be implemented in local postboxes. Students from the college’s Year 11 clas were runners up with a “good functional prototype”, covering the complete workflow from posting to monitoring.Les Quennevais Year 10 students received the Design Award after demonstrating “mastery of industrial design principles” in their design processes from creative artwork to the quality functional CAD model. They also received an ‘Honourable Mention’ for creating an application to survey postboxes, which exemplified “the important design principle of fully understanding the problem before designing the solution”. Jemma Harding (Beaulieu), Eathan Soar (Les Quennevais) and Taylor Clark (Jersey College for Girls) were all recognised as ‘Shining Stars’."We are continuously looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint, and this challenge was a brilliant way to involve students and promote a technological career at the same time,” Mr Brown said. “The students made a tremendous effort in coming up with some great designs that could save Jersey Post time and resource. A huge well done to each student that took part."Deputy Scott Wickenden, the Assistant Minister for Education, congratulated the winning team as well as participants. “It’s fantastic to see students using their digital knowledge to develop solutions to real-world problems.”Source : https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/news/

 [POSTAL NEWS from UNI Apro P&L] No. 49 & 50/2021

 Director of UNI Apro Post&Logistics <uniapropostandlogistics@gmail.com>

Wed 6/30/2021 4:36 AM