POSTAL NEWS
No 31-2020
Formulated by UNI AproPost and Logistics Sector
1.
Amazon
closes French warehouses after court ruling on coronavirus. April 16, 2020.
3.
Australia Post considered once-a-week letter
deliveries in confidential review.
April 14, 2020.
4.
Posti: Items are delivered to the intended recipients,
but they are not carried inside – installation services are also temporarily
suspended due to the coronavirus. April 14, 2020.
5. Post office helps self-isolating customers access cash.April 13, 2020. |
POSTAL NEWS
No 32-2020
Formulated by UNI AproPost and Logistics Sector
1. DPD staff
donate 45,000 care items to NHS hospitals nationwide. April 16, 2020.
2.
Federal Government must put on emergency supply flights for
regional/rural Australia: posties.April 15, 2020.
3.
PostNL provides update on Q1 performance amidst
Covid-19 pandemic.April 14, 2020.
4. UPS Expedites Global Deliveries Of QIAGEN Coronavirus Testing Kits. April
14, 2020.
5. China's first train of new postal
rail service to Europe arrives in Lithuania. April 13, 2020.
1.
DPD staff donate
45,000 care items to NHS hospitals nationwide
April 16, 2020
Parcel delivery firm DPD has helped turn a palliative care nurse’s idea into a
nationwide initiative to provide much needed welfare and treat packs for
patients and NHS staff.
The new initiative –
called NHS Thursday – will see thousands of welfare packs and food and treat
packs collated and distributed by DPD, to 160 NHS hospitals nationwide.
The items have been donated by DPD staff, either extra items that they had at
home, or things they have been able to pick-up while doing their usual
shopping.
The list of items has
been agreed with the NHS and deliveries coordinated with DPD’s existing NHS
contacts. The welfare pack includes cosmetics and toiletries such as
shampoo, shower gel, sanitary products, toothpaste, make-up, shaving foam and
disposable razors. The food and treat packs contain instant noodles,
energy drinks, biscuits, crisps, tea and coffee.
The idea came from
Nikitta Jones, a palliative care nurse at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon, the Cynon Valley
Hospital, near MerthyrTydfil. Nikitta’s partner is Nikos Minadakis, who
is a DPD driver, based in the Cardiff depot. Nikitta had explained to him that
families are no longer allowed to visit the ward under the current Covid-19
restrictions, and in addition to the loss of contact, patients also aren’t
getting supplies and treats from home.
Nikitta commented:
“The whole team on Ward 6 are amazing and I’m so proud of the work they do, but
it is very difficult at the moment to give our patients everything they
need. It is important to be able to maintain their dignity and give them
the kind of home comforts their families would normally bring in. So, partly
this is about providing essential items for personal hygiene and partly it is
about being able to treat our patients the way their families would.”
Nikos spoke to
colleagues who suggested Nikitta email DPD CEO Dwain McDonald direct. As
a result, all 68 DPD depots up and down the country got involved in collecting,
collating and delivering the packs. Staff were encouraged to work with
local hospitals using existing contacts and friends to verify
requirements. Each depot has been helping up to six different hospitals
in their area and the hospital’s regular DPD driver will then deliver the packs
to their contact at a prearranged time.
Dwain McDonald, DPD’s
CEO commented: “When Nikitta explained the issue, it was a no-brainer.
But neither of us were expecting it to turn into a nationwide initiative.
We have been blown away by the response from staff. We are incredibly
busy at the moment, but everyone we spoke to within DPD wanted to help.
“Nikitta originally
only asked for a bag of shopping for her own ward, but in talking to her and
the team it has turned into something far bigger. Everyone has jumped on
this and we still have more donations coming in. I can see us running
this again next week and for as long as it is required. The packs are
designed for patients and the NHS staff themselves. We wanted to help
people like Nikitta look after everyone, but we also wanted to say a massive
thank you to NHS workers and help keep their energy levels up too.”
2. Federal Government must put on emergency supply
flights for regional/rural Australia: posties
The Federal Government needs to urgently intervene to ensure
Australia’s vulnerable – particularly those in regional and rural communities –
are not left without vital supplies during the COVID-19 crisis, the union
representing postal workers said today.
CEPU Communications Union National President, Shane Murphy, is
calling on the Federal Government to put on emergency freight flights to ensure
the country’s regional and rural communities can get access to the vital goods
they need in a timely manner.
The call follows revelations that massive cuts to Qantas
flights is hampering Australia Post’s ability to deliver goods to local
communities.
The union says it’s also critical the government intervenes to
ensure Australia Post can continue with five-day a week deliveries.
“Australians are in the middle of a crisis. It’s never been
more important that people have access to an efficient postal system,” Mr
Murphy said.
“Our posties are delivering essential items to the most
vulnerable in our community – people who can no longer just duck down to the
shop to pick up the medicine or other essential items they urgently need.
“If passenger flights aren’t viable, we need emergency freight
flights to ensure our mail and essential packages can continue to get to those
who need it most.
“Now is not the time to be cutting access to our postal
service. We need to be ramping it up and its up to the Federal Government to
ensure that happens. Australians need it and so do the local businesses who are
currently relying on our postal service to keep themselves afloat.
“We can’t have Australians, particularly our more vulnerable
Australians, sitting at home hoping their essential parcel will come in time.
Cutting services back is simply not an option at this time – people’s lives
rely on it.”
Source :http://www.cepu.org/2020/04/15
3. PostNL provides update on
Q1 performance amidst Covid-19 pandemic
April 14,
2020
The Hague, 14 April
2020 - Today, PostNL provides an update regarding the impact of Covid-19 on its
performance in the first quarter of 2020. PostNL is fully operational and has
been able to continue its primary business activities during these
unprecedented circumstances. It is serving consumers, customers and society at
large by maintaining its vital infrastructure, allowing people to remain
connected and to do business while staying at home.
HernaVerhagen, CEO of PostNL, commented: “Ensuring a
safe and healthy environment for our people, partners, clients and consumers is
and will remain our key priority. We are proud of our people, who are fully
focused on the ongoing delivery of mail, parcels and other shipments such as
medical goods and food, allowing people to stay at home. We are actively
monitoring developments and have had a comprehensive business continuity plan
in place since early March.”
Health and safety come first
PostNL applies all social distancing
guidelines and health regulations to protect its people and consumers as much
as possible. We have implemented additional measures in our operations and
facilities to support social distancing and to ensure a safe and healthy
working environment. We have introduced contactless delivery to ensure that our
deliverers can keep the required 1.5 metre distance to customers. Flow patterns,
protective plexiglass walls, floor stickers and other communications aim to
raise awareness and to help people to stay safe.
Covid-19 impact visible in March
Governments in the Netherlands and Belgium
took additional health and safety measures early in March. Since then,
e-commerce growth has picked up and parcels volumes have increased, compared
with low growth levels in January and February. With many retail stores forced
to close, small and mid-sized webshops showed good growth in volumes, leading
to a positive price mix effect at Parcels. At Mail in the Netherlands, people
are sending considerably more greeting cards to pay attention to family and
friends. However, bulk mail volumes declined significantly in March, as many
direct mail campaigns were postponed. The additional volume decline will be
partially offset by a positive price mix effect, which is expected to continue
in the second quarter. Despite restrictions in certain countries and reduced
air freight capacity, the impact of Covid-19 at Spring is expected to be
limited in Q1.
Solid Q1 performance expected;
strong financial position
Based on current developments, PostNL expects
to report a solid normalised EBIT and strong cash flow development for Q1 2020.
Operational measures to protect its people and clients, combined with an
increased level of absenteeism, are expected to impact operational costs.
Meanwhile, the combination of the two postal networks of PostNL and Sandd has
progressed according to plan during the quarter. PostNL is on track to deliver
the projected benefits and synergies of the consolidation. At 31 March 2020,
PostNL had €485 million in cash (31 December 2019: €480 million) and a credit facility
of €400 million, fully undrawn, with no covenants.
Limited visibility going forward
The duration and severity of the Covid-19
pandemic and its impact on the social and economic situation are difficult to
predict. There are challenges, such as the impact of social distancing measures
on efficiency as well as on our ability to realise planned cost savings in Mail
in the Netherlands, and the negative impact on the overall business
environment. At the same time, there are also opportunities, as e-commerce
activity has picked up and consumer mail is more popular now. Building on its
solid first quarter performance, PostNL continues to be committed to achieve
the stated 2020 outlook for normalised EBIT between €110 million and €130
million. However, the uncertainties regarding the duration and severity of the
Covid-19 pandemic may impact PostNL’s ability to achieve this result. Q1 2020
results will be published as scheduled on 4 May 2020.
4. UPS Expedites Global
Deliveries Of QIAGEN Coronavirus Testing Kits
April 14, 2020
·
QIAGEN dramatically ramping up production capacity to get testing
solutions to labs and hospitals across the world via UPS’s smart global
logistics network
·
UPS helping QIAGEN deploy products
worldwide, including the first syndromic testing solution that can
differentiate novel Coronavirus from 20 other serious respiratory infections in
approximately one hour
UPS (NYSE:UPS),
a global leader in logistics, today announced that it is working with QIAGEN, a
leading global provider of molecular diagnostics and sample preparation
technologies, to deliver nucleic acid extraction kits critical to COVID-19
testing, as well as its novel QIAstat-Dx Coronavirus testing cartridges to
destinations around the world. With governments and public authorities classifying
UPS as an essential service provider, the company is combining the flexibility
of its global network with QIAGEN’s increased production capacity for COVID-19
testing kits produced at their facility in Hilden, Germany to help healthcare
workers curb the spread of the disease.
“Customers and governments around the world are turning to the
reliability of UPS’s smart global logistics network to help fight this
pandemic,” said Lou Rivieccio, president, UPS Europe. “Business continuity has
never been more important for our customers and that is what we continue to
deliver whether it be for delivery or storage of medicines, testing kits or
medical supplies. And when it comes to ensuring that increased production
volumes of testing kits reach vital destinations around the world such as
hospitals and labs, our teams are here to help customers navigate complexity
and focus on fighting this pandemic. Agility, flexibility and fast response in
the supply chain arena are helping to combat this outbreak as it shifts from
Asia to Europe and North America.”
In Europe, UPS has recently invested $2 billion in its network
and services. This investment has allowed the company to implement dynamic
contingency plans that can adapt to the rapidly changing business environment.
Despite recent border closures, UPS is continuing to serve the needs of its
customers. Through its European air hub at Cologne-Bonn Airport, the company is
able to ensure swift and efficient transportation of essential shipments in
Europe and to destinations around the world.
“We have and continue to increase our production of reagents
and COVID-19 testing kits to meet the current extraordinary demand for our
products worldwide. Our supply chains, both to our production facilities as
well as to our customers in laboratories and hospitals are crucial at this
time,” said BartholdPiening, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Operations
at QIAGEN. “Just as our teams at QIAGEN are working 24/7 to ensure production
we know we can rely upon UPS as our logistics partner to make sure these kits
and components arrive on time and in the right condition to where they’re
needed most. We share our ambition with UPS, with its flexible global network,
to make our solutions as widely available as possible.”
These efforts to support QIAGEN’s global needs to respond to a
global challenge with sophisticated supply chain management are in line with
UPS’s support of
governments and other private sector customers working to curb the Coronavirus
pandemic. UPS is a significant part of the world economy, transporting three
percent of global GDP every day, and its employees are proud of the critical
role the company plays for its customers, communities and the economies in
countries where it operates. The company is supporting public health bodies
around the world with the shipment of crucial healthcare equipment, including
the recent shipment of ventilators to the UK’s National Health Service. To
support the global relief effort in response to the novel Coronavirus, the UPS
Foundation announced new grant allocations to United Nations
agencies, humanitarian relief partners and international non-government
organizations. In the United States, UPS is supporting Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) with “Project
Airbridge”, a coordinated effort to expedite the arrival of critical
supplies needed in US hospitals.
UPS Healthcare provides extensive services ranging from
healthcare-licensed distribution space, supply chain management, to
temperature-control packaging and shipping, storage and fulfillment of medical
devices, labs and clinical trial specimens. With capabilities for GDP- and
GMP-compliant warehousing and transport of critical shipments, UPS Healthcare’s
global infrastructure, monitoring and tracking capabilities, and private data
protection are well-suited to help those on the front lines to flatten the
curve of this virus’s impact.
5.
China's
first train of new postal rail service to Europe arrives in Lithuania
April 13, 2020
The
first train of a new postal rail service to Europe, loaded with much-needed
medical supplies, arrived early Sunday in Vilnius, according to the Chinese
Embassy in Lithuania.
Launched
by Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, it is the first of its kind to
Lithuania. The rail service aims to meet the rising demand for international
parcel delivery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The
rail service "opened up new, reliable and efficient logistics channel for
China to transport anti-epidemic materials in large quantities to Europe,"
said Chinese Ambassador to Lithuania Shen Zhifei on Sunday.
The
ambassador highlighted that the service came "at the critical moment when
the world joins efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic."
Departing
from Chongqing on April 3, the "China Post" CR Express 1st block
train carries 44 TEUs of relief supplies and parcels, which will be transferred
later to other European countries.
Following
the first postal train, seven more bound for Lithuania are scheduled to depart
in the near future.
As of
the end of March, the China-Europe cargo trains operated from Chongqing have
provided postal service to 36 European countries since 2014.
Source : http://english.chinapost.com.cn/html1/report/2004/9163-1.htm
1. DPD staff
donate 45,000 care items to NHS hospitals nationwide. April 16, 2020.
2.
Federal Government must put on emergency supply flights for
regional/rural Australia: posties.April 15, 2020.
3.
PostNL provides update on Q1 performance amidst
Covid-19 pandemic.April 14, 2020.
4. UPS Expedites Global Deliveries Of QIAGEN Coronavirus Testing Kits. April
14, 2020.
5. China's first train of new postal rail service to Europe arrives in Lithuania. April 13, 2020.
1. Amazon closes French warehouses after court ruling on coronavirus
April 16, 2020
Court said firm
not doing enough to protect staff and told it to stop selling non-essentials
Amazon has closed
its six French distribution centres, two days after a French court ruled it was
not doing enough to protect workers from the coronavirus pandemic.
The company is facing mounting scrutiny on
both sides of the Atlantic as it tries to deal with a surge in online orders
during lockdowns while keeping employees safe.
On Tuesday a court in Nanterre, Paris, issued
an emergency ruling requiring the company to stop selling non-essential goods for
a month while it works out new safety measures.
Sales of food, medicine and hygiene supplies
are still allowed under the ruling. However, Amazon France said that given
the “inherent complexity” of its activities, and the potential €1m (£870,000)
fine for each violation of the ruling, the risk was too high.
Amazon France’s chief executive, Frédéric
Duval, denounced the court’s order on Thursday, saying the company had spent
“colossal amounts” on health precautions including sanitary gels and face
masks. He said the firm would appeal.
Duval said that rather than limiting its
activities, Amazon had temporarily suspended trade through the warehouses
because the court order was too vague.
“There
is a huge ambiguity,” he told RTL radio. “Is a nail clipper a hygiene product?
Is a condom a medical item? I’m not able to define that.”
He
said the company would work with unions to ensure the sites could reopen
quickly, but added: “I cannot confirm at this stage on what date they will
reopen.”
Amazon’s
vice-president for the EU, Roy Perticucci, has stepped down, the company
confirmed on Wednesday, a day after the ruling.
The
six warehouses in France employ 10,000 permanent and temporary employees.
Amazon will tap a state partial unemployment scheme to pay its employees,
according to an internal document seen by Reuters.
The
shutdown plays into a public war of words between Amazon and the French unions
that represent its warehouse workers. In a statement, the company squarely laid
the blame for the shutdown on the union complaint that led to the ruling.
The
Solidaires union, which brought the complaint, said it was merely asking Amazon
to enforce a ban on non-essential items that the company “has been claiming for
weeks”, and said a similar judgment had been levied against La Poste, the
French state postal service, the week before.
Amazon
insisted it was providing adequate security measures for staff, noting the
implementation of temperature checks and mask distribution.
The company claimed it had sent more than
127,000 packets of disinfectant wipes and 27,000 litres of sanitising gel, as
well as 1.5m masks, to the distribution centres.
But the court found Amazon had not done
enough to enforce physical distancing, to ensure that turnstiles and locker
rooms were virus-free, or to increase cleaning of its warehouses. Unions said
one worker infected with the virus was in intensive care.
Customers who order from third-party
companies that use the Amazon website but send items directly will still
receive their goods.
Amazon is no stranger to using shutdowns as a
political weapon. In 2018 the company blocked
shipments to Australia from its overseas stores after a sales tax was
imposed on imported goods. But that standoff came to an end when Amazon backed
down six months later, reopening
overseas shipments in time for the Black Friday sales.
The French labour minister, Muriel Pénicaud,
told LCI radio on Thursday: “I hope, for the sake of Amazon employees and
French clients, that business can resume as soon as possible, but with security
protocols in place.”
2. Catering: Exceptional premium for meal expenses and meal vouchers
In
this health context, many Inter-Business Restaurants (RIE) had to close. A
large number of postal workers found themselves without a catering aid
solution. FO Com insisted with La Poste to set up an alternative measure.
As
a transitional measure, postal workers may be eligible via KDS for an
"exceptional bonus" for meal expenses linked to the lunch break of 5
euros net per day worked. It also applies to agents who benefited from a
collective catering service in the evening. In all cases, this bonus does
not apply in the event that the catering establishment has set up a system
other than that of eating out in a group, such as the delivery of meal trays
for example.
The
cumulative conditions are as follows:
§ no longer have access to an EIR
because of the Covid-19;
§ work face-to-face on a postal
site;
§ have a lunch and lunch break in
their work day at the workplace;
§ not benefit from restaurant
vouchers or the catering allowance.
For
meal vouchers, there is no exceptional plan for teleworkers due to the Covid-19
crisis. Only staff already under telework agreement and who have requested
meal vouchers continue to benefit from it under the usual conditions for
calculating rights.
Source
:http://www.focom-laposte.fr/
3. Australia Post considered once-a-week letter deliveries in confidential review
April 14, 2020
Australia Post considered slashing letter deliveries to just
once a week and replacing full-service post offices with "automated
kiosks", with the company's own financial projections showing it could
lose more than $400 million next year.
The forecasts, contained in a confidential strategic review
dated May 2018 and obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The
Age, note an analysis by consulting firm PwC found "without
significant transformation, Australia Post faces a transition into loss as
early as [2019], escalating to a loss of $426 million by 2021".
The review, led by Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate and submitted to the company's board, was scathing about how the business was managed, concluding it was "unnecessarily complex" and that "business customers are not being adequately served and find Australia Post hard to do business with".
"This has resulted in missed opportunities as customers
are not accessing the full range of products and services, and their customer
experience is poor," it reads.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced in November
last year that a separate strategic review was to be conducted by Boston
Consulting Group.
It is not clear what proposals contained in the 2018 review
are still under consideration. An Australia Post spokeswoman declined to
provide details but said "any assumptions made at that point in time would
now be comprehensively outdated".
However, the document shows the extreme financial pressure
Australia Post has been facing.
Despite the losses forecast by PwC, Australia Post's own
projections showed a forecast $109 million profit last year, growing to $161
million in 2021.
Since the review, Australia Post has disclosed it made only
$41 million in 2019.
The review noted that Australia Post's letters business
remained a "high risk", area with the amount of mail sent continuing
to decline and with the top 10 customers "accounting for 24 per cent of
letter volume and all to some extent attempting to migrate away from physical
communication".
The most aggressive proposal contained in the strategy –
marked "future options for change, not recommended at this time" –
was increasing the delivery time for regular letters by three days. "This
option would enable Australia Post to deliver regular letters to delivery
points once a week only," the document reads. This could save $184 million
per year, but would only be practical when the annual number of letters sent
dropped to 1.2 billion. Just over 2 billion letters were sent last year, down
45 per cent since 2008. (The letters business is separate to Australia Post's
parcel delivery business.)
"The customer impact from such a change would be
dramatic. For Australians living in rural and remote areas, this change would
mean a delivery standard of up to 10 days," the document says.
But the review also proposed more immediate changes,
including for Australia Post to push for alterations to the legislated rules
about how it operates. One proposed change would be to allow street posting
boxes not to be cleared on Sundays as they currently are, saving $7.4 million a
year.
It also urged changes to rules which force Australia Post to
maintain at least 4000 retail outlets, with half of them — and no fewer than
2500 — in regional and remote areas. It currently has 4343 post offices. The
review recommended Australia Post ask that the 50 per cent rule be removed
"to avoid unintended consequences if Australia Post sought to expand its
metro network access" and to "amend [the] description from retail
outlet to access point" to remove "the possibility of consumer misperception
re the definition of a retail outlet".
"Downsizing the network may involve a transition over
time to smaller-footprint locations, moving back-of-house delivery activity to
centralised locations and replacing full-service locations to small-footprint
automated kiosks with parcel lockers," the document reads, noting the
network lost $130 million every year.
4. Posti: Items are delivered to the intended recipients, but they are not carried inside – installation services are also temporarily suspended due to the coronavirus
April 14, 2020
To prevent the coronavirus infection chain, Posti complies
with the common precautions prevalent in the sector.
The items are delivered to the intended recipients, but they
are not carried into the residence. The installation services are also
temporarily suspended.
This measure has been taken to prevent potential infection
chains as well as mutual exposure.
In accordance with the new guidelines, Posti adheres to the
following procedure:
·
We will arrange the delivery with the customer
in advance by phone, explaining that the item will be left in front of the
customer’s front door, but that it will not be carried into the residence. If
the customer does not agree to this operating model, the item will be returned
to the sender.
·
The recipient will receive and inspect the item
while the driver is present but both parties will maintain a safe distance from
each other. The driver will sign the item as received on behalf of the customer
and enter a reservation in the waybill, if necessary.
·
Machine recycling, returns, dismantling and
other additional services will be carried out as before, as long as they can be
conducted without entering the residence. For example, when returning equipment
for recycling, the customer must put the equipment outside of their residence
for the driver to pick up.
·
Previously arranged installations will be
carried out and recycled machines will be picked up.
5. Post office helps self-isolating customers access cash
April 13, 2020
Post
Office, a retail post office company
in the United Kingdom, is making two of its products – ‘Payout Now’ and ‘Fast
PACE’ (a pre-authorised cheque encashment service) available to all UK’s banks,
building societies and credit unions so they can be offered to any of their
customers who are most in need of access to cash simply and speedily during
this national emergency.
The improved services
mean that self-isolating or vulnerable citizens affected by the coronavirus
pandemic can now contact their financial institution to see if they choose to
offer these and arrange to withdraw cash quickly from their normal accounts
through any local Post Office branch, with the help of a friend, family member,
carer or local support worker.
‘Payout Now’ is the
Post Office’s one time voucher service that is available to all banks, building
societies and credit unions to enable them to send a barcode voucher to their
customers via text, email or in the post and which can be exchanged for cash in
any Post Office branch.
The Post Office has
always run a pre-authorised cheque encashment (PACE) service that enabled
vulnerable customers to contact their bank and arrange to cash a cheque at a
Post Office branch. Working with HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority
and UK Finance, the Post Office has launched its ‘Fast PACE’ service. Customers
can now name an individual, such as carer or family member, to cash a pre
authorised cheque on their behalf at a Post Office branch.
Martin Kearsley,
Banking Director at the Post Office, said: “Being able to easily access
cash is a vital service for older people and those self-isolating.
Our Payout Now and
Fast PACE services mean they can access cash quickly and securely to repay
someone for a helpful service like shopping, or simply manage their finances,
providing peace of mind that cash can be securely sourced with the help of any
trusted helper.”