SV0.GB
enroute SMALL PARCELS
Conveying Loading Palletizing Packaging Sorting/Distributing
BEUMER sorting and
distribution technology
to reach your objectives
quickly and smoothly.
Whether in the service sector or in the
industry – the demands on modern
sorting and distribution equipment are
constantly increasing. With sophisticated concepts, BEUMER provides
individual system solutions that win
customers over worldwide through
efficiency, speed and precision. You
can find more information about the
BEUMER company and its products
on the Internet.
www.beumer.com
BEU_AZ_85,37x4254_S+DV_ CGVB.EinLddOC1I TY FEBRUARY 2009 22.09.2008 11:34: 13 Uhr
on earnings from competitive products, but according to
Hempstead Consulting, it pays the tax back to itself. USPS
does not pay fuel surcharges other than those levied by its
consolidator partners. And unlike its competitors, the
Postal Service (which is required by law to serve every
address in America six days a week) does not levy surcharges on Saturday deliveries or on deliveries to remote or
rural service areas.
The absence of USPS surcharges is no small matter. In
what has become an annual ritual, its competitors either
roll out new “accessorial” charges or expand existing ones.
The carriers say the charges are needed to perform value-added services and to cover the costs of serving outlying
areas that offer little or no package density. But the charges
can and do add up.
At UPS, carrier-imposed accessorial charges can account
for 35 percent of a company’s parcel shipping budget,
according to Hempstead. Scherck of Colography Group
says those estimates are conservative on an industrywide
basis.
USPS’s rivals, who have long complained the Postal
Service uses its government-blessed monopoly on first-class mail to subsidize its competitive portfolio, chafe at the
privileges it receives. “That's the big reason why we have
always had problems with their cries to be given freedom to
compete in the marketplace,” says Sternad, the UPS
spokesman. “When you have those built-in pricing advantages, you are a formidable competitor, period.”
Major player?
As time passes, what additional traction that USPS gains in
the express parcel arena may be determined as much by its
own mastery of the new universe as by the marketplace’s
perceptions of its capabilities.
“They are not too far away from becoming a major player on the commercial side,” says Douglas Kahl, vice president, strategic initiatives for TranzAct Technologies, who
has closely followed USPS. “Their biggest challenge will be
to learn and understand the increased flexibility they now
have at their disposal.”
