EXPRESS AND PARCEL CARRIER HAPPENINGS

Express & Small Parcel

Emirates Post Group Launches First Phase of Innovative ‘E-Commerce’ Solutions

Summary: Emirates Post Group has introduced new solutions in response to growing demand for last mile delivery from e-commerce companies. Among these solutions are parcel lockers. The Group will install more than 50 parcel lockers across the UAE in addition to its 120 retail outlets by the end of 2017. Customers using this service will receive a SMS with a security code to visit the respective location to collect their parcel from a specified locker.

According to the Group, e-commerce exports from the UAE to GCC countries are increasing rapidly with e-commerce companies sending “huge” volumes to Saudi Arabia on a daily basis.

In addition, inside each e-commerce parcel there will be a return air waybill for return delivery to the sender.

Lastly, Emirates Post Group is shortlisting retailers and e-Commerce companies as part of an e-commerce project that will offer selected range of electronic products, flowers and other items through the websites. Customers will be able to order online and have them delivered through the postal network.

LogisticsTI Take: The Middle East e-commerce market remains small but is growing thanks to adoption of smartphones. Emirates Post Group has taken a good step forward to address the e-commerce market in the region but it will face competition among the e-commerce providers themselves as well as the largest small parcel provider in the region, Aramex.

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UPS Enhances Services in Korea

Summary: UPS announced improved services in 13 cities to “better serve the growing exporting and importing needs of businesses” in Korea. These services include extended cut-off times for shipment pick-ups and improved shipment time-in-transit from selected cities to major US, European and Asian cities.

LogisticsTI Take: According to the UPS press release, trade opportunities are growing in Korea thanks to free trade agreements with trade partners such as China and Vietnam. In addition, cross-border opportunities for e-commerce, for example, are also increasing as well as additional ASEAN benefits.

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Postmates Launches Postmates Plus Unlimited

Summary: A race to deliver the quickest and cheapest, but at what cost? On its blog, Postmates announced it would offer free delivery and zero service fees on any purchase from its Postmates Plus merchants partners for $9.99 a month. In addition, the company noted it is fulfilling, on average, 1,000,000 deliveries per month with its fleet of over 25,000 delivery providers.

Postmates Plus is a network of over 3,000 merchants, retailers and restaurants, that offers Postmates delivery with prices ranging $2.99 to $3.99. Nine months after its launch, Plus accounts for almost 40% of Postmates’ delivery volume.

LogisticsTITake: First question that comes to mind is how profitable is this new service? In fact, is Postmates even profitable? According to an October 2015 interview, the CEO of Postmates noted the company will be profitable in 18 months. Fingers crossed for them..the same-day delivery field is crowded as companies look to compete against the leader of the pack, Amazon. Consolidation is coming, will Postmates be among the victims? Right now, it seems doubtful. The company has been successful in building up an impressive network, expanding into new metro cities and it offers good technology capabilities such as its Order app which provides Plus partners among other things the ability to adjust ready times for deliveries or the ability to even go offline all together if needed.

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UPS Expands Operations at Ontario International Airport

Summary: UPS announced the addition of a new sorting facility and expansion of its existing building at Ontario International Airport. When complete, the existing UPS ground sorting facility will process twice the amount of packages per hour and the building’s size will increase 15% to almost 900,000 square feet. It will sort packages originating from and destined for areas in and around the Inland Empire. The expansion is driven by growth in e-commerce and traditional retail business.

Both facilities’ automated sorting systems are designed to move packages through the sort process capturing package data and routing volume to proper load positions. Six-sided decode tunnels will replace traditional scanning to capture package information from address labels. Label applicators will place “smart labels’ on packages for local delivery, providing UPS loaders faster instruction of proper loading.

LogisticsTI Take: This is part of UPS’ overall plan to automate its facilities in order to deliver parcels quicker. The expansion at the Ontario Airport is long overdue and it will be interesting to see how successful UPS will be in speeding up deliveries particularly in the midst of numerous start-up delivery companies as well as Amazon operating in the Inland Empire.

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eBay and Shyp Expand Integration to Make Selling Even Easier

Summary: After initial pilots in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, eBay and Shyp have expanded their shipping integration into the Los Angeles market. Shyp will pick up sold items within 20 minutes, pack them and mail to buyer on seller’s behalf. eBay sellers can connect their eBay account to the Shyp app to view an itemized feed of their recently sold items. In addition, sellers can select items they’d like to ship and request a pickup. Once picked up, Shyp automatically marks sellers’ items as ‘shipped’, notifies the buyer and updates sellers’ with tracking information within the same day of requested pickup.

LogisticsTI Take: Taking advantage of consumers’ desire for convenience, this latest offering sets Shyp apart from similar start-ups and also potentially gives eBay an advantage in shipping solution options. Further opportunities exist for both of these companies should they continue their collaborative strategy but where does eBay’s 2013 acquisition of Shutl fit in eBay’s strategy?

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DHL Extends Parcel Network Across the Nordics and Baltics

Summary: DHL, Finnish postal operator, Posti and Bring, a subsidiary of Posten Norge, the Norwegian postal operator, will jointly offer a dedicated B2C infrastructure for parcel deliveries across Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic states. Beginning April 1, this network will further extend DHL Parcel’s cross-border e-commerce services and will also include 6,500 parcel shops and parcel stations by end of 2016.

LogisticsTI Take: The rise in e-commerce has created a need for seamless cross-border logistics solutions within Europe. Collaboration between post offices and logistics providers will be a win for both.

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UPS Worldwide Express Package Service Expands to 23 New Countries and Territories

Summary: UPS has expanded its UPS Worldwide Express service to 23 additional countries and territories, creating an earlier guaranteed-delivery option for customers in locations that previously had only end-of-day guarantees. The latest expansion covers such markets as Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam for a total service coverage of 88 countries.

The service is good for all industries that require urgent international shipments including high-tech, retail and industrial manufacturing. It also supports global e-commerce.

LogisticsTI Take: Expansion of its service sets the stage for an anticipated fight for dominance in the global express market as the FedEx/TNT merger receives final government approvals.