Parcels deal wrapped up
Page 30
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
After two years of planning and preparation a private German parcels service has begun operations in competition with the Post Office. There is no postal monopoly for this type of traffic in Germany and 18 operators with a total of 29 central clearing stations in all parts of the country are participating in providing the new facility.
A recent investigation by the German Post Office revealed that of the seven million tons of parcels handled each year over 60 per cent is already carried by road and that the rail share is continuing to decline.
Earlier, some German mail
order houses had set up their own parcels distribution organisation and, in the coming autumn, a German-based subsidiary of the .giant US enterprise United Parcels Services is expected to get the green light for a similar operation. United Parcels, founded in 1907, has already opened a German liaison office in Dusseldorf and established contact with the national association of -warehousing and forwarding undertakings with whose members it will seek to co-operate.
In the United States UPS has a staff of 30,000, making it one of the largest companies in the parcels sector. The German operation will involve setting up ,about 40 parcels depots — initially in leased or joint premises — and trunk operations with company-owned vehicles. UPS (Germany) will concentrate on consignments up to a weight of 25kg, a sector in which there is rapidly growing demand in Germany. Now the German postal workers' union is calling for urgent talks on revised legislation to give the post office a monopoly for parcels weighing up to 10kg. This, however, conflicts with cartel rules and the Transport Minister's repeated assurances to preserve a free choice of carriers.