Parcel - October 2008 - (Page 6)

editor’s note Dan O’Rourke Thanks Again! It’s that time again — time to assess our industry and ﬁnd out where you, the shipper, stand. In this issue, we feature Part I of our annual Best Practices Survey – the transportation portion. Part II — the operations portion — will appear in the November/December issue. This is the 11th year of our survey. Along with the investment ﬁrm of Morgan Stanley, we analyzed responses from almost 450 of our PARCEL readership operations (a big thank you to Morgan Stanley — they do a great job). And a special thank you to Marll Thiede for gathering, analyzing and reporting the results. I want to send a giant thank you to all of you who participated in the survey. Our industry owes you its gratitude for taking the time and making the effort in completing and returning the survey. Thanks for doing your share. The mid-year survey shows that the restructuring of DHL and the economy are deﬁnitely having effects on the parcel industry. The restructuring of DHL appears to be hurting DHL’s business more than anticipated. Losses may be higher than hoped, and customers are keeping an eye on progress. Morgan Stanley will conduct one more survey yet this year to continue to track trends, so please take the time to complete that survey as well. Who delivers economically, reliably, on time, with the best and most accurate tracking and billing? Our survey indicates shippers are becoming more conﬁdent in the USPS, as shipper satisfaction is up across the spectrum of customer satisfaction measurements. Although UPS and FedEx still rate higher than the USPS, this is a sign that the USPS is improving shipping services and continues to provide parcel delivery competition. Hopefully, regional and LTL carriers will continue to increase their presence with new and improved service offerings since the survey results show that our readers are looking to them more and more as part of their transportation mixes. And we’ll need every option available to hold down prices. The economy continues to struggle with no real end to the slide in sight. Although it seems that shipping managers had cut operations to the bone already, increasingly, companies are turning to support operations to come up with additional ways to cut costs. Cost containment is your number one challenge. The results of this survey give you a great reading on what your peers think and how your operation stacks up. Check out the entire survey results — and be sure to check out the November/December issue for more survey results. I hope to see you at the PARCEL Forum in Chicago — and, as always, thanks for reading PARCEL. 6 October 2008 www.PARCELindustry.com http://www.PARCELindustry.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Parcel - October 2008

Parcel - October 2008 Contents Editor's Note What Would Augello Say? Best Practices Survey Results Going with the Flow Is Your Parcel Network Optimized? Last (Mile), but Not Least Moving From Manual to Automated Fulfillment A Race for Excellence Making Ends Meet Is Your Job Killing You? Software Selection Demystified Controlling Costs On the Mark Product Profile New Products & Services Advertiser Index Wrap Up

Parcel - October 2008

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