Top news from the last three months:
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Top news
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Japan Post is offering a new advisory service for all issues surrounding end-of-life support. The service is provided over dedicated phone lines or at post offices; as part of this 'end-of-life-support service', the offerings of a range of different companies and institutions are made available. For example, the service recommends care and nursing homes and experts for inheritance questions, as well as journalists and photographers who compile the life story of the customer using photographs and text.
In addition, the service brokers funeral directors, and customers are able to choose from a register of more than 8,000 cemeteries the 'cemetery which best meets their individual circumstances and requirements'.
An underground delivery system for cities? This, at least, is what US start-up Pipedream Labs is planning. Its vision is that the logistics system will make it possible to deliver everyday goods quickly, cost-effectively and emission-free. Together with the Curiosity Lab innovation centre, a preliminary test track for the underground autonomous delivery system for food and goods was installed in Peachtree Corners, an affluent suburb of Atlanta in the US state of Georgia.
A tunnel extends almost 1.6 km from a busy shopping centre in the heart of the city to Curiosity Lab's innovation centre. An autonomous, electrically powered robot runs on rails in the tunnel, transporting goods weighing up to 18 kilograms in a container. According to the company, the bot moves at a speed of up to 40 mph, approximately 64 km/h.
Employees at the innovation centre can currently order food and daily staples from participating restaurants and shops using an app. At the start and end points of the route, loading and unloading stations provide access to the tunnel; the system reportedly also allows changes of direction in 90-degree increments at junctions. An illustrative video of the first delivery is available here.
Pipedream Labs also sees the possibility of using the system as an 'instant pickup solution' in restaurants or grocery shops. Fast food restaurants could then rethink the way they handle drive-throughs, says the company. This is because 'deliveries over extremely short distances within a specific property are much easier to implement than a city-wide installation', says CEO Garrett McCurrach.
At the end of April, Pipedream Labs announced that it had successfully closed a 13m dollar financing round. The capital will primarily be used to improve the 'Instant Pickup' solution and to kick-start the development of a middle-mile network in a city yet to be determined.
Walmart is introducing in-night deliveries. According to the announcement, orders received by 10:30 pm will be delivered by midnight. The charges are not yet known. In mid-March, the retail group had introduced the new Express On-Demand Early Morning Delivery Service, in which orders from 6 a.m. are delivered within 30 minutes (CEP News 11/24).
What are working conditions like at La Poste in France? Although the company announced a change to its social dialogue back in 2016 following an unusually high number of suicides and an investigation by a commission of experts (CEP News 42/16), a recent report shows that there are still significant problems.
Business magazine »Capital« (9 May) reports on questionable, toxic management practices and harassment. 'The slightest mistake on my part had become an excuse to humiliate me in front of the whole team', reports a former employee, for example, describing her 'nightmarish' experiences during her employment. As a result, she was treated with anxiolytics and antidepressants for two years from 2020. Another former La Poste employee reported discrimination and harassment and was ultimately dismissed due to falsified statements.
According to the expert commission set up at the time, there had been three suicides within just one month in spring 2012 and nine actual and five attempted suicides on the part of La Poste employees between 2014 and 2016 (including CEP News 12/12). One employee ended his life at a post office in Trégunc, Brittany, in 2012. In farewell letters to his family and the trade unions, he emphasised the difficulties he was having at work. Due to the 'symbolic' choice of location and the letters, the suicide was ultimately classified as an accident at work ('d'accident de service') by the labour court.
Major DHL Group shareholders are calling for a spin-off of the German mail and parcel business. At the group's annual general meeting last week, several investment funds called on the management board to review the spin-off. 'Is Deutsche Post the right owner of the Post & Parcel division?' asked Hendrik Schmidt, a representative of DWS.
CEO Tobias Meyer rejected calls for a sale of the German business, but at the same time emphasised that the new postal law was 'absolutely necessary, also in order to remain economically sustainable'. The backdrop to these shareholder demands is that competitors such as UPS, Fedex and others are valued on the stock exchange at an average of 13 times operating profit, while the DHL Group has a multiple of just 7.3.
Top News
Japan Post is offering a new advisory service for all issues surrounding end-of-life support. The service is provided over dedicated phone lines or at post offices; as part of this 'end-of-life-support service', the offerings of a range of different companies and institutions are made available. For example, the service recommends care and nursing homes and experts for inheritance questions, as well as journalists and photographers who compile the life story of the customer using photographs and text.
In addition, the service brokers funeral directors, and customers are able to choose from a register of more than 8,000 cemeteries the 'cemetery which best meets their individual circumstances and requirements'.
An underground delivery system for cities? This, at least, is what US start-up Pipedream Labs is planning. Its vision is that the logistics system will make it possible to deliver everyday goods quickly, cost-effectively and emission-free. Together with the Curiosity Lab innovation centre, a preliminary test track for the underground autonomous delivery system for food and goods was installed in Peachtree Corners, an affluent suburb of Atlanta in the US state of Georgia.
A tunnel extends almost 1.6 km from a busy shopping centre in the heart of the city to Curiosity Lab's innovation centre. An autonomous, electrically powered robot runs on rails in the tunnel, transporting goods weighing up to 18 kilograms in a container. According to the company, the bot moves at a speed of up to 40 mph, approximately 64 km/h.
Employees at the innovation centre can currently order food and daily staples from participating restaurants and shops using an app. At the start and end points of the route, loading and unloading stations provide access to the tunnel; the system reportedly also allows changes of direction in 90-degree increments at junctions. An illustrative video of the first delivery is available here.
Pipedream Labs also sees the possibility of using the system as an 'instant pickup solution' in restaurants or grocery shops. Fast food restaurants could then rethink the way they handle drive-throughs, says the company. This is because 'deliveries over extremely short distances within a specific property are much easier to implement than a city-wide installation', says CEO Garrett McCurrach.
At the end of April, Pipedream Labs announced that it had successfully closed a 13m dollar financing round. The capital will primarily be used to improve the 'Instant Pickup' solution and to kick-start the development of a middle-mile network in a city yet to be determined.
Walmart is introducing in-night deliveries. According to the announcement, orders received by 10:30 pm will be delivered by midnight. The charges are not yet known. In mid-March, the retail group had introduced the new Express On-Demand Early Morning Delivery Service, in which orders from 6 a.m. are delivered within 30 minutes (CEP News 11/24).
What are working conditions like at La Poste in France? Although the company announced a change to its social dialogue back in 2016 following an unusually high number of suicides and an investigation by a commission of experts (CEP News 42/16), a recent report shows that there are still significant problems.
Business magazine »Capital« (9 May) reports on questionable, toxic management practices and harassment. 'The slightest mistake on my part had become an excuse to humiliate me in front of the whole team', reports a former employee, for example, describing her 'nightmarish' experiences during her employment. As a result, she was treated with anxiolytics and antidepressants for two years from 2020. Another former La Poste employee reported discrimination and harassment and was ultimately dismissed due to falsified statements.
According to the expert commission set up at the time, there had been three suicides within just one month in spring 2012 and nine actual and five attempted suicides on the part of La Poste employees between 2014 and 2016 (including CEP News 12/12). One employee ended his life at a post office in Trégunc, Brittany, in 2012. In farewell letters to his family and the trade unions, he emphasised the difficulties he was having at work. Due to the 'symbolic' choice of location and the letters, the suicide was ultimately classified as an accident at work ('d'accident de service') by the labour court.
Major DHL Group shareholders are calling for a spin-off of the German mail and parcel business. At the group's annual general meeting last week, several investment funds called on the management board to review the spin-off. 'Is Deutsche Post the right owner of the Post & Parcel division?' asked Hendrik Schmidt, a representative of DWS.
CEO Tobias Meyer rejected calls for a sale of the German business, but at the same time emphasised that the new postal law was 'absolutely necessary, also in order to remain economically sustainable'. The backdrop to these shareholder demands is that competitors such as UPS, Fedex and others are valued on the stock exchange at an average of 13 times operating profit, while the DHL Group has a multiple of just 7.3.