TNT appoint new CFO

TNT Express has revealed its new Chief Finance Officer. It was announced recently that Maarten Jan de Vries, 52, is to take over the role as CFO for the company. This news comes as a result of previous CFO, Bernard Bot, having stepped down from his role within the past month.

Jan de Vries has previous experience in various positions working at Royal Philips; the newly appointed CFO started work for this company in 1986 as controller of Dutch Sales. More recent roles at Royal Philips for Jan de Vries have included Chief Information Officer, Chief Supply Officer and Divisional CFO. Additionally to this, he was also a member of the Philips management committee between 2007 and 2011.

The new role for Jan de Vries will see him taking control in regards to financial management. His duties will include overseeing the development and expansion of the company in the bid to improve upon its financial performance. Last year saw parcel delivery rivals UPS nearly out run TNT Express in this area.

Jan de Vries will focus the company's attention on its "Outlook" strategy. This particular strategy aims to focus on the company's strengths, such as its European ground services and services for SMEs in particular. The strategy will be driven with an aim to improve on customer service, and in turn product 240 million Euros in performance growth by 2015.

TNT Express' CEO, Tex Gunning, has commented: "I am really happy that we are able to attract yet again such a high calibre executive for the TNT Express management team. Marrten has relevant functional and international experience and will be a great asset to TNT. His capabilities will be essential in the implementation of the "Outlook" strategy."

USPS to invest in 75,000 package scan devices

The US Postal Service is to invest in advanced scanning technology in a bid to improve upon its track and trace effectiveness in regards to its packages. The new devices, referred to as Mobile Delivery Devices, have been provided by supplier Honeywell, and are expected to use various mobile communication networks to provide up-to-date and real-time tracking for packages.

Supplier Honeywell are providing USPS with
the new devices

The new devices will provide access to local USPS wireless communications as well as local USPS internal wired networks. They will collect data which will be communicated to local delivery offices. With plans to introduce up to 75,000 of the new devices, USPS are said to be distributing these across to city and rural carriers from later this year.

The deployment of the devices is set to take place over two phases. The first phase will see the devices introduced in major metropolitan areas and those areas where Sunday deliveries are available. The second phase will see further devices deployed in 2015.

The postal company has claimed the new technology will be able to support real-time scanning needs for its postal productions. Honeywell's devices are also said to exceed expectations in that data will not need to be input manually as often.

USPS has been gradually improving its scanning capabilities over past years. It is hoped that the introduction of this new advanced technology will help enhance its shipping business future.