Last Mile Brief 25/01/2023: Glovo to be fined another $62 mln for labour violations in Spain, Reuters reports

Today’s headline story: Glovo to be fined another $62 mln for labour violations in Spain, Reuters reports

Europe round up

• A jewellery seller says she is losing hundreds of pounds due to delivery issues related to the recent Royal Mail cyber-attack.
• Package and advanced asset tracking company Position Imaging has signed a multinational service provider agreement with NCR to become the company’s installation, service and support partner for its iPickup Point retail fulfillment platform.
• Venipak has opened its first parcel machine in Estonia and has plans to install another 151.
• Royal Mail staff are to be balloted again about future strikes as part of the ongoing dispute over pay and conditions.
• Amazon has launched an ‘urgent investigation’ amid claims some UK-based workers employed with 3rd parties have been left unpaid.
• Amazon has announced a €3m investment to restore nature and wildlife in France with CDC Biodiversité.
• Guernsey Post has plans to reduce its workforce by about 30 jobs to combat its financial losses.
• Swiss Post has announced that its parcel volumes in 2022  declined by 4% year-on-year.
• The Polish Post (Poczta Polska) has ordered a new parcel sorting machine worth 120 million zł.
• The number of persons using rapid grocery delivery services in the Netherlands has dropped noticeably compared to last August, according to a survey by Kantar.
• The Netherlands’ new LEV-framework, which concerns small electric vehicles including cargobikes, is ridden with legal issues, writes LEVA.
• Poste Italiane has been named a “Top Employer” for the fourth consecutive year.
• DPD has summarised its operations in Poland in 2022. The company used 300 electric vans, handled over 4.5 million parcels, and covered almost 2 million Kilometres.
• UK retailer One Stop is doubling its home delivery range with over 2,500 products now available online.

North America round up

• Microsoft is set to invest in autonomous trucking startup Gatik, writes Reuters.
• Americans are cutting back on many everyday purchases amid inflation, while splurging on a few big-ticket, luxury items. The phenomenon has been dubbed the “split-brain” budget, writes the Wall Street Journal.
• USPS would benefit from taking a longer-term approach when investing its cash on hand, the agency’s inspector general has said in a new report.
• The USPS Logistics team has installed new barcodes on nearly 95% of its fleet.
• Lingering staffing issues, low wages and higher-than-expected online consumer purchases have all contributed to major worker shortages at USPS in Colorado.
• USPS is moving forward with a plan that would combine and centralise carrier operations in new, larger mail sorting and delivery centres.
• Amazon has launched a new service named RxPass, which allows Prime members to receive as many eligible medications as they need for $5 and have them delivered at no extra charge.

News from the rest of the world

• India’s Zomato has insisted it is rebranding rather than shutting down its 10-minute delivery service.
• Zomato has also announced its intention to hire as many as 800 people.
• Inflation blamed for 60-70% drop in home delivery orders in Kuwait.
• A set of voluntary guidelines has been launched in Singapore dealing with food sold on the internet.
• Deliveroo has partnered with over 1,000 restaurants in Qatar in its first 100 days of operation in the country.

Call to action – Last Mile Experts Green Last Mile Europe Report

The Last Mile Experts team, together with partners Parcel Pending by Quadient, SwipBox and Sameday Romania, all invite you to participate in a project that aims to share good practices and prove that Europe’s green initiatives and actions meet the highest sustainable development standards.

The goal of the 2nd edition of our Green Last Mile Europe report is to present a vast variety of projects that support an environmentally & socially friendly approach. Everyone from large to small is very welcome, as diversity is key from an educational and cognitive perspective.

If you know someone who has such initiatives either running or planned, please share this invitation.

For those who have not yet had the opportunity to read the previous edition of the report, you can do so here and become acquainted with its concept and what it strives to achieve. You can also find more information via LinkedIn.

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Photo: Pacopac, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons