The Netherlands-based
The offer, lower than a previous bid by UPS that was blocked by competition authorities, rings an end to an over-ambitious expansion project by the puny Dutch postal and telecoms services which bought Australia’s TNT in 1996 as part of a major transformation and privatization.
The Dutch were facing a deregulation of the postal market in Europe, the rise of online, competition between various European ex-monopolies and a constant downward pressure on prices combined with a call for ever higher standards of punctuality and speed.
But while the orange-colored trucks and vans dominate the “Blue Banana” area in Europe, it needs a better global network to stay in the competition with larger volumes of parcels shipped by online retailers as well as documents for global organizations.
The Blue Banana is made up of the countries of United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
PROMISES
FedEx has made commitments to the Liege distribution centre in Belgium but the new group will divest of the TNT airline operations. The groups said they would maintain the TNT employment terms and would “cooperate to avoid any significant redundancies in the global or Dutch work forces.”
It looks clear that the job numbers will fall as part of a drive to cut costs.
Liberalization of the parcel and document delivery services in Europe and elsewhere led to an erosion of postal jobs and helped the growth of global e-commerce giants as the lower delivery costs made it easier to compete with established brick and mortar retailers.
These retailers in turn reduced their workforce and prefer short-term contracts for school leavers over more mature staff members with permanent contracts.
This trend that fuelled the rise of Amazon and the wealth of Jeff Bezos has dumped many people into unemployment while creating a “click and buy” consumer paradise for those that have money left to spend. Postal and parcel services have become more efficient, sophisticated and client-friendly than they have ever been under state ownership, but also less present on the ground.
The European liberal parties that championed privatization and deregulation are now calling for austerity measures to reduce government deficits and state debts that are bloated by rising jobless numbers despite the revenues from asset sales.
BLAME
The TNT name will disappear in three years at most, Germany’s DHL may now have to look to link with UPS, and then even more jobs could go.
It is not the fault of Amazon and other global e-retailers that jobs are destroyed in logistics and brick and mortar retailing. In fact, Amazon and others also create jobs in logistics and support. But they are different kinds of jobs, and often lower paid.
The trend to global e-commerce, a new “information revolution”, would have happened anyway, whether or not European countries had opened up their former state-monopoly sectors like the post.
But politicians cannot close their eyes for the consequences and blame the lowly educated for not finding jobs, and propose cuts to minimum wages to reduce the unemployment numbers and state expenses.
FedEx stands a good chance of succeeding in buying TNT for eight euros per share. TNT
Of the former Dutch PTT, there now is
Jobs were lost, jobs were saved, other jobs were created.
Money was made, money was lost, some people won, others ended on the dole. Business as usual.
Spare a thought for those that lost out, and do not be surprised when unemployed voters express their dissatisfaction during elections with those politicians that took away their jobs and safety net.
Europe wanted a single market, but Europeans nevers voted for a continent that was just a market.
