Talkin' Trucks With Mike:A History of the TNT Companies

Mike2633, I guess you speak about the following photo :

 

Sorry Mike, I didn't see the photo because I was not log out. I m not still very familiar with the technical side of this Forum.

 

I persist and sign, TNT was definitively not an integrator even if the picture gives the impression that its two similar companies which come together. But in fact, FEDEX bought the last vestige (the fake TNT as Mike call it) of the Australian Group. Under the Australian rule the express parcel operations accounted for only around 20% of the TNT revenues while the express parcel operations of FEDEX as well as UPS was their bread and butter activities accounting for both of them in the 85%/90% range.

Same kind of difference about the acquisition politics and financial structure. While Fedex and UPS was totally centralized monolithic organisations which integrated totally their prey, TNT operated mainly through partnerships and autonomous operations. In this way, TNT managed its air transport as well as its express parcel operations through joint ventures and its sea shipping activities holding a controlling interest in the shipping Group (TNT Bulkships) limited to 62%. Even in the Australian stronghold of TNT, the Group held a modest controling interest of only 56% of Carpentaria Transport, the most important tansportation operation of TNT Australia in term of revenue. It's for these reasons that I told previously that TNT was not an integrator.

 

The picture come from a publicity brochure. By the way, I was stonned over the years how it was easy to get access to the top managers of the different components of the Group through letters or in person. I received some information even from top managers located in Australia. I guess it was because the great autonomy given to the managers of the different TNT units and the flat management structure of the Group which restricted the management rank to a minimum.

Yes, Desmond Guy had a very special statute Inside the TNT Canada structure. I will come back tomorrow with some explications.