Industry Postal service Key people Rico Back, CEO Number of employees over 14,000 Revenue 2.1 billion EUR Headquarters Amsterdam | Area served European Union Owner Royal Mail CEO Rico Back (Oct 1999–) Founded 1999 Subsidiaries GLS Denmark | |
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Services Postal/Parcel delivery/Collecting Parent organizations Royal Mail, Parcelforce Worldwide Profiles | ||
General Logistics Systems B.V. (GLS) is a Dutch, British-owned logistics company based in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of Royal Mail, a postal service operator based in the United Kingdom.
GLS operates within 42 European countries, and is the 3rd biggest parcel provider in Europe. GLS also provides services all over the world (with the exception of some high political risk countries, such as North Korea or Cuba) through its partnership network.
In the 2014/15 financial year, GLS shipped 436,000,000 parcels for over 220,000 customers, generating revenues of €2.1 billion. GLS has ca. 19,000 vehicles servicing 39 hubs spanning 42 European countries.
Criticism
In mid-September 2016, hundreds of parcel delivery workers took strike action in Bergamo, Brescia, Piacenza, Bologna and Parma against GLS and its subcontractors to protest poor working conditions. In the night from September 14 to 15, 2016, a van broke through a picket line formed by workers in front of the plant operated by GLS subcontractor SEAM in Piacenza. The van struck and killed Egyptian worker Abd Elsalam Ahmed Eldanf. It was reported that eyewitnesses heard the Chief of Staff of the plant ordering the driver to break through the picket line. The Piacenza Prosecutor’s office concluded that no strike or protest was taking place at that moment and therefore ruled the death was a car accident. The driver was subsequently released, prompting 7,000 workers to take to the streets in Piacenza, other GLS offices in Italy, as well as other firms.