As online retail comes of age in the country, e-commerce firms have begun to knock on India Post’s doors seeking quick delivery of their parcels. Though they have been using its services for some time in a small way, sales during Diwali saw a huge shift, with “almost all e-commerce firms” using the postal network to deliver the voluminous orders they received.
Seeing the spurt in demand, India Post launched the Same Day parcel delivery service here recently, promising to expand the service to other cities and ‘next day delivery’ service to customers in the hinterland.
The company has earmarked about ₹4,909 crore to deploy technologies to digitise its services in the next three years. “This is India Post 2.0. We are going to introduce technology in a big way in order to get connected with corporates and the digital generation,” John Samuel, Member of Postal Services Board, Department of Posts, told
Waking up to the needs of new retail players, the Department of Posts will further widen the reach of the same day parcel service to other regions as well.
Booking parcels “You are used to seeing our postmen come to your homes in the day-time. As we launch the new services, you will see them coming in vans between 5 and 9 pm to deliver the parcels,” said Samuel.
“We are going to launch digital post-offices that let you book the parcels and make Speed Post consignments much easier. You can use smart-phones to complete some tasks, reducing human intervention,” he said.