It is time to think about improvement in postal services

Gone are the days when messenger pigeons would take a flight and carry a letter to its destination. These pigeons were in use in the United States of America and Europe. Tales of their intelligence and sense of responsibility are common in the Indo-Pak subcontinent. In this part of the world mostly lover would use pigeon to do the needful.

Before its utility could have been exhausted and it had been replaced by other means of communications devices, the messenger pigeons became extinct in the United States because of excessive hunting for its tasty meat most delicious with apple pie and red wine. The extinction of this bird in Indo-Pak came about as people lost interest in its services and began to patronise other means that were useful in flying and long distance gliding competitions. The process of replacement of one technology by another which is advance in terms of efficiency and cost effectiveness is a continuing process. The best always replaces the insipid. The telecommunications and Pakistan postal services are still in 'pigeon-age' sans its accuracy and proficiency.

There are still postcard, envelopes and money order services in vogue and the rural population heavily depends on it. It would not be an overstatement to say that 70 percent plus population in the rural and urban areas has no access to other means of postal and money transfer system. The appearance of a postman carrying money orders, parcels and letters from the loved ones is pleasant sight. In a village, coming in of a postman in his khaki has its own romance. A courier is yet to replace this man.

The postal service in the world has undergone immense improvement and is considered to be the most reliable mode of communications. Post offices in the developed world are equipped with the latest communication gadgets; they are provided fast moving transport and location identification machines. Where needed, air transport is available to them.

Human resource development is an essential tool, which the postal services apply too frequently to train the field force to enhance their efficiency. They are trained to compete with other technologies that had created fear of unemployment in the postal service. It would not be surprising to see the trained manpower of the US postal service moving faster than computer.

This statement may sound exaggerated but all sensitive documents that are available through email and Internet services are most commonly delivered through postal services. Green cards, social security cards, driving licenses, passports, visa endorsements and the likes are delivered through postal services. The man is considered more reliable than the machine in that part of the world.

The simple reason is that all advancements in the communication technology have been made subservient to human intelligence and integrity. The postal service man reaches places where even personal cell phones do not catch messages.

In Pakistan a lot has been done to improve the postal service but still a lot remains to be done. Expansion of post office network, training of postal staff in the effective use of computer and cell phones seems to be the starting point. They need to know that time saving devices are within human control. They have to learn time management techniques.

To achieve this objective a higher standard of education for recruitment, better pay scale, provision of proper transport and proper career planning would be necessary to think about. People after reaching certain age limit become resistant to change. It is the fear of the technology that drives them crazy. It would depend upon human resource managers to realise technology fear and remove it.

Once the basics are provided the postal staff would need its exposure to day- to-day development in postal service and related information technology that help in bringing in efficiency in the system. The process would have to be ongoing and once started would call for regular monitoring and evaluation of the staff to find out weaknesses and address them.

Machines can err without detecting its faults and can go on committing the same error till a man is sent for to check it and correct it. The postal staff is to be trained with this need in mind.