Correos’ urgent post delivery workers are now using PDAs

Correos has successfully completed the incorporation of PDA terminals in its 100 Special Service Units (USEs) distributed throughout Spain. This will not only make the work easier for the over 2,000 delivery personnel in these units who have received this technological tool, but it will also make the delivery service more efficient and dynamic.

Incorporating the PDAs in the Urgent Delivery Units has taken an investment of euro 2 million, though Correos ‘ overall project is to extend the use of PDAs to all of its 30,000 workers who deliver mail every day. Through this ambitious plan, the post office aims to increase the quality of its delivery service. By using the PDAs, the postal workers will be able to dedicate more time to deliveries and less time to administrative tasks at the unit. In addition, the PDAs will make quality control easier and will provide more and better information on deliveries, allowing Correos to give its users and clients comprehensive information on their deliveries. Additionally, using these digital assistants, the post office will be able to offer new added value services, such as tracking urgent deliveries by time bands, digital acknowledgement of receipt, etc.

Correos’ plan to equip all its postal delivery workers with PDAs is particularly outstanding both because of its scale and because of its innovative, state of the art nature. It is the most extensive plan of those carried out by the Spanish company, not only in terms of the number of terminals to be employed and the group of workers who will be using them, but also because of the total investment required. Furthermore, this tool incorporates latest generation technology: Identity Management Systems, high capacity WiFi telecommunications networks and innovative Windows Mobile software, which connects the online PDAs with the company’s applications from any location.

The PDAs, once they have identified the user, link up with the company’s technological distribution applications and stores information related to the delivery as well as other activities carried out. The application also incorporates a statistics module, which enables online monitoring of the use and application of the PDAs in the USEs network.

Correos’ postal delivery workers already using the PDAs have found that they save a great deal of time in day-to-day work and are a great aid in their daily duties.

There are three stages to this mobility plan. In the first, a pilot study was conducted at two Special Service Units in Madrid and one in Toledo. The second stage has just been completed, with the deployment of the PDAs in the 100 USEs, following training of their 2,000 users. The third and final stage will be the gradual deployment of this technology to all other delivery centres, giving PDAs to the whole network, which comprises 2,000 main units and over 8,000 rural postal delivery workers.