La Poste increases its range of services with the 'followed letter'
French post office La Poste launched its new service ‘lettre suivie’
yesterday as part of its policy of widening the range of services it offers.
According to Bernard Bonneton, general manager of postal services, it is
biggest initiative taken by La Poste in years and is a first in Europe. The
service allows clients, companies and people to now the date on which their
correspondence has been posted, as each letter will have a barcode which can
be read as it is posted.
Each bar code sticker will cost FFr6 on top of the price of postage.
The tracking of deliveries first started around ten years ago at parcel
delivery companies such as Chronopost, DHL or FedEx, then was taken up by La
Poste for its rapid parcel delivery service. The use of the technology on
normal postal services indicates a change of dimension since it could
possibly be used on 20m letters sent each day.
Abstracted from Les Echos in French FT McCarthy – Copyright 2001 Financial
Times Information.
