Resurgent Thailand post carves out a new niche

Thailand Post has taken on a new mission that is perhaps even more daunting than its original goal of becoming a profitable state agency. Having achieved the latter, it now seeks to turn itself into a logistics powerhouse.
Lately, it seems that Thailand Post is eager to deliver anything that can be lifted and carried. Besides the old and conventional letters and parcels, its deliveries now include everything from motorcycles to food, prepared in the kitchens of big-name provincial restaurants and carried to diners in Bangkok. And the list keeps on growing.
The modern Thailand Postman not only drops letters into mail boxes, but he can also provide value-added services such as topping up mobile-phone accounts for True Move prepaid customers.
Late in 2008, Thailand Post also tied up with Krung Thai Bank to offer a pilot service in just two postal offices, in Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan provinces. The bank's savings-account customers can deposit and withdraw money across the postal office counters. Deposits are restricted to no more than Bt100,000 per day and withdrawals to no more than Bt50,000 daily. They bank's customers are required to register with the postal offices to receive passwords for cash withdrawal, and the services cost Bt15 per transaction.
Thailand's Post's chief operating officer Woodhipong Moleechart said he had urged all of the agency's staff to take part in its marketing and public relations activities, to forge a sense of unity and to encourage their contributions.
This reflects Thailand Post's continuing attempts to capitalise upon its 1,178 postal offices around the country, all connected by an online network and backed up by more than 20,000 staff, to improve its performance and revenue. The ultimate goal is for Thailand Post to become a provider of "total logistics" services.
The state agency does not regard giant logistics firms like FedEx or DHL as a threat, but rather as possible partners.
"We capture different segments. They tap the large organisations while we focus on the medium-sized firms and the walk-in customers. Moreover, they do not have the network in all of Thailand's nooks and crannies like we do," Woodhipong said.
Thailand Post regularly forges new partnerships with private sector companies. In September 2008, it linked up with True Move by having 1,200 members of its staff act as agents in topping up prepaid mobile-phone accounts for the cellular operator's customers.
Thailand Post's staff members receive free call time to the value of Bt50 on their own True Move phones for every Bt500 worth of call value they enter on behalf of True's other prepaid customers. Thailand Post itself gathers 4.5 per cent of the total value of topping up transactions undertaken by its staff on True's behalf. Both companies plan soon to begin promoting one another's products.

Thailand Post also tied up with budget airline Thai AirAsia recently to deliver food from famous restaurants in Chiang Mai, Nong Khai, Ubon Ratchathani, and Phuket to customers in Bangkok.
In the first six months of 2008, the state agency recorded revenue of Bt7.99 billion. Of this, Bt5.91 billion came from its mail postal service, Bt739.3 million from product delivery services, Bt452 million from retail services and Bt513 million from financial services.
The state agency has also harnessed various information technologies to strengthen its operations and provide better services. In some key locations, postal offices will even hold parties for their loyal customers.
Thailand Post was originally the postal unit of CAT Telecom, when CAT was still the Communications Authority of Thailand. When CAT was corporatised in 2003, the postal unit was split off.
Since then Thailand Post has continued to introduce new over-the-counter services, from bill payment services to sales of consumer goods. It has also constantly striven to shed the "state official mindset" of its staff and replace it with a "business-minded" attitude.