Jamaican Postal Corporation seeking to franchise service
THE Postal Corporation of Jamaica is examining the implementation of a franchise programme to increase efficiency and extend its customer reach within the next six months.
The idea is to get businesses in communities to offer postal services, including mailbox rentals, Internet kiosks, money transfer, fax and photocopying services.
“We are in the process of developing a franchise programme where a franchise (in a particular community) would be paid a flat sum and in return, would be responsible for the delivery of the mail and the provision of other services,” Dr Blossom O’Meally Nelson, postmaster-general and chief executive officer of the Postal Corporation told JIS News in a recent interview.
O’Meally Nelson explained that the proposed franchise programme, that has already been drafted, is a reactionary measure to the increased challenges being faced by the corporation, including mounting debt.
The government-owned company’s most recent deficit stood in excess of $200 million. In addition to the mounting deficit, O’Meally Nelson bemoaned the high cost of maintaining the physical infrastructure of the corporation’s 320 post offices and 311 postal agencies. The jostle by the corporation to retain market share with alternative mailing systems was another hurdle which she highlighted.
She expressed the view that the establishment of franchisees “would help to control the expenditure of the Postal Corporation and give entrepreneurial opportunities to individuals”.
Noting that 40 per cent of the offices in the postal network generated less than $100,000 annually, she told JIS News that one of the strategies to be undertaken was to revitalise the image of the post office “as a product.”
O’Meally Nelson noted that the drive by the Postal Corporation to be more cost-effective would require the combined partnership of the government, the public, and the private sectors. While acknowledging that her company was fighting an upstream battle, she said that it was not endemic to Jamaica, noting, “all postal businesses across the world are being challenged”.
She pointed to countries such as the United States and Great Britain as nations that have experienced trials within their postal agencies. She noted that up to the year 2000, the US operated at a $2-billion annual loss, while Britain’s Royal Mail just last year looked to layoff 40,000 workers.
Commenting on the challenges that information technology posed, the postmaster-general acknowledged that the competition from e-mail was predominant and that advertising mail was heading that route as well.
“Soon, you’ll be able to even get your bank statements on the computer,” she said, adding “the future of the post lies in the shipment of documents, packages and parcels.”
