Hong Kong Post Office urged to cut deliveries
THE Post Office’s twice-a-day delivery should be reduced to one to help offset an operating loss of HK$103 million last fiscal year, the government’s Audit Report has suggested.
Director of Audit Dominic Chan said yesterday the move would save HK$38.2 million by redeploying 133 postmen.
The report also called on the office to review overtime allowances as it found overtime payouts would amount to HK$21.3 million at 2001-02 prices.
However, Postmaster General Luk Ping-chuen said one delivery a day would greatly undermine the competitiveness of the business community.
”This reduction in delivery frequency will seriously impede the efficiency and competitiveness of the business community because a substantial portion of the daily mail in commercial and industrial areas would, in the circumstances, be received in the afternoon. It will also render the operation of the Post Office’s Speedpost and Local CourierPost by the regular delivery beats impossible,” he said, adding the services required two deliveries a day.
The report said the Post Office urgently needed to slash operating costs as it was expected to suffer operating losses for the fourth consecutive year.
The Post Office announced earlier that it would incur an operational loss of HK$103 million this fiscal year, taking accumulated losses for the past four years to HK$361.1 million.
By August 31 last year, the office employed about 1,850 postmen. A survey of 120 postmen last year found that 43 per cent claimed overtime allowances that could not be justified by their workload.
