Fashionable DHL launch centre of excellence
On 17 February, DHL launched their Fashion and Apparel Centre for Excellence, based largely in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, India, to facilitate trade within the region, Europe and North America
Read MoreTag: Bangladesh
Bangladesh: regulating private courier services
According to a recent media report, the interim government has ‘in principle’ approved a proposal of bringing the private courier services under legal coverage. The courier services, according to the proposal, would need registration to operate anywhere in the country. The council of advisors meeting held last week asked the law ministry for a further scrutiny of the proposed amendments to the Post Office Act that does not endorse private postal services. The draft amendments have sought to streamline the courier services being provided by the private sector widely across the country because of postal department’s often-lazy services as alleged.
Private courier service operators must follow certain rules to be specified by law and the government should have control over the fees they take from the people.
The legal framework under which the private courier services would run, when the proposed legislation comes into force, is expected to make them more responsible to enjoy the confidence of the people as a whole for such services. The charges would also be uniform following implementation of the government rules. The government should also turn its attention also to its own postal department for improvement of the services being provided through its countrywide network for the overall benefit of the people.
Read MoreDHL boosts South Asia trade with enhanced express services
DHL has enhanced its services within the South Asia/SAARC region with new air and ground express products designed to support trade between the neighbouring countries.
The new products are the expansion of the Blue Dart ‘Road Express’ service to Bangladesh and the introduction of the premium guaranteed money-back service ‘Express 10:30’ in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) covers India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.
During the last few years, DHL Express has made substantial investments of over USD 300 million towards the development and upgrading of its network infrastructure in India, including five gateways in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata and over 150 retail outlets. In addition, a state-of-the-art Quality Control Centre and large shipment-processing areas aim at providing seamless express and logistics service solutions to Indian exporters.
Read MoreGP signs landmark deal with postal department (Bangladesh)
Grameenphone (GP), the country’s largest mobile phone company, entered into a deal with the postal department to market its products and services through more than 8,000 rural post offices.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Grameenphone Anders Jensen and director general of Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) Mobasher ur Rahman signed the agreement at a city hotel.
Under the deal, the GP will supply over 24,000 special SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) cards to the BPO postmen working in over 8,200 post offices across the country.
The cards blend mobile recharging tool FlexiLoad with GP’s voice and data products and services. The GP’s health prescription service, HealthLine, and utility payment services will also be incorporated in the offer. A postman will rent the service to rural people at the existing GP tariffs and will get commission based on the amount of phone use.
Speaking on the occasion, Brigadier Gen. M.A. Malek (Rtd.) termed the deal a “landmark event” for the country’s perennially losing postal department, saying it would benefit tens of thousands of poorly paid postmen.
Read MoreMoney transferring through post offices sees a good start
The postal department saw a good response from clients in the first one month of working as the principal agent of Western Union in Bangladesh.
The department started the service from July 13 this year. It is now operating special counters in 12 post offices in the city and 438 others throughout the country so that people can easily collect remittances sent from abroad.
The post offices that are operating as Western Union points in the capital are Dhaka General Post Office (GPO) and post offices at Sadarghat, New Market, Mohammadpur, Gulshan, Banani, Basabo, Tejgaon, Shantinagar, Khilgaon and Uttara.
According to GPO sources, they are receiving around 5 to 10 clients of Western Union in their counter every day.
When the postal department announced its collaboration with Western Union in January, a good number of people expressed scepticism about the department’s ability to maintain the quality of service.
The postal department signed an agreement in January with the Western Union to deliver money transferred by the global money transferring company as part of a reform programme to help the financially ailing department reach break-even point by 2009.
The designated postal offices will run the special money transferring desks for the next 5 years. Usual fees are collected by the Western Union while the postal department receives 25 percent commission from the money-transferring organisation.
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