Tag: India

Making India Post dynamic and profitable

Posted by | Jul 21, 2008 | |

Over the past few years, the Department of Posts and subsequently India Post has been undergoing significant changes, adapting to the new market environment. It is now the turn of the young Minister of State for Communications and IT Jyotiraditya Scindia to do his bit to push this exercise forward.

Over the past five years, India Post has evolved. The network of over 1.5 lakh post offices across the country, with over 80 per cent of them in remote and far-flung areas, has also become the retail outlet for a variety of financial instruments and even pre-paid cards of cellular phones. In the season, one can see long-winding queues at post offices — to buy the Public Service Commission application forms of the Central and State governments.

Postal savings, small savings, and the public provident fund have remained a major attraction for sections of the people, over decades. When the private courier service came into the country, the Department of Posts faced a major threat.

But it was soon able to refashion its functioning and introduce both a Speed Post and a Business Post to cater to a special clientele. Unfortunately, some of these services proved costlier than the private operators.

But the time to take the exercise forward has come. While the first priority may be to meet the competition, the consultants are sure to find out that utilising and harnessing the unparalleled network of post offices may be the solution.

A lot of the governments’ services and payments could easily be made through this network, with which the rural people can more easily identify — ultimately, aside from the Village Headman, it may be only the postman or now the post-woman who can easily identify every citizen in his or her area of coverage.
New mechanism

The challenge now may be to meet those commitments and yet become profitable by diversifying business and generating more revenue.

With the growth of the Internet, e-mails, and e-governance, broadband connectivity at post offices can surely be a means of generating business. If people do not find the time or inclination to write or print personal or business letters any more, they cannot be blamed.

In the age of communication revolution, e-mails and SMS may make such ancient forms of communication irrelevant. So, the post offices have to accept and adapt this method of communication and use it to transfer not just information, but also enable financial transactions — such as an instant money order.

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Postal department ropes in Ogilvy & Mather (India)

Posted by | Jul 17, 2008 | |

The Department of Post has stepped into a high gear for a total revamp of its image. It has partnered with Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) to help design a new logo and new uniforms to keep up with its new image.

This project christened “Project Arrow” has been launched to initially upgrade 500 post offices, across 10 circles, mostly in rural areas, by the end of this calendar year.

Under the project, 500 post offices will receive a makeover, to represent the standardisation of quality. The department of posts has developed standardised and consistent interior and exterior blueprints for 500 post offices and will install uniform modular furniture across the post offices.

All the mails and parcels will henceforth be tracked till the time they are not delivered to the desired destination. “The first phase of this project covering 50 post offices will be flagged off on the 15th of August.

The rest of the 450 will be completed by the end of December,” said Scindia. “After gauging the success of this pilot project, we hope to implement this in the rest of the post offices across the country,” he added. At present, there are over 1,55,000 post offices, of which 26,000 are department post offices.

The minister also pointed out that over 500 postal employees have undergone training to provide the best service to customers.

Specialised training package for these 500 post offices have been designed and training has been initiated. Meanwhile, all the post offices under the project will be broadband-enabled, for technological upgrade of these post offices.

However, only over 20 per cent of the total mailing comprises personal mailing, which has been affected by the increased teledensity in the country and decreasing call rates by mobile phone operators. The increased usage of emails has also affected the personal mailing segment of the postal department.

Though the minister did not comment on the funds invested in Project Arrow, he said the funds were accounted for in the Budget and have been invested through internal accruals.

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Rising ATF prices: Good news for postal department, bad for private couriers

Posted by | Jul 14, 2008 | |

The over 50 per cent increase in the price of aviation turbine fuel in the past six months could bring good news for the Indian Postal Department.

As all airlines have raised carriage charges, private couriers have increased their tariffs 8-20 per cent. India Post, on the other hand, has not tinkered with its tariffs at all.

As a result, India Post’s tariff is 70 per cent cheaper for domestic destinations and 30 per cent cheaper for international destinations.

Department of Posts officials said this would help them raise volumes, more so since any tariff hike will not happen till the next Union Budget in 2009. When asked if this will burn a hole in the department’s pocket, the officials said India Post was still making money on its courier service.

Some private courier service operators said they do not see any huge swing of business in favour of India Post.

Meanwhile, India Post is gearing itself for a makeover to provide stiff competition to the private courier services.

Admitting that a lot of companies were not aware of the service offering provided by the department of post, the official said, “We are now looking at strengthening our marketing and sales by making the potential customers aware of the services we provide.”

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TNT adjusting to realities of on-line B2C deliveries

Posted by | Jul 11, 2008 | |

TNT’s operation research systems are concentrated on five hubs in India- Nagpur, Kolkata, Mahipalpur (near Delhi), Neelmangala (near Bangalore) and Sinnar (near Nashik).

Though it has ten depots in the USA for trans-Atlantic consignments, TNT has stuck to a policy of not competing with established players like UPS and FedEx in the American market. Instead, it in concentrating on growth in the emerging markets. “In select emerging markets, we aim to be number one,” says TNT’s group managing director Marie-Christine Lombard.

The Dutch company has been expanding its operations in emerging markets through a strategy of mergers and acquisitions. In Brazil, it has acquired Mercurio, in Kenya, it has bought Aircare and in China, it has taken a 100 pct stake in Hoau, the country’s largest road transport company. In India, TNT bought over the Hyderabad based Speedage Express Cargo two years ago, thereby acquiring 514 depots, 26 transit hubs and 730 vehicles.

“In countries the size of India and China, starting a greenfield operation is very difficult,” says Lombard. “At the same time, there was no overlap between the operations of TNT and acquired companies like Speedage and Hoau. We provided international connectivity to their domestic operations.”

Lombard also sees new opportunities for the company in Europe’s booming e-markets, where logistics is intrinsic. The UK and Germany logged 22 billion euros worth of on-line sales each last year, with books, movies, clothing being the main products. The French have been slower to get on-line , but they’re gradually catching up.

Traditionally a B2B player, TNT is adjusting to the realities of on-line B2C deliveries.

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TNT delivers DVDs across India

Posted by | Jul 11, 2008 | |

TNT has partnered with the online DVD rentals and sales company Movie Mart in India to distribute DVDs countrywide using its integrated air and roads network.

Under the agreement, TNT is expected make the services of Delhi-based Movie Mart available in 300 cities and towns it is operating in.

Movie Mart, which claims to be India’s first online DVD rentals company, eyes a 30% of the DVD rentals market within five years. It plans to set up its own stores in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata in order to provide its DVD rental service on a national level.

“We now make sure our DVD’s are delivered safely and on-time using the TNT’s integrated air and roads network. We aim at becoming a specialised website into DVD rental and selling, online downloads, home video rights and movie production. Currently, we deliver to an average of 8,000 customers in Delhi on a daily basis,” said Movie Mart CEO, Rahul Mansharmani. “Movie Mart expects about one million subscribers all over India in next 3 to 5 years time,” he added.

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