UPS now offers express service inside 16 additional countries
Shippers will be able to consolidate all of their package delivery services with one carrier, effectively eliminating multiple shipping processes.
Read MoreTag: Kenya
Postal corporation seeks partners in bid to cut costs
Postal Corporation of Kenya is opening opportunities for investors as it seeks individuals to run some of its branches on a franchise basis.
The company has applied for cabinet approval to offload land and buildings valued at Sh3 billion as a way of cutting costs and focusing on core service delivery in areas mostly around urban areas.
Mr Fred Odhiambo, the post master general, said franchising outlets was already underway as one of the corporation’s strategies to enhance service delivery and shore up the bottom line.
Also in the pipeline is disposing of some of its non-core assets that the corporation is not making full use of such as land and buildings in various parts of the country.
The corporation has 900 branches countrywide. Mr Odhiambo said that a fifth of them, 180, located in remote areas would be more viable under a franchise model.
Under the Universal Service Obligation PCK is supposed to have one postal office for every 6,000 Kenyans.
However, Mr Odhiambo said the corporation could offer only one postal office for 35,000.
Read MoreKenya Post plans automation to boost financial services
Postal Corporation of Kenya is automating its branches to inject efficiency into its operations as it looks to grow its financial services division.
The corporation plans to automate its back office operations in 340 post offices out of a branch network of 700 branches countrywide.
Financial services, account for 19 per cent of the total turnover – which came to about 3.2 billion last year – and it is expected to play a huge part in the revenues of the corporation in the coming years, Postmaster General, Fred Odhiambo said.
Financial services firm, Old Mutual, became the latest to partner with Posta to allow its customers to pay for monthly contribution into the pool of invested funds, Unit trusts, through Postapay service.
Old Mutual is eyeing to take the partnership a notch higher by selling its insurance products at the post office starting early next year according to Tavazia Madzinga, deputy group chief executive officer at Old Mutual.
However, this will have to be under the tight scrutiny of the Insurance Regulatory Authority for products which require end users — customers in this case — to be made fully aware, necessitating the need for an insurance agent at the point of sale.
The penetration of insurance products still remain relatively low and is estimated at a paltry three per cent of the Kenyan population.
Read MoreTNT and Postal Corporation of Kenya sign parcel delivery deal
Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) and TNT Express Worldwide Kenya Ltd have signed an agreement that will allow the companies to extend their services and value-additions to customers.
TNT Express will begin the delivery of international parcels on behalf of EMS Kenya (PCK’s express delivery division) to an initial 90 international routes where EMS Kenya does not have an agreement. PCK will assume local distribution of TNT consignments through the 300-plus post offices.
The agreement was signed by the Postal Corporation of Kenya Postmaster General Fred Odhiambo for EMS Kenya, while TNT Express was represented by the Country Manager Sam Gichohi.
“This is a true ‘win-win’ agreement that will allow us to offer customers world-class and extensive express delivery of services,” said Mr Gichohi.
PCK has grown its international business to 109 countries. The new partnership will extend this count beyond 200.
PCK will, on its part, enable TNT Express to expand and streamline coverage in this market by offering better national coverage for their international consignments.
“The forging of this new partnership is in line with PCK’s refreshed go-to-market strategy, which includes forging useful partnerships with key players to widen our market,” said Odhiambo.
The move comes only two months after TNT Express announced its commitment to invest Sh136 million (USD 1.98 million) in expanding operations. This new announcement with further its objective of strengthening its presence Kenya.
Read MoreA postal sector focused on the future
International postal services are moving resolutely towards the future, declared Edouard Dayan, Director General of the Universal Postal Union, at the close of the 24th Universal Postal Congress, which ended its three weeks of discussions today.
“From Bucharest to Geneva, the whole tone has changed. Four years ago, an air of pessimism hung around the future of postal services” said Dayan. “Today, our agenda includes e-commerce, technological development, intelligent mail, facilitation of international trade and exchanges, electronic money transfers, sustainable development, international cooperation, postal infrastructure at the service of development policies, and development – rather than downsizing – of the universal service”. At the closing session of Congress, the Director General also described the many faces of a sector which is active on all fronts of the global economy, in the face of burgeoning new technologies and the growth of globalization and international trade.
Aside from the elections, Congress also examined 300 proposals and resolutions relating to the structure of the UPU, its mission and finances, and to international exchanges of letters, parcels and money transfers between postal operators the world over. In terms of operations, for example, minimum security standards and processes for postal operators will be drawn up, and Posts are invited to work more closely with customs authorities to identify counterfeit or pirated articles sent through the mail.
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