Postal service’s bumper revamp
When the national mail delivery system is all but defunct, maybe the best promise a major modernization campaign can make is simply that the mail will arrive at all.
“Te llega” (You’ll get it) is the banner head of a major overhaul for Mexico’s postal service, announced this month.
Gone is the grim SEPOMEX acronym, swapped for the friendlier and historically familiar Correos de Mexico, with a bright pink-and-lime palate adding cheer to the sleek new logo.
After a year of consulting with international postal advisors on the myriad challenges facing Mexico’s underfunded agency, so mistrusted that it has been largely abandoned in favor of private carriers, Carpinteyro concluded a complete image change would be fundamental to reenergizing the demoralized institution.
She stressed that the “Te llega” campaign isn’t just about image, and that Correos de Mexico is changing its entire structure to deliver mail consistently and efficiently.
The federal government outlined a 32-percent increase in the service’s budget for 2009, which Carpinteyro said will be used primarily to purchase equipment and 40 percent more vehicles to handle increased volume. The agency will also hire some 2,500 additional carriers.
Around the nation’s 4,000 postal offices, networked computers will replace typewriters, digital machines will replace antiquated scales, automated sorters will replace burlap sacks and delivery routes will be redesigned. Employees will be trained in updated organizational practices to improve productivity, says Carpinteyro.
Post offices, especially those serving rural communities, will offer prepaid Internet service.
Correos de Mexico also announced a partnership with federally-funded discount grocer Diconsa to sell stamps and offer basic postal services inside their 23,000 locations nationwide. In turn, post offices will sell and ship discount non-perishable food kits (called canastas basicas) for low-income families.
