Tag: Norway

Poste Italiane is rolling out a mobile postal service using Italy’s postmen and postwomen. The new service which has already been trialed in Rome, allows customers to top up their mobile phones, send registered mail items and order prescription medicines.

Using a hand-held device, postal workers can even print receipts and the scheme is expected to be adopted throughout most of Italy over the next few years. One advantage of the concept is the ability to track registered letters along the route which it is thought would also work well for legal documents such as court papers.

It is hoped that more services can be added to the scheme over time, once the support structure is in place. The postal prescription service will connect patient, doctor, and pharmacist, making the ordering and delivery of prescription medicines a snap. Whilst it is not expected to replace post offices, the service should prove popular for smaller transactions and is another example of Italy’s drive to modernise the post office network.

Norway Post introduced a door-to-door alcohol service via the post office network in February this year and Royal Mail is already investing in tracking and scanning devices in the UK to improve existing delivery services. It is thought that postal delivery workers in the UK could offer similar services to those being developed by the Italians, and in a liberalised postal market, all postal operators are keen to look at ideas that would offer a commercial advantage as well as protecting the future of postal networks in a declining letters market. The Italians seem to be leading the way.