Saturday, January 15, 2005

Postal Dept vs Courier companies

There was a time some 10 years back when letters took anything between 3 to 6 days to reach its destination within our country. Courier companies then stepped in to fill the need for people to send their postal material quicker. People were excited as the mail reached its destination within 24 hours, though at a high price. So, usually people resorted to this route for urgent needs.

Then, the government woke up. Speed Post was born. It is as good as private courier companies. If not better. And often much more reliable, too. But now many (especially banks and other private companies) have switched to the private courier companies to send their regular communications. I suspect some arrangement with courier companies.

And, this is giving us a huge problem. The postman knows all the houses like the back of his hand. But not so the courier company delivery boy. Result: many letters routed through courier companies return undelivered. For example: Credit Card statement from banks, letters from insurance companies, magazines which are being subscribed etc etc.

A delivery boy himself complained, "Out of 12 articles with me in this area, in the last three hours yours is just the third one that I have manage to deliver. It's so difficult to locate the houses. Many addresses have no phone number. And, even if the number is there, who will compensate me for makng those phone calls to locate the house?"

Any similar experience for you?

Why not rely on the more trusted and reliable Postal department? Not only it has such a huge network, it is now a much better organised establishment.

Not everything that is government is bad. Everything that is private is not good either.

6 comments:

  1. There are some drawbacks with Speed post. The delivery is not prompt like the couriers. I posted a parcel sometime back to my sister in Mumbai. I took 3 days for it to reach her. As I did not have the time,I was unable to take up the matter with the authorities.
    The person who delivers the speed post parcels is not the regular postman. And this person does not always know the places like 'the back of his hand'.
    Even the postmen dont bother to find the correct address. In the letter box in our flat, we find letters to other buildings dumped by our postman. We have to wait for him the next day to return them to him. And if we do not catch in in one or two days, the letters get damaged or lost.
    The advantage with the private couriers is that they are sometimes (at least with the big cos) made accountable if the letters are not delivered or if they have not made any attempt to deliver them.
    Pvt courier cos usually leave a contact number if we are not there to receive the letter. All we have to do is to call them and tell them when we will be available.
    Postalwallahs expect us to go to the post office to collect the letters if they are not delivered at the first attempt. Moreover, we have to go there before the day's 'deadline', which is around 3 pm.
    I find the service by pvt couriers far better.

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  2. Speed post is so slow...postmans are not reliable....at least the website tracking is good. It has been 8 days and speed post sent to me has not been delivered as of yet..

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  3. @Webster:
    Ya I have heard of such complaints... Thanks for your comment. I think things have changed in the last so many years since I posted that.

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  4. you all are right.i think speed post is more reliable then courier companies(at least your product is safe).pvt companies can lose your packet except blue dart but that is very very costly.......

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