Warehousing service from postal dept

Department of Posts is planning to launch warehousing and order processing services for the industry. The warehousing would follow the postal department's recent initiative on logistic services. The department has launched logistic service under the brand name of Logistic Post in seven states.

"The Department of Post is no more a letter delivery service provider to the nation. Today, we are an entity with the largest deposit base in the country. Logistics is the new avenue for the department in view of the potential of the sector and the well established network. We will soon launch the warehousing and order processing services for trade and commerce once Logistic Post become operational properly," said U Srinivasa Raghvan, member, operations and marketing of Postal Services Board

The department will offer space to customers on rental basis and transport goods as their directives.

"We will work on a system where trade and industry will bring ready goods to the storage space and will move as per customers' instructions. Logistic industry is worth Rs one lakh crore rupees in India and we are eyeing a major chunk of it," said Raghavan who was in Ahmedabad on Thursday on the occasion of launch of Logistics Post.

The Department of Post will initially offer its services from Ahmedabad to Vadodara, Vapi, Valsad, Surat and Mumbai and vice versa. In second phase the department will extend its services for other centres in the state.

"The post master generals are free to find out new avenues in their respective areas to offer new services. We are putting stress on retailing business too where we are open to sell various products through our network. Presently, we are distributing prasad of couple of temples from South India," said Raghvan.

Department of Post is planning to cover entire India through its over one and half lakh post offices under the logistic services in near future. Presently, post master general of different territories have been assigned to study the feasibility of Logistic Post in their respective territories.