'Build on existing strengths'

Thomas Matthew, Managing Director, UPS Jet Air Express India

India Post should strive and improve on its core competency, the business of post, to make it successful before it ventures into new services.

There are clear advantages that are waiting to be leveraged. India Post delivers almost 80 per cent of the combined domestic mail and package traffic in the country today, due to its reach in the interiors of India.

It will take a long time for private players to catch up since these companies will never get into providing mail services as a standard offering.

In the US, UPS handles almost as much traffic as the US postal services. But that's after UPS has been in the country for almost 100 years.

In India, however, regional, domestic and international express companies have been around for about 25 years and they have a direct presence only in the metros, with a few thousand centres. Compare this with India Post, which covers the entire country.

To be successful the postal department must ensure that it will deliver to any and all destinations in India the very next day, as far as possible. That service is not available by any standards today, even in the private sector.

Speed Post can be the forerunner "poster boy" for this evolution.

Also, the department should look at the customers' perspective rather than look internally. A confidence-generating measure would be the installation of a system that helps customers track and trace EMS (Express Mail Service) mails in transit.

But this calls for an adequate investment in technology "" an area where India Post has been left behind by the express companies. India Post launched products like Speed Post without the requisite technology support.

It is now trying to correct the back-end infrastructure, when the reverse should have happened.

Some days earlier, the postal department announced its entry into the logistics business. If it continues to look at new horizons without improving on what it already has, the department will continue to lose more money.

Logistics is not a word that everybody understands. It is a much hyped word, but there is more to logistics than just providing one service within the supply chain.

We have also heard of attempts to sell FMCG products and cameras through post offices. This could indirectly send a message to employees that the job they are currently doing is not good enough.

Instead, the post office should instil a sense of pride into its workforce. It has a loyal base of employees, despite paying lower salaries than the private sector. Come rain or shine, the postman delivers mail.

In a what's-in-it-for-me-world, the postman does not really ask "Why do I do this?" This is because he has a sense of pride in what he does. This is something no organisation can buy. To encourage performance, there should be incentive plans to motivate employees.

And to ensure that employees deliver, revenue targets for each circle are not enough; every post office should have individual profit targets.

The department should project the image of convenient, fast and safe mode of service. Customers must walk in and feel a sense of comfort in a post office.

These centres should emulate the service delivery and ambience of retail outlets such as coffee chains or department stores "" service with a smile.

For additional revenue streams, the move to provide options like advertising on post cards are good ideas, though branding a mail delivery van could dilute the identity of the department. The postal department can also offer services such as licence renewal, payment of bills, road tax collection, insurance policy renewal and so on.

In countries like Malaysia, for such essential services, the first point that comes to mind is the post office, not banks. This is what the Indian postal department should endeavour to achieve.