India Post opened a parcel post centre at the Coimbatore Head Post Office premises here on Friday.
Postmaster General for Western Region, Tamil Nadu, V. Rajarajan, said this would be a one-stop shop for all parcel booking, including registered, ordinary, value-pay and express parcels. As a value-addition service, packing materials (carton boxes, bubble sheets, cloth covers and strapping machine) would be available at the centre. Customers could go in for flat rate boxes and book parcels for overseas delivery too.
The centre would be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Apart from the booking person, two more people would be available at the centre to help customers in packing. The Department had opened three such centres in Chennai. In the Western region, the department would open similar centres in Udhagamandalam, Wellington, Erode, Salem and Hosur this year. Based on customer response, the centre here could also be operated round-the-clock.
Mr. Rajarajan said every parcel product with the department had minimum weight limits and this would be adopted for parcels booked at the centre too. Book now and pay later facility would be extended to speed and express parcel post. The express parcel post would be booked for retail customers also. Parcels booked for delivery within Coimbatore would have door delivery facility. Special pick-up facility would be provided.
This facility was different from Logistic Post, which was only for heavy parcels and were mostly picked up from the customer's premises.
Though there was no business target, the parcel post centre would be one of the active centres in the region, he said. Parcel service was emerging a big business and even in the Western Region, 10 per cent of the revenue in 2009-2010 came from the parcel service. Hence, the focus on the parcel service, he added.
