Speed Post delivery hours to be extended in select areas

In an effort to provide better and faster service, the Department of Posts plans to extend delivery hours of Speed Post and Speed Post Cash On Delivery articles till 7 p.m. in Adyar and Besant Nagar areas on an experimental basis from February.

This initiative is being done on a pilot basis to compete with private courier service providers. At present, the delivery hours for speed posts and articles end by 3.30 p.m. This would be extended till late evening hours. Five post men will be involved in delivery in these areas and also book articles, said officials of the postal department.

On an average, nearly 600 Speed Posts and articles are booked and delivered daily in Adyar and Besant Nagar. Depending on the patronage, the pilot scheme may be extended to other post offices that have more such Speed Post transactions, officials said.

In the recent years, officials point out that Speed Post delivery is growing to be a popular service. Nearly 2.33 crore Speed Post were booked till December this fiscal in the Tamil Nadu circle. This is nearly 32% more than last fiscal when 1.76 crore were booked. Similarly, revenue has increased from ₹70 crore to ₹80 crore this fiscal, officials said.

Officials noted that the speed hub is being operated in St.Thomas Mount for despatch of bulk articles since April last. “We started with 10 bulk customers last year and delivered 7,000 articles daily. Now, we have about 100 customers and deliver about 30,000 mails a day,” an official said.

Customers like Padma Rajagopal of Anna Nagar Western Extension said that they prefer the Speed Post delivery service of the postal department due to prompt delivery, particularly to other countries. However, consumer activist T.Sadagopan suggests that the postal department must increase the number of delivery shifts and also add more manpower to compete with the private service providers.