— tapping other revenue sources
By Rabindra Rooplall
THE Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) recorded a 31 per cent reduction in mail last year, handling a total of 6,979,021 pieces, compared to 7,389,194 pieces in 2014.According to GPOC Postmistress General Karen Brown, this was inclusive of air-mail and domestic mail. She noted that movement of mail was another challenge for the corporation. In November 2015, the company was able to re-arrange the agreement with Copa Airlines to move mail to Cuba which was a challenge that they were facing in this regard.
“Previously, it was transited through Jamaica to Cuba, but Jamaica had a problem. They kept the mail for a couple months, and then returned it to Guyana. So we met with Copa and they are moving mail for us to Cuba,” the postmistress noted.
Meanwhile, the GPOC in 2016 will be aiming to have fully computerised counter operations in addition to providing motorcycles for postage deliveries and other advancements on par with other postage companies.
“Currently, 41 of our offices have computers and by February our counter operations at GPO will be fully computerised,” she said. “We already have 10 computers [waiting] to roll out,” according to Brown.
She noted that the Caribbean Postal Union — a training school that was opened in Barbados in 2015 — has assisted the GPOC with three training programmes. Areas of security and domestic operations were also covered in the training.
“We have to come on par with FEDEX, DHL and our other competitors,” she pointed out, during the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s end-of-year press conference. She stated that this will come about, partly, through a regional effort.
“We’ll be looking to push our express mail service, since we have Fly Jamaica. We have to look for another carrier for Europe. We’re also looking to capitalise on training. And in terms of ICT, we are looking to computerise most of our operations,” the Postmistress General stated.
There were two projects funded through the Quality Service Fund (QSF), Brown said, and those projects were the insulation of cluster boxes and the supply of motorcycles to postmen.
“At the close of the [cluster box] project, we had additional funds to draw down. So we intend to utilise it to buy some more motorcycles to increase our efficiency in our mail delivery.”
OTHER REVENUE SOURCES
In addition, Brown stated that other objectives for the first quarter of 2016 would include acquiring a scanner and two more vehicles, with funding from the QSF.
Underscoring last year’s performance, Brown revealed that the corporation had to move to other areas in making revenue as use of postal services is reduced.
“We all know post is dying… with the advent of email and Whatsapp. So the other services that we were involved in are bill payments from GTT (Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company), GPL (Guyana Power and Light), GWI (Guyana Water Incorporated), Courts and domestic money order remittances.”
These other services, she said, were offered throughout the country at the corporation’s 64 locations. She also listed the domestic parceling and packaging service as another source of revenue. In addition, she gave credit to domestic and express mail service, postage and revenue stamp sales.
ELECTRONIC BILLING
Brown noted that government agencies, which have generally been moving towards electronic billing and other services on their websites to customers, have contributed to this decrease.
“We are trying to push our money order service,” she said. “You can be in Port Kaituma and send money for your relative in Georgetown or any part of the country where we have a presence… so if you have a landlord and you do not want to interface with [him or her], you come to the post office, take out your money order and post it to the landlord.”
