What made the time-bound guarantee possible was getting guaranteed blocks of space on passenger flight cargo holds, which India Post has used for years to transmit Speed Post articles faster.
The Department of Posts’ (DoP) announcement of 24 and 48-hour guaranteed Speed Post services follows months of testing, and the resolution of a key logistical hurdle, Ministry officials told The Hindu. The facility includes letters and parcels between Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. What made the time-bound guarantee possible was getting guaranteed blocks of space on passenger flight cargo holds, which India Post has used for years to transmit Speed Post articles faster.
Regular commercial passenger flights routinely carry goods for courier and logistics firms, and India Post has been among those that utilise the spare capacity after the cargo hold is done loading passenger luggage. However, last year, the DoP floated a tender seeking “hard blocked” space, so that excess demand wouldn’t lead to mail bags being tossed out and used in the next flight.
“We have five airlines” with hard blocked space, Dushyant Mudgal, Deputy Director General of Mail Operations at DoP, told The Hindu. “We identified particular airlines for particular slots, and we have identified how much weight we are committing to each airline.” There is “redundancy” to make sure that multiple flights for each origin-destination pair of cities, so that if a mail bag misses one flight on a day, it can still reach the same day.
The 24 Speed Post facility, which has been promised over the last year by the government, was notified last week. The government held an event announcing it on Tuesday.
With dedicated capacity secured, India Post piloted 24-hour delivery with regular Speed Post consignments, closely tracking each article for months, seeing where weak points in terms of delivery were. “There are regular as well as a different set of personnel for delivery, with one set doing delivery from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., and the second set doing 12.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.,” Mr. Mudgal said.
Bookings for 24 Speed Post and 24 Speed Parcel, which are available with the same acknowledgement and insurance facility as the erstwhile Speed Post, will be accepted from certain PIN codes — to be announced later by India Post — from the six metros, with a gradual enlarging of which post offices can accept bookings. “Speed Post 48 can be accepted at any location in the six cities,” Mr. Mudgal said. “But for next day delivery, we have identified certain post offices; in Delhi, there are 44, including bulk booking centres and head post offices.”
Inter-city Speed Post and Parcel 24 bookings can cost anywhere from ₹94-186, depending on the weight of the consignment and the distance it has to travel, plus GST.
E-commerce
Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia expressed the hope that e-commerce firms would avail of both the 24 and 48 hour services. “Today, parcels are only 5% of our business, but it is our common objective that parcels have to become the growth engine of our enterprise,” Mr. Scindia said, noting that already, parcel growth stood at 44% year over year.
“There is no reason we cannot become the fulfillment delivery engine for every e-commerce supplier,” Mr. Scindia said. “Amazon, Shiprocket, Flipkart… name the company and we should be the delivery organisation. Speed Post parcel will also have our OTP delivery, Aadhaar verification, real time tracking, [and] specialised packaging.”
source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)