Introduction:
Bangladesh Post Office is a Government Department under the direct control of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It is a public utility service Department with objective of providing a speedy, regular and reliable means of communication to the people at a very reasonable cost. The postal sector is taxing through a challenging period. Although there are sound theoretical arguments and some empirical evidence that paper based communication system could be made obsolete by electronic communications, the postal service today plays a very important role in Bangladesh where alternative communications, especially in rural areas, are nearly absent. In this age of market economy, there is a demand for properly functioning low cost communication media.
A system, method and various software products provide for automatic deferral and review of e-mail messages and other data objects in a networked computer system, by applying business rules to the messages as they are processed by post offices. The system includes rule enforcing post offices that store a plurality of business rules derived from business communication policies. The system can route any type of data object, and apply the business rules to such objects in a similar manner.
Discussion:
It is difficult to associate mail delivery with the image of a man, spear and lantern in hand, a bugle and a heavy sack full of mail on his shoulders, ready to brace the attacks of criminals and wild animals alike in the dark of the night as he runs to deliver mail from one point to another.
But, despite the technological developments, the advent of speedier and more convenient forms of communication such as the telephone, electronic mail and, of course, cellular phones in our hectic lives today, has rendered the post office a dying institution.
According to Mr. Mobasherur Rahman, Director General, Bangladesh Post Office (BPO), communication between people has not declined. But, whereas previously 95 percent of it used to be between individuals and five percent between individuals and businesses and among businesses, now it is the other way around, with the lion's share of communication being among businesses and between businesses and individuals. The small percentage of communication between individuals is the business that the post office gets, which does not translate into earnings for the organization. “Courier service companies get the cream of the business,” says Rahman, “delivering to cities and abroad, while we have to have three people working at a village post office which does not get even 10 letters a day and where these companies do not operate.”
According to the Post Office Act, 1898, government media have the exclusive privilege of carrying letters and thus couriers providing this service are doing so against the law. “However, as we cannot ensure the service, we don't fight it,” says Rahman. In fact, the BPO had approached a few government organizations and private cellular phone companies asking them to use its services instead of courier companies to transmit bills, but after they agreed, the BPO itself, lacking confidence, backed out.
Bangladesh Post Office is working to improve quality of the existing services to meet customer needs and expectations. They are trying to create relationships with customers. They have adopted innovative approaches to introduce new products to meet the changing demands of the customers. They have already introduced express products like G.E.P(Guaranteed Express Post), E.M.S.(Express Mail Service), Intel Post(Fax Service), E.P.P.(Express Parcel Post), e-mail post and computerization in Savings bank scheme to improve service performance and user value.
Bangladesh Postal Administration introduced G.E.P. service on February 19, 1984. This is an inland express or expedited mail service provided to the public. Special arrangements have been made for receipt, dispatch, sorting conveyance, transmission and delivery of G.E.P. items. This service assures the people of more secured and prompt delivery. Articles of such kind up to a maximum weight of 2Kg. are accepted in this service. An item of upto 100 gms may be sent a cost of Tk. 10.00 only. G.E.P. items are delivered on the same day or next day of posting. The items are deliverable within 24 hours of posting. More urban areas have been brought under G.E.P. network
International Express Mail Service is entered in July 1984, when it made an arrangement with United Kingdom for receiving inward Data Post items. Up to 1999, International EMS links were established with 45 postal administrations of the world. Name of the countries linked with this network are given below:
Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bahrain, Bhutan, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Hongkong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Luxemburg, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zeland, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Russian, Federaton, Senegal, Singapore, Srilanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Sate of America.
A Post-fax service known as INTELPOST SERVICE in Bangladesh made its maiden journey with its first link established with the UK on December 6, 1988. Till the end of June 1999, Bangladesh established the service with 20 countries.
For simplification and expanding the work of sorting, conveyance and delivery of mails the system of Post Code number was introduced in December, 1986. In this system the whole country has been divided into four Zones and the Zones into Administrations.
The first two digits indicate the districts and the last two digits indicate delivery offices. People use Post Code numbers on their postal articles. Wide circulation of the system has been made through press, television and radio. The system is gradually gaining popularity with the people.
Important service sectors and indicators are collection of mails, sorting of mails, conveyance of mails, delivery of mails.
In modern world mechanization is an inevitable part of expansion of any business. Bangladesh Post Office has made some elementary mechanization with a view to rendering prompt and quality service to the members of the public. Though late in adapting to technological advancements, steps are being taken to modernize the whole system.“The act of 1989 is now under review and will be amended in a way that post office authority can do whatever it deems necessary for offering people better service,” the minister said.
Collection of mails is an important task. The activities of collection of mails are made mainly through post office counters, letter boxes installed in Premises Street and other places by postmen, letter box peons, extra-departmental delivery agents (EDDA) and mail peons.
Sorting of mails is done manually with the help of mail operators. About 835 mail operators are engaged in sorting letter and other postal articles in RMS mail and sorting offices. In addition, partial sorting work of postal articles is done in post offices by the postal operators. For quick sorting of articles an automatic letter sorting machine purchased recently, sorts 36,000 letters per hour, by scanning the postal codes on the envelopes and sending them to their respective sections for delivery. Often, however, people do not write the code, in which case the letters have to be sorted by hand. The BPO has also recently made an agreement with Western Union for international money transfer in one minute.
Besides regular domestic and international mail services, the BPO also has express mail services for speedy and reliable delivery of packages. In 2000, it introduced E-Post, an electronic mail service which allows people without internet access to send and receive messages and scanned images over email at the post office. Financial services such as life insurance, savings bank, savings certificate, money orders and postal orders are some of the most widely-used services of the post office today.
BPO has teamed up with Synesis IT, a local information technology firm. Under the 32 crore deal signed between the two sides on 15 December, 2009 as many as 84 post offices, including the principal ones, in 64 districts country wide will go automated.
Experts think the new system will help remove the prevailing anomalies and corruption in postal services.
Synesis IT will build the required software solutions for post office automation, a device that facilitates a customer’s access to monitoring his or her status when any service is asked for by signing in respective accounts.
Customer will get faster money transfer and other postal services. The Government’s postal services have weakened in the last five years, as other alternative handy technologies like mobile phone hit the market.
At present, 9876 post offices are providing services to the people across the country. The services include letter and document delivery, domestic mail service, emergency mail service, domestic express service, electronic mail service postal life insurance, savings certificate and money order.
Elaborating the two-phase automation, the new technology will be installed, and then postal officials will go for a massive training to adapt to it.
Adaptation to the new system will be the main challenge for the officials accustomed to traditional devices
There are also some management problems. One of them is that the post office does not have its own audit system, which sometimes results in fraudulent practices. With an internal three-person check as is currently in place, if all three are involved in the crime, it is difficult to trace. In one incident, for example, a post office lost 20 crore taka as a result of fraud.
Conclusion:Communication is a basic human right and it is a government pledge to provide equal basic communication services to the people.
BPO can overcome their financial shortage through the establishment of small post shops at every post office, which would sell stationary. Another is the philately section of the BPO.
The biggest problem the postal service faces is the manpower. The post office is understaffed by almost 4,000 personnel, but due to the bureaucratic process, it is taking years to fill these posts. It needs to have the power to recruit people and to prevent any manipulation in the process so that only the deserving are hired. But this is only possible if it has autonomy.
The postal service may be on the verge of dying but there are so many prospects for it to thrive. If they have got the opportunity, they can overcome their deficit and become a successful and profitable business organization which will provide quick and efficient service to the people.”
References
(1) www.thedailystar.net
(2) Annual report of post office
(3) Business communication- NCC Education
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