Photo: Collected
The postal department is launching a ‘Franchise and Letter Writer Module’ with the aim of developing entrepreneurs at the field level and creating new employment alongside saving government expenditure. In the first phase, there is a plan to launch the service in 12 areas of the country. Of these, operations have already begun in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna. The service will be expanded in phases from upazilas down to villages.
Kazi Asadul Islam, director general of the Directorate of Posts, said this initiative is part of implementing the pledge to create new employment contained in the current government’s election manifesto.
He said there is a plan to launch 12 franchise post offices across the country at the outset. The service has already been launched in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna. In continuation of this, operations will soon begin on a trial basis in the hill district of Bandarban and in haor-surrounded Shalla of Sunamganj.
Earlier, on 29 July, Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Fakir Mahbub Anam inaugurated the service at Dak Bhaban. In the first phase, a total of eight franchise post offices have been launched, four inside Dhaka and four outside.
On technical preparations, Md Shah Alam Bhuiyan, director of the ‘Sustainability and Modernisation of Mail Processing and Logistic Service’ project and additional general manager, said the Franchise and Letter Writer Module has been launched on a pilot basis under the project. Once fully implemented, young people at the field level will get the opportunity to work as entrepreneurs, and many will also find employment.
He further said 6,000 mobile sets and 500 computers have already been supplied across the country under the project. Alongside this, work on developing three software applications is under way.
On the government’s 180-day action plan, the director general said the postal department has taken up eight specific tasks in line with the election manifesto, one of which is launching franchise post offices.
According to him, as a result of these initiatives the postal department’s capacity to transport various goods, including seasonal fruits, has increased several times over. Various goods, including fruit crates weighing 20 to 30 kilograms, are now reaching any district of the country safely within 24 to 48 hours. In remote upazilas it is taking a maximum of 72 hours. He also claimed these operations are running successfully without any complaints.
On parcel tracking, Additional General Manager Md Shah Alam said that earlier there was no way of knowing which item was where during transport. Now barcodes are used on every parcel, and they are issued and delivered through the Domestic Mail System (DMS). As a result, customers can find out the updated location of their goods from home.
According to the postal department, several more initiatives have been taken to bring government services to people’s doorsteps. These include the service of delivering land deeds, passports and driving licences to homes. The process of launching a cash-on-delivery service for e-commerce goods is also under way. The Express Mail Service (EMS) facility is also available at low charges for sending parcels abroad.
Explaining the change in the nature of services, the director general said receiving, transporting and delivering letters, express letters, parcels and packet-type postal articles is the main work, or core service, of the postal department. Beyond this, tasks such as operating the savings bank and savings certificates, distributing textbooks and vaccines, and selling lottery tickets or prize bonds are essentially agency functions, which the government assigns to the postal department at different times.
As the reason for the decline in personal and official letters, he said that with the spread of technology people now communicate instantly through live video calls and SMS, so there is no need to wait month after month for a reply to a letter. Because of the government’s overall policy, the tendency to do everything online has also increased. Government offices now use e-Nothi and D-Nothi instead of paper files, and as a result official correspondence is also gradually declining.
However, the director general thinks that although the use of letters has declined, new potential has been created for the postal department on the back of e-commerce. He said all the goods that citizens buy and sell online are postal articles. Parcels and goods transport are now taking the place of letters. So the postal department’s activities are being reorganised around this core service.
He further said initiatives like franchise post offices are creating employment on the one hand and tapping the potential of e-commerce on the other. The postal department will return in a new form through creating new services and opportunities in line with the demands of the time.
It may be noted that, with the aim of expanding the service and making it people-friendly, the franchise and the letter writer will essentially work as two forms of the same task. If an organisation, using the postal department’s name and brand, takes on the responsibility of collecting and delivering goods in a specific area through a contract, it will be operated as a ‘franchise’. And if an individual carries out the same responsibility alone or on their own initiative, they will be regarded as a ‘letter writer’. Once this is implemented, new employment opportunities will be created at the individual level as well as for institutional entrepreneurs.
