March 15, 2016
The department of posts is
leaving no stone unturned to ride on the e-commerce boom across the country.
From making dedicated corridors for delivery to training postmen to handle big
volumes, besides connecting all postal products through technology, the department
has chalked a strategy to overcome the shift in their functioning. Secretary of
Department of Posts, Kavery Banerjee, tells Mansi Taneja the plan for
e-commerce and the payments bank venture. Excerpts:
E-commerce has come as a
boon for the postal department. What is the long-term strategy to boost
revenues?
We have been focusing on
our strategy and how to move forward for the past one year. E- commerce has
emerged as a key opportunity. Our revenue and parcel revenues have
grown by 120 per cent. We are grappling with a paradigm shift. A fresh look is
being given to ways of processing, transmission, and delivery. We have set up
48 dedicated processing centres for handling parcels.
The maximum orders are
coming from smaller places where aspirations are high - Tier-II and -III cities
and small villages such as in Leh and Ladakh and north-eastern regions.
India Post is a natural
partner for e-commerce companies because of our reach and network. We are looking
at 100 per cent year-on-year growth and by March we will generate revenues of
Rs 250 crore from parcels and speed post. Through cash-on-delivery, we reached
Rs 1,200 crore.
How are you coping up with
huge volumes from the e-commerce sector? Do you plan to purchase your own
vehicles for a better delivery mechanism?
We are struggling with huge
volumes in e-commerce. We are struggling with airlines, that have their own
capacity constraints.
Planning to set up
dedicated routes through roads for delivery. We are also in the
process of aggregating delivery centres and booking offices. It will
be vehicle-driven.
We are exploring how to
incentivise postmen to use their vehicles for delivery where possible. In hilly
and difficult terrains, the mode has to be on foot.
For major areas, we plan to
outsource vehicles.
What kind of incentives?
We want to make it more
attractive to postmen/delivery agents for using their own vehicles and
considering various options. We have set up a committee to look into the
compensation of rural officers, mainly who work part-time and plan to
restructure accordingly. This happens every time the Pay Commission is
announced.
The committee's report will
be out in sometime, after which we have to look at the financial implications
and take finance ministry's approval for it.
There have been issues with
last-mile delivery. Many e-commerce firms have been complaining about delays in
delivery and loss of items.
We have put in a place a
track-and-trace system. Technology has not reached smaller post offices, which
is why it takes time to upload information.
We have explained this to
all our e-commerce partners about timings in smaller towns and villages. One can't
expect a delivery in a village within a day.
We have made arrangements
to deliver outside office hours and even, on holidays now.
Also, we will be connecting
all our postal products - letters, parcels and other - through technology,
which will enable immediate uploading of information - booking, delivery
and timings. Currently, the trials are going on and we plan to roll it
out by end of this year. We have also rolled out solar powered handheld
devices through which one can send money orders/remittances and also make
payments for various government run schemes. The department is looking to roll out
20,000 such devices by end of this month and 130,000 by end of March 2017.
How are you training your
existing staff with this change in the functioning of the department? Are you
concerned over the age profile?
E-commerce in India has
suddenly taken off, in the last two years, while in the West, they moved
towards it gradually over 15 years. It has taken us by surprise as well.
There are many rounds of
training going on for the staff all over the country. Courses are available
online as well with a focus on e-commerce.
We are working on their
skills - how to interact with people. Age profile is shifting, we
have inducted a lot of young people recently. Many of them are engineers. For
instance, for 800 vacancies in Delhi, we got some 30 lakh applications and most
of them were doctors, engineers, paramedics. These people come with a certain
background and are comfortable using technology. We are also rotating people in
different sections.
What is the update on your
Payments Bank venture. Will it be first step towards a full-fledged bank?
We have selected a
consultant for this venture. We have to submit the plan to RBI March 2017. We
want toleverage our reach and network. Every post office will be a point
of access. We also plan to set up white labeled ATMs.
We will have various
tie-ups for the venture, will mix use of delivery staff to facilitate doorstep
banking. Our 2.8 lakh network of small saving agents will also be used. We can
also partner with banks to offer credit products. We will launch products which
will not be in direct competition to our existing portfolio.
Money order might be
hived off and make way for remittances through Payments bank riding on
technology. It will be much cheaper, we have seen traffic coming down in money
orders because it is expensive.We will also look at last mile delivery of
payments. We will hire set of professionals for running banking operations of
Payments Bank.
The plan
is to set up a full bank, Payments bank is the first step. Banks consider us to
be a serious threat and there is serious resistance against us getting into
banking space.
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