Vitalizing Nepalese Postal Industry

Madhab Raj Ghimire*

While we are going to Central Post Office at Sundhara, Kathmandu and will make some remarks of reviving this industry than either people react by laugh or they would make satirical comments of those efforts. Because we are seeing even our other private company working on postal industry such as Everest Postal Service is just making nominal progress since its establishment.

In an opposite, we are being witness that DHL or FedEx companies are increasing their market to our country making reasonable profit from Nepal. Consumers are reliable to such those companies to send and receive their parcel and depending on these companies to send their letter and goods to abroad in an convertible foreign currencies which is considered as expensive to compare with our consumer capacities.

When international companies are doing much better position in postal market than why our domestic companies are breathing almost last breath? The question is easier rather than answer this question to make responsible to someone.

Very interesting fact of our postal industry, our post office never got to know about shorting machine to sort out letters. Still the date manual workers are sorting the letters.  Arriving letters or couriers, apart from post box in Kathmandu, most of our general postage paid letters takes nearly two months to deliver into remote villages of to capital and vice-versa.

Even to our central post office and post box office, most of the valuable goods lost every day from the center. The trust on to our postal office seems almost nil while consumers want to deliver their goods to the required destination. The postal office management never paid notice irregularities within their regulatory bounding. The institution just remained to provide job to the staff. It’s never been motivated to serve the consumers and make profit respectable manner.

Postal sector, especially for the domestic use, we cannot think full competition within market. However, post more than 10 grams collection, transport and delivery can be hand over to the private companies to bring efficiencies and make profitable sector.

If our government really wants to make effective operational of our network, its needs to be follow following steps to vitalize our postal industry; first its needs to be reduce the number of staff from the office. Second, new technology needs s to introduce to sorting the letters or parcels. Third, incompetence activities and staff needs to be discouraged. Fourth, post more than 10 grams needs to be given private companies to operate across the country. Fifth, regional postal office needs to establish modern sorting machine for sorting letters to save time and cost. The result expanded locomotion in rural areas, new strategy need to be introduce to obtain effective delivering system. Sixth, variable cost for the post in longer and less profitable route need to be verify and cost of post need to review. Seventh, postal office workers trust needs to be restored with increasing their salary and discouraging irregularities of post delivering activities. Finally, while internet is taking over the market of postal industries, its needs to bring market strategy to compete with internet service to survive and expand own market.

mrghimire@hotmail.com