Post office introduces Express Mail
Its headquarters has recently undergone a facelift and now a venerable government institution says that its services are also stepping up to the next level. Jose Sanchez reports.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
When you need to send a package abroad that absolutely has to make it on time, you usually think FedEx or DHL. But beginning November 15th a new competitor with an old name will come on the scene. The Post Office says it can deliver your goods faster and cheaper with Express Mail.
Elston Wade, Assistant Post Master General
“When this service is used, your letters, packages and documents are received at one of our counters and quickly and reliably flown to one of their destinations overseas, where they are delivered to their addresses in two to three days. The new service will begin on the fifteenth of November as a promotional period up until the thirty-first of December when we will have a special rate for our customer.”
The promotional rate will be fifty dollars to the United States for any EMS item up to one kilogram in weight a price, which the post office claims to be a bargain.
Elston Wade
“As we understand, it is extremely competitive. We expect our rates to be thirty to forty percent less than those rates being charged by the private carriers. Of course we have other unique features to this product such as track and trace, whereby your item can be traced from the time it is post up to the time it is delivered. We can tell you where your item is and we can tell who actually signed for it at its destination. We also have a network of post offices, about one hundred and eighty five post offices worldwide, who would handle the delivery of our EMS product. So that is a key advantage over our competitors.”
While the post office is moving forward with its new Express Mail, other services seem to be lagging behind. For example the post office sells stamps, but it does not sell the envelopes, boxes and other supplies required to communicate.
Elston Wade
“This is something we certainly see in the future. In the post office world, it is known as Post Shop, whereby we can get all these types of stationeries, boxes to pack your materials in and all different types of things like that. That is certainly coming next year, and hopefully in the first half of next year.”
While we wait for the one-stop and shop post office shop, it wouldn’t hurt to remind people that it’s still a good idea to get that Christmas mail out early. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
Wade says that in the future the post office will be able to process electronic money orders.
