In the United States, first-class mail volume has dropped 7 percent since 2001 — an average of 1.3 billion fewer letters, postcards and bills each year. A 15 percent boost in bulk advertising and other discounted mailings has so far offset only some of the loss in revenue.
Many postal agencies are having to serve more households because their nations' populations are growing but are getting less mail to deliver to each, said Dean Pope, general manager of business development at Canada Post.
"In order to sustain business in that formula, you have to find new services and products and find new revenue growth opportunities," he said.
One of those new services is Canada Post's Borderfree program, which allows Canadians to buy items from U.S. e-commerce partners, pay in Canadian currency and know all taxes and fees ahead of time. Borderfree takes packages from U.S. hubs through Canadian customs and delivers them in Canada.
In France, La Poste will print e-mails customers send in and deliver them to physical mailboxes with registered notes and time stamps.
Tunisia's postal service offers a pre-charged payment service for paying utility bills and buying things online.
In Italy, a new digital certification service at Poste Italiane archives loan documents for banks so that years after a transaction a party can retrieve the original document with an electronic postmark as proof of its authenticity.
-By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
Just to add little fact about Indian Postal Services, they run "Postal Small Savings Scheme". Millions of villagers are connected with this scheme. Its a huge success. Most of the scheme subscribers are farmers. They keep saving a little chunk of their income every month or quarter.
No comments:
Post a Comment