IS THE POST OFFICE STILL RELEVANT?

THIS week, the world over celebrated the annual World Post Day which is celebrated on October 9, the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 in the Swiss capital, Bern.

It was declared World Post Day by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan in 1969. Since then, countries all over the world take part in celebrations to highlight the importance of the postal service and to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in people’s and businesses’ everyday lives.

Back in the day the Post Office was a very instrumental part of our lives and how we communicated. It offered and still offers some services such as selling stamps and envelopes, sending and receiving telegrams and sending and receiving money orders.

The postal service has been a huge employer all throughout the years but the mushrooming of many different technologies such as smart gadgets; the postal services have been on a decline. Today, mobile devices provide texting and social media, we can chat and video call our relatives and friends regardless of distance, many people use email as a formal means of communication reducing the relevance of physical letters, drones will soon be doing delivery to people and the question that still remains is, how relevant are the post offices today, can the government do away with them or we still need them?

Today, many people argue that the postal services will be a thing of the past soon, Post Offices are still important today even though their relevance is decreasing on a daily basis. Here are some of the reasons we still need the post office today:

1. Physical Goods Can’t Be Emailed – we plan to go paperless but with technology currently some services are only offered via mail. We use technology to communicate but we can’t send physical goods to each other digitally without a middle “company” delivering to us, whether you buy something online or want your online degree sent to you, you will need the postal services to help deliver to you. The postal service is still instrumental in this area.

2. Rural Zambians Have No Other Choice – Many urban young people may not understand or imagine that there are still a large number of Zambians in the deepest of rural areas that do not have mobile networks or access to high-speed internet services.

The Postal Service is still a very important part of their lives and the way they communicate. Recently, Zamtel announced that it will erect 700 new communication towers by the end of 2019 as it continues with its aggressive network roll out mainly in the rural areas which previously had no access to telecommunication services. In this regard post offices are still instrumental in such areas.

3. The Universal Service Obligation – Certain private carriers can’t deliver products in certain deep rural areas, leaving residents without access to their services altogether. The Zambian Postal Service, however, has the “universal service obligation” to deliver anywhere.

The Post Office is still necessary even though there has been a market shift. Most of their services are not very much used or needed because maybe they are not offering what customers really want in the 21st century, trends are changing every day. The postal services should start thinking of innovations that will save the postal service market. Leadership has to be able to recognise market shifts and invest in new growth opportunities so that they survive in the changing markets.

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