India Post in talks for global Speed Post delivery via DHL

Dept. eyes higher revenue through tie-up with logistics firm

Looking at increasing revenue from mail services, India Post is in advanced discussions with global logistics firm DHL to deliver Speed Post to all countries, said a senior official.

“We want to have more Speed Post and increase revenue,” said Pradipta Kumar Bisoi, Secretary, Department of Posts. “We are tying up with DHL and in the final stage of discussions with them,” he added. Currently, India Post delivers Speed Post to about 100 countries, and aims to deliver worldwide with the tie-up.

India Post’s total revenues from Speed Post declined to ₹1,002.75 crore in the current financial year up to December due to the impact of COVID-19. This amount was ₹1,764 crore in the comparative period of 2019-20, ₹1,922 crore in 2018-19, ₹1,829.80 in 2017-18 and ₹1,783 crore in 2016-17.

“This tie-up will make tracking also easy for the consumers. Now also we provide tracking services for mails, but we are dependent on the receiving country,” Mr. Bisoi said.

“DHL will be able to provide live tracking… we will book postage and hand it over to them,” he added.

The department, which currently gets a majority of its revenue from banking and related services, is also working to compete with private players for e-commerce deliveries in big cities.

“In rural and remote areas, we still have an upper hand, but in big cities it is difficult for us to compete because of very low charges by private players.We are looking at ways to compete with them,” Mr. Bisoi said.

As per the annual report for 2020-21, India Post targets to achieve 10% revenue market share by 2024 in the domestic courier, express and parcel sector, wherein “growth of e-commerce has created enormous opportunities for the department.”

It also intended to increase parcel handling capacity to 24 crore per annum as against 9.68 crore per annum as of December 31, 2020.

Additionally, the department’s total revenues, including remuneration from savings bank and savings certificate work, stood at ₹8,539.43 crore for the April-December 2020 period. Of this, over ₹6,200 crore is remuneration from savings bank and savings certificate work, while the remaining ₹2,300 crore is from postal operations. In contrast, the department’s revenue expenditure during the period stood at ₹22,661.71 crore, resulting in a loss of ₹14,122.28 crore for the first three quarters of the year.

Mr. Bisoi said that while posts were badly hit during the pandemic, from October they were seeing normal levels of business. India Posts also started its road transport network amid suspension of rail and air services during COVID-19. “A dedicated nationwide road transport network for shipment of essential items, especially ventilators, medicines, testing kits etc, was operationalised using our existing fleet of vehicles,” he said.

About 3,700 tonnes of essential items in 7.5 lakh bags were transported during the lockdown period (April 24, 2020-May 31, 2020) through this network.

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