India Posts subscribes to global monitoring system

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Department of Posts has subscribed to the Global Monitoring System(GMS) of the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

This is a quality monitoring system for International mails. India Post delivers about 2100 tonnes of international letter mail received from different countries, said an official press release. This translates into 31 million articles per year, which are deliverable in every corner of the country.

India Post aims to achieve better service quality in delivery of international letter mail to its customers and has therefore made a substantial investment in this project, the release said.

At present the Global Monitoring System (GMS) is being tested in ten countries including India. The testing will continue up to December, 2009.

The GMS uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology for a precise diagnosis of the quality of service provided by the postal operator. This involves testing of adherence to delivery standards by an independent auditor selected by the Secretariat of the UPU.

The independent auditor has selected a panel consisting of a number of senders and recipients of letter mail in various countries. These panelists will send and receive letters which have RFID chips inside the envelope. The panelist and their location are not disclosed to the participating Postal organization.

RFID readers (gates) have been installed at the postal facilities where mail is received from foreign countries at the Airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi. These readers will detect letters, which have the RFID chip inside and record the time of arrival in the postal facility. At the time of delivery of the article, the recipients will record the exact date and time of delivery.

The data recorded will be automatically transmitted to the independent auditor, who will analyze this data and forward it to the UPU. The UPU will be compiling this data and providing India Post with details of time taken for delivery of an article from time of receipt in India, the release said.

Since the exact time of receipt and exit from the postal facilities at the Airport and the time of delivery in different cities will be known, it will be possible for India Post to take corrective action to improve quality.