BotswanaPost installs over 7,000 home mailboxes
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday November 23, 2017 15:25
This long awaited project, which began in July last year, was created in an effort to bring in convenience for the customer and increase delivery channels. Upon its pilot phase, BotswanaPost introduced physical delivery mail and parcels at Gaborone’s Block 7 and 8.
According to the Post’s chief executive officer (CEO) Cornelius Ramatlhakwane, they chose Block 7 and 8 because the plots are well surveyed and street names are decently marked adding that they intend to roll out the service nationwide.
“The development aligns well with the ongoing nationwide initiative by former Ministry of Lands and Housing under the LAPCAS Location Addressing Project,” he told an annual stakeholders meeting this week.
Ramatlhakwane said as part of the project, mail and parcels are now delivered three times a week adding that the public’s growing trust in this service has created an interesting opportunity for the business. He also pointed out that they have noticed a dramatic increase in parcel deliveries. At the start of the pilot project, parcels accounted for just six percent of the Post’s volumes.
However he said within months, parcels quickly rose to 25%, which is in line with international trends and the popularity of e-commerce. “More Batswana shopping online will be a great source of revenue for BotswanaPost. We specialise in what we call the ‘last mile’, the final link in the chain between online stores and their customers,” he said. Further, the CEO said during their financial year ended March 2017, they recorded decline in traditional mail volumes, which declined by 9.1% as many of their large institutional clients such as commercial banks, and government agencies have recently migrated to electronic platforms.
However he said as BotswanaPost, they see the setback as temporary as they now have access to leading edge innovations such as Reverse Hybrid Mail, which he said, will enable them to pivot and revive the relationships they have lost with their clients. “Through technology, we are confident in our ability to recover these income streams and grow them. Reverse Hybrid Mail will enable us to pivot and revive the relationships with important clients we served for many years while giving them the cost savings they desire,” he said. In addition he said they are aimed at increasing their revenues, which means that their mail should account for half of the Post’s revenues. To achieve this, the CEO said they have to find more proactive ways to grow the mail business.
“We have opened four new kiosks in Sefalana retail outlets to increase our reach. This has proved to be very successful so we will definitely continue to expand this partnership,” he said.
Ramatlhakwane said they are using their Commercial Postal Operator’s licence to make their presence felt in the commercial postal business landscape. He is also optimistic that all these measures will have significant impact and enable them to meet the 50% mail target.