Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh Post Office has seen a sharp rise in the volume of goods carried through its services, with 329 tonnes transported in the first three months of this year against 243 tonnes in the corresponding period last year, an increase of nearly 33 percent.
Zakir Hasan Noor, Additional Director General (Postal Services), Directorate of Posts, said the increase is being driven in part by small entrepreneurs, including those working with garments and small industries, who are sending more goods through the postal service.
He said the postal department is encouraging such entrepreneurs to use its services for exports and providing them with overall support. The department’s rates are cost-based and low, he said, which has encouraged more people to use the service after becoming aware of its facilities.
The growth comes as the department is also trying to make parcel services easier to track. A track-and-trace system is now in operation through its domestic mail monitoring software. Once an item is issued, the sender receives an SMS containing a checking link, allowing the sender to see where the letter, product or parcel is as it moves through different stages.
Zakir Hasan Noor said the department is providing parcel and other services with facilities similar to those of courier services, including through EMS and other postal services.
He said the postal service is facilitating exports by small entrepreneurs, who can send goods commercially up to a certain level, while the department is encouraging and providing overall support to them. He said entrepreneurs can further expand their exports by completing the necessary customs procedures.
The department is also contacting several institutions involved in sending goods from Bangladesh and taking steps to work with them. At present, incoming parcels are higher, with many parcels arriving from Alibaba and Chinese websites, he said.
Internationally, the postal department now has EMS services with 52 countries. Australia, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are among the destinations where significant volumes of parcels are being sent from Bangladesh.
Zakir Hasan Noor said parcels are generally delivered within eight to 10 days, although customs issues in Bangladesh or the destination country can sometimes add another three or four days.
The department is also looking to use artificial intelligence to improve how it manages mail movement. Zakir Hasan Noor said the DMS software is being combined with reporting software to monitor mail operations and analyse data on which vehicle carries which product and when.
Such data will help determine how efficient a route is and whether additional vehicles are needed, he said.
The existing DMS already allows the department to know how many bags have been prepared at Dhaka GPO on a particular day and how many are expected to arrive the following day. Railway Mail Service and sorting and processing offices can also see how many bags they need to handle and arrange manpower, vehicles and any additional vehicles accordingly.
He said the department’s approach to AI will be a hybrid one, combining AI-generated suggestions based on data with the postal service’s long experience and practical knowledge of transportation.
The department’s experience in handling postal ballots also demonstrated the importance of combining technology with practical decisions, he said.
Zakir Hasan Noor said the postal ballot operation was a completely new task for the department and involved processing 1.5 million data records and printing two envelopes for each voter within a short period. The two types of envelopes also had to be synchronised so that a voter’s own address, the address to which the ballot was sent and the voter’s constituency information matched correctly.
He said the department had to make changes throughout the process based on practical experience and carried out the work carefully.
Alongside mail tracking and operational technology, the department has started a project for digital postal boundary and address management. The project began this year and its software is expected to be developed within the next year, he said.
Zakir Hasan Noor said the project involves more than software development, as entering data for every address is also a major issue. Work on the matter has already begun.
Once the system is fully digitalised, AI-based decision-making will become more accurate and the department will be able to identify easier and faster routes for moving mail, he said, adding that the department expects to see a good result within the next financial year.
The postal department’s recent experience with international postal ballots also demonstrated its delivery capacity. Zakir Hasan Noor said the department had only one month to send ballots and letters from Bangladesh to the concerned countries. The recipients received them and completed the process after the election manifesto was issued and candidates were allocated symbols.
He said the department was able to send 100 percent of the returned letters and ballots to the returning officer within the stipulated time, providing the service within seven days.
