A Business Development Directorate was set up in 1996 with the objective of marketing and promoting premium services for meeting the needs of specific customer segments. It was reorganised into Business Development and Marketing Directorate w.e.f 1 April 2005, to provide a sharper focus on marketing of the whole continuum of postal products. A separate Parcel and Logistics Division has been created in the Business Development and Marketing Directorate w.e.f 1 April 2005 to focus attention on parcel products. Some of the premium services offered by the Department are given below:
• Speed Post: Speed Post service was introduced on 1 August 1986. Under this service, letters, documents and parcels are delivered within a given time frame failing which full refund of postage is given to the customer. The Speed Post Network comprises 163 National and 953 State Speed Post Centres. This service is also available internationally to 97 countries.An Internet based track and trace service speed net was launched on 3rd January 2002. Apart from providing tracking facility for Speed Post articles to the customers, it also provides information to the management about the quality of service, business performance, marketing customer service etc. It is now operational from all 315 National Speed Post Centres and 857 State Speed Centres.
• Business Post: The Department launched Business Post with effect from 1 January 1997 in order to meet specific needs of bulk customers for pre-mailing activities. Accordingly, it provides value addition to all traditional services offered by the Post in the form of collection, insertion, addressing, sealing, franking, etc. Recently, printing of bills, financial statements, mailers, etc., have also been included among the pre-mailing services extended to customers under Business Post.
• Bill Mail services: Bill Mail Service was introduced from 15 September 2003 to provide a cost-effective solution for mailing of periodic communication in the nature of financial statement, bills, monthly account bills or other items of similar nature, which may be posted by service providers to their customers. A National Bill Mail Service was launched in February 2005 that allows Bill Mail Service items meant for outstation destinations also to be bundled in one package, which can be sent to destination cities as Speed Post, Express Parcel Post, etc., article, on payment by the sender. The individual bills in the package are charged only at Local Bill mail service rates.
• Express Parcel Post: The Express Parcel Post seeks to provide a reliable and time bound parcel service through surface transport. It provides door-to-door delivery and VPP service upto Rs.50,000 to cater to corporate users and business establishments on contractual basis. Express Parcel Post can be booked in 163 stations in the country, where National Speed Post Centres exist.
• Logistics Post: The Gazette Notification to introduce Logistic Post as a new service was issued on 10 August 2004 and the service has already started in many postal circles. Logistics Post is designed to carry consignments from point to point without any maximum limit. Value added services like pick-up, delivery, track and trace are also being provided in Logistic Post.
• Media Post: The Department offers a unique media to help the corporate and government organisations reach potential customers through Media Post. Under this facility, customers can use the following for their branding exercise: (a) Advertisement on Post Cards, Inland Letter Cards, Aerogram and other Postal Stationery. (b) Space sponsorship options on letter-boxes.
• Retail Post: Through its vast network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices, the Department offers the facility to collect all public utility bills and sale of application forms for government and other private organisations. Sale of application forms for UPSC, etc., surveys through postmen, address verifications through postmen, collection of loan applications through postal network, etc., are some of the activities undertaken under Retail Post.
• Direct Post: Many Countries have identified Direct Marketing/Advertising mail as an important component of business mail with high potential for growth. With high economic growth, Direct Mail volumes are expected to grow significantly in India also. A service called Direct Post was introduced w.e.f. 2 June 2005 to deal with delivery of undressed mail to the doorsteps of the target population. A new Direct Post value addition has also been introduced from 18 April 2006, allowing advertising mail to be combined with transaction mail like bills, etc.
• e-Post: e-post service, launched on 30 January 2004, utilises the last mile advantage provided by the Department to enable people to send and receive message or scanned images through e-mail in all post offices in the country. People who would not normally have access to internet are able to send and receive e-mail messages without processing an e-mail ID, thereby bridging the digital divide. To make it useful for business, a corporate version of e-post was also launched on 18 October 2005, which allows simultaneous sending of e-post to a maximum of 9999 addresses.
• e-Bill Posts: A new service, called e-bill Post has been launched by the department as one of the technology enabled services for the customers. Presently this service is available at Bangalore and Kolkata and is likely to start in other cities very soon. This has been designed keeping in view the requirements of the clients. The service is useful for payment of electricity, telephone, mobile, water and other kinds of bills/dues at the Post Office counters by the users. The user can go to a nearby Post Office and pay their utility bills.
