PhilPost seeks reinvention with GPS-equipped vans

THE PINOY postman from the snail mail era gets a hi-tech upgrade. RAFFY LERMA

The Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) relaunched two of its core services on Monday in a bid to reinvent itself as not just a mail and courier service but also as a complete logistical services provider.

In a program celebrating PhilPost’s 23rd anniversary, Postmaster General Ma. Josefina dela Cruz led the relaunching of its express parcel and money remittance service, which the government corporation launched a year ago to diversify operations.

The PhilPost Express, its next-day delivery service, is expected to benefit from the arrival of dozens of new mail vans the firm procured earlier this year. The vans are equipped with global positioning system (GPS) beacons that Dela Cruz said would make the delivery service more efficient.

Dela Cruz said the GPS beacons will enable delivery drivers to check for the fastest route to a destination, while the movement of the vans will be monitored and analyzed for efficiency at a central location.

“Every second counts,” Dela Cruz said. “We cannot allow ourselves to be left behind in speed, so we added new delivery vans equipped with GPS. We believe that if we want quick service, we should have accurate time and route information so that we know how to deliver on time.”

The agency has procured 50 delivery vans for about P25 million and is expected to purchase 60 more, using funds drawn from a P91-million grant from Universal Postal Union. The new delivery vans will add to PhilPost’s transport fleet of 840 vehicles nationwide. Nathaniel R. Melican