Thai Post: Do-it-yourself Mail Kiosks On The Way

[george]

Thai post: Do-it-yourself mail kiosks on the way

Automatic machines set to end lengthy waits at offices

BANGKOK: -- Thailand Post Co will pilot an in-house automatic postal-service kiosk early next year.

Customers can use the service on a do-it-yourself basis, said Ormsin Chivapruk, Thailand Post senior executive vice president for marketing and business.

The kiosk is made up of two connected boxes. Senders weigh a parcel in a blue box and select the destination and the service types, such as express delivery.

They then pay the postal-tag fee with a Thailand Post card.

The card will be available at post offices early next year, pending the price being finalised.

A machine will then feed out the postal tag for the senders to stick on the parcel and the receipt, which can be used to claim lost items.

While paying for the stamp, the lid of a red box will open automatically and senders drop in the parcel.

A Thailand Post source said the state agency planned to install the first kiosk at its Rajdamnoen Road branch.

The kiosk costs about Bt500,000, and it is hoped to cut long queues and reflect Thailand Post’s technology-based push for a better service, the agency said.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Surapong Suebwonglee praised Thailand Post for its creativity, adding that buying a kiosk from a foreign company would have cost between Bt800,000 and Bt1 million.

Up until last year, Thailand Post was a business unit of the Communications Authority of Thailand.

Both undertook corporatisation last year, with the latter becoming CAT Telecom Co.

Thailand Post recently introduced new high-tech services, including trace and track.

That service enables customers to monitor their parcel’s real-time status from the company’s homepage.

The agency expects to bounce back from last year’s Bt1.04-billion loss, forecasting revenue of Bt12 billion this year.

--The Nation 2004-09-21