Phuket Opinion: Housing Boom Making Snail Mail Slower

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Phuket Opinion: Housing boom making snail mail slower
Phuket Gazette


The volume of mail being delivered by the Rawai Post Office has increased so much that postal workers having to working on Sundays, too.

Boonsong Maneechai, 52, from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, served as Postmaster of the Thaweewong Post Office in Patong for four years before becoming the Postmaster of the Rawai Office in 2009. Here, he talks about why the residents of Rawai and Chalong have been experiencing mail delivery delays, and outlines the steps he is taking to correct the problem.

PHUKET: -- The number of housing estates, condominiums, resorts and hotels in Rawai and Chalong has grown dramatically recently and we are now responsible for about 35,000 addresses. The rapid development of the area has created a lot of challenges for us and has slowed down delivery times.

In big housing estates such as Phuket Villa or Patak Villa, there are so many houses that it takes a long time to deliver the mail. In some condominiums, postmen have to go upstairs to distribute the mail to each condo in the building.

Another problem is numbering. Some house numbers are not in order – a house that should be located next to another house is on the other side of the road instead, and some houses don’t have numbers at all. Both of these cases lead to confusion and slow the delivery process.

Many foreigners and Thais in the area are well-off, so stores and malls target them and send brochures to promote their goods. The volume of this type of [junk] mail keeps growing.

There is a geographic problem, too – some neighborhoods in Chalong and Rawai are on hills, and it takes the postman a long time to travel there.

One of our postmen devised a solution. A few months ago, he talked to the owner of the Chalong Center Condominium and asked him if he (the owner) could provide a mailbox for all the condos at the entrance of the building so that he would not have to go upstairs to deliver the mail.

The condo owner was very helpful, and agreed. Now the postman can quickly deliver the mail to the residents there. This solution also helps protect the mail, because the postman no longer has to leave his motorcycle unattended before going upstairs.

If other places set up similar systems, residents would get their mail faster.

The other big problem is that we have only 13 postmen. For the past two months we’ve worked on Sundays to deliver mail that we couldn’t deliver during the week.

When we announce a vacancy, only a few people are interested and most of them quit after a few days.

It is quite hard work and we can’t offer them government benefits until they’ve worked here for three years and passed a test.

A postman who is not a permanent officer receives 350-400 baht per day, a budget for three liters of gas, and 20 baht per day for motorcycle maintenance, since they have to use their own motorbike.

I have asked the Regional Postal Bureau (Region 8) to raise the daily wage and to allow new staff to take the test to be permanent staff after just one year.

If they approve this, I am sure more people will be interested in working with us.

We’ve already seen one improvement – the Regional Postal Bureau has increased our budget so we can hire more staff. We hired two new postmen in January and we are going to get four more soon. I hope this will help us do our job better.

Anyone who has delayed or missing mail, please come to see me at the Rawai Post office or call 076-381393.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/Phuket-Opinion-Housing-boom-making-snail-mail-slower-20567.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2013-03-21

[Jimi007]

Oh, so that's why it took 6 weeks to get a letter from the US Embassy in Bangkok to my house in Rawai?

[D Vince]

I really don't know why anyone would complain about the Thai post (Especially in the Rawai Office)

I go there almost every day, as well as receive regular mail parcels from overseas.

in the last year and a half and about 2-3000 packages mailed from there I have had 4 lost.

all of them were lost by the UK postal system, the Thai post on the other hand has been nothing but helpful, and hasnt even misplaced one.

The only slow mail I have encountered in the last few years was with 3BB internet bills, but I just go on-line and pay them.

why when there are so many areas that need improvement here would anyone focus on one area that is doing a great job with very few resources?

[Jimi007]

I really don't know why anyone would complain about the Thai post (Especially in the Rawai Office)

I go there almost every day, as well as receive regular mail parcels from overseas.

in the last year and a half and about 2-3000 packages mailed from there I have had 4 lost.

all of them were lost by the UK postal system, the Thai post on the other hand has been nothing but helpful, and hasnt even misplaced one.

The only slow mail I have encountered in the last few years was with 3BB internet bills, but I just go on-line and pay them.

why when there are so many areas that need improvement here would anyone focus on one area that is doing a great job with very few resources?

That's great that you go there almost everyday, that's why you get your mail. I've lived in the same house in Rawai for 7 years and my mail was always delivered timely. Now it's lucky to see the postman once a month... Six weeks for a letter from Bangkok, which cost me a lot of money because of it's delay is unacceptable IMHO... Although I do see the EMS mail delivery at least once a week though. Too bad the US Embassy was too cheap to pay the bit extra for that service.

[JetsetBkk]

I really don't know why anyone would complain about the Thai post (Especially in the Rawai Office)

I go there almost every day, as well as receive regular mail parcels from overseas.

in the last year and a half and about 2-3000 packages mailed from there I have had 4 lost.

all of them were lost by the UK postal system, the Thai post on the other hand has been nothing but helpful, and hasnt even misplaced one.

The only slow mail I have encountered in the last few years was with 3BB internet bills, but I just go on-line and pay them.

why when there are so many areas that need improvement here would anyone focus on one area that is doing a great job with very few resources?

Woah, boy! You've been a member since 2005 and have made 10 posts. You really need to slow up a bit.

I tend to get one delivery a week - usually a bunch of mail (for people that left my place over a year ago) held together with an elastic band.

And no matter how many times I go to Rawai P.O. and ask them to return it to the sender, I get more each month. I've got a small stack waiting to give back to them now.

Maybe that's the problem - mail for people who came here on holiday and have gone back home.

[dighambara]

The Thai postal system is much like the police system. No incentives and low pay.

Add in that Thai addresses confuse everyone and you have a mess.

About 40 years ago, I had an appointment for a job interview. I had the address and the taxi dropped me in the area, but it took a 20 minute search to discover that addresses was not sequential - 3005 was not between 3000 and 3010, but a mile farther on... Across the street was a completely different sequential group..

Thailand should upgrade all addresses to a simple numerical progression, rather than first come, first served.

Franklin's method of even numbers on one side and odd numbers on the other, with each block having the same base number makes finding an address easy.

[lavender19]

I never had a problem in Rawai.I think it's amazing how those post men even find half the addresses because I have not got a clue how the numbering system works here.

[Guest]

That's great that you go there almost everyday, that's why you get your mail. I've lived in the same house in Rawai for 7 years and my mail was always delivered timely. Now it's lucky to see the postman once a month... Six weeks for a letter from Bangkok, which cost me a lot of money because of it's delay is unacceptable IMHO... Although I do see the EMS mail delivery at least once a week though. Too bad the US Embassy was too cheap to pay the bit extra for that service.

Maybe for time being you could think of getting an PO box? Those cost few hundred bahts per year.

I have one and go to check the mail every few months. Sometimes more frequent if I'm waiting for specific mail.

For what it's worth, the service at the Thalang post office has been great.

[Jimi007]

That's great that you go there almost everyday, that's why you get your mail. I've lived in the same house in Rawai for 7 years and my mail was always delivered timely. Now it's lucky to see the postman once a month... Six weeks for a letter from Bangkok, which cost me a lot of money because of it's delay is unacceptable IMHO... Although I do see the EMS mail delivery at least once a week though. Too bad the US Embassy was too cheap to pay the bit extra for that service.

Maybe for time being you could think of getting an PO box? Those cost few hundred bahts per year.

I have one and go to check the mail every few months. Sometimes more frequent if I'm waiting for specific mail.

For what it's worth, the service at the Thalang post office has been great.

Why? The OP says: "Anyone who has delayed or missing mail, please come to see me at the Rawai Post office or call 076-381393." I guess I'll call and next time I'm expecting something. I talked with the EMS Postman and asked him where was the regular postman? I hadn't seen him in a month, in Thai. My mail arrived a day later and it was postmarked over a month before!

I have a mailbox at my house. There was never a problem for many years, until just recently. That is what the OP article is about. Why should I have to drive 15 minutes each way to pick up mail that always has been and should be delivered to my house?

[Guest]

It was just an solution suggestion if you are having problems with your mails and loosing money due that.

Every now and then we have to find alternative routes to get what we want. If reporting the problem to the post office fixes this, then obviously you don't need an PO box. If it does not fix, then that's one option.

[Jimi007]

It was just an solution suggestion if you are having problems with your mails and loosing money due that.

Every now and then we have to find alternative routes to get what we want. If reporting the problem to the post office fixes this, then obviously you don't need an PO box. If it does not fix, then that's one option.

Thank you... It's not usually a problem. This January through February it became one. I emailed the Embassy and they said the letter had been sent weeks ago, yet didn't arrive, nor did my usual bills. I won't go into the details, but it annoyed me enough to contact my US Congressman, who has contacted the Embassy with my concerns... Then I contact the Rawai post office as well. This month my bills arrived again on time, so there was a problem with the local delivery here in Rawai during the peak high season. No wonder with what little they pay the postal delivery guys that have to provide their own motorbikes and get paid ฿350 a day!

[Soupdragon]

I wish Pizza delivery was half as reliable as the postman, they always get lost on route to my house.

[harrry]

he House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday signed off on a proposal to phase out door-to-door mail delivery that would save the money-losing U.S. Postal Service billions of dollars every year.

The plan calls for ending doorstep delivery to the 37 million customers who still get it, and making everyone (with possible case-by-case exceptions) pick up their mail at boxes in neighborhood clusters or at the curb.

http://theweek.com/article/index/247405/should-the-us-postal-service-stop-delivering-mail-to-your-door

Maybe we should consider ourselves lucky we get door to door service.