Jamaica Post Moving to Boost Competitiveness

Amid heightened competition from courier companies, Jamaica Post is looking to implement measures that will boost competitiveness and ensure the sustainability of its operations.

This was disclosed by Postmaster General, Lincoln Allen, during an interview with journalists following the opening ceremony for the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Postal Leaders Forum at the ROK Hotel in downtown Kingston on Tuesday (July 15).

The forum, being held from July 15 to 17 under the theme ‘Postal Digitalisation, Integration and Innovation: Sustainable Growth Boosters for SIDS’, is expected to attract participants from at least 30 countries.

“We are meeting to see how best we can compete, [how] we can mitigate these challenges, share ideas [and] look at what is happening in different jurisdictions, to see how they have overcome some of those challenges,” Mr. Allen shared.

He pointed out that focusing solely on mail services is no longer viable, given the proliferation of instant communication platforms.

“People are moving away from sending mail… but what they cannot move away from is sending parcels. When you look at the statistics over time, maybe the last five to 10 years, you will see that there’s an exponential increase, in terms of the movement of packages globally and a significant decrease in terms of mail,” the Postmaster General explained.

He stated that the postal service, which has relied on the movement of mail for decades, must now pivot by embracing technology and shifting its focus to the movement of packages.

“So it’s our time now to transition, to pivot, to use technology, to build the strategic partnerships with even the private sector… in getting a full understanding of how these packages move and what is convenient to the customers, understanding the customers’ taste, looking at the market segment and doing some amount of analysis so we can compete and survive,” Mr. Allen stated.

He cited the recently introduced ZipMail and Klick ‘N’ Ship services as key examples of Jamaica Post’s thrust to modernise its service offerings.

ZipMail is a local express courier service that offers next-business-day delivery through Jamaica Post locations islandwide. Customers can choose from a range of delivery options, including Post to Post, Post to Door, Door to Post or Door to Door.

Klick ‘N’ Ship, on the other hand, allows customers to shop online and ship their packages to a tax-free address in the United States, for forwarding to Jamaica.

“While the products are good, we have seen fluctuations in terms of the performance, especially for ZipMail, which is our next-day courier service. But in terms of our Click ‘N’ Ship service, which is an online service, where you buy from Amazon, Shein, eBay and these e-commerce platforms, we are seeing incremental increases over time,” the Postmaster General shared.

Meanwhile, he indicated that Jamaica Post will be looking to improve key post offices across the island.

“I believe that we have not been leveraging the post offices enough, because the truth of the matter is, the post office is a part of the economic lifeline of many communities. A lot of the post offices have been in a dilapidated state for many years, and persons don’t use them,” Mr. Allen pointed out.

To address this issue, he said Jamaica Post, in partnership with the National Identification System (NIDS), will renovate 23 post offices across the island.

The renovations will see the locations benefiting from enhanced aesthetics, increased access to technology such as computers, and expanded commercial services.

Mr. Allen pointed out that the Central Sorting Office (CSO) in Kingston will serve as a benchmark for the renovations, having recently undergone a major transformation that involved the introduction of technological solutions to automate several key processes and improve service delivery.

He emphasised that Jamaica Post is evolving incrementally and that its leaders “understand that there is a need to change”.

“That is why over the last three to four years, we have been facilitating more conferences so people can come to Jamaica, they can share their ideas and we can have access to new thought processes, new technologies and engage in new discourse so we can reposition, we can pivot [and] we can inform different strategies, going forward,” the Postmaster General added.