Measures to be Implemented to upgrade Postal Service

The Post and Telecomunication Department will be implementing various initiatives, aimed at keeping the services offered by the department relevant to the needs of its stakeholders and customers.

This was disclosed by Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Julian Robinson, at the launch of the Post and Telecommunication Department’s Jamaica 50 commemorative stamps, on August 31, held at its headquarters on South Camp Road, in Kingston.

Mr. Robinson informed that the first initiative involves using different mediums to carry out the services of the department.

“By that I mean, examining new methods and new mediums by which postal services can be delivered. It can be through retail shops, it can be through hardware shops and it can be through other types of physical buildings. This is important, so that the post office is as close to its customers as possible,” the State Minister said.

The Department will also be examining the feasibility of implementing mobile postal services to serve persons, especially in rural communities.

"This is very similar to the concept of mobile libraries, where the postal service can actually go into communities to serve residents, and this is even more important in our rural areas where proximity to a post office is not as close and in our urban centres,” Mr. Robinson said.

Efforts will also be made to modernise the Department with the introduction of counter automated services, so that transactions are electronically processed from weighing packages to calculating cost and dispensing receipts.

"These are three of the initiatives that we think are critical to keeping the postal service relevant. Postal services across the world have undergone significant transformation over the last 20 to 30 years with the advent of e-commerce and by different methods through which persons can communicate,” the State Minister said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Youth and Culture, Hon. Lisa Hanna, is encouraging Jamaicans to buy the commemorative stamps, and even to keep them as souvenirs.

"I see people holding on to the $100 commemorative note and the $50; they don’t want to spend them. Many of us will not be here (in 2062), but certainly your grandchildren can hold on to it and say my grandmother gave this to me in our 50th year of independence,” she added.

For his part, Director of Post, Cecil McCain, said he hopes Jamaicans will appreciate the stamps that have been selected, and that they will use and save them as one of the commemorative items coming out of Jamaica 50.  

The commemorative stamps display the Coat of Arms and the Jamaica 50 logo. In October 31, 1671, Jamaica became the first British colony to have established a Post Office. The post office was established in the then capital, St. Jago De La Vega, or Spanish Town, as it is now known.