With online orders piling
up, India Post is hiring students and the jobless to deliver goods, S.K. Sinha,
secretary at the department of post, said on Thursday.
The department recently
issued orders under which it can hire third-party persons, such as unemployed
people and students, to pick up and deliver articles from post offices, with a
12% commission for every delivery.
“If you pick up about 10
orders of about 1 kg, you can earn Rs100-250 per day,” said Sinha, adding that
the programme will also help generate employment. There’s an upper limit for
how much commission you can earn.
The outsourcing will
augment its parcel service and bring it at par with other private parcel
services that offer to pick up orders from the customer’s location.
The postal department’s
revenue from COD (cash on delivery) consignments from e-commerce majors surged
to Rs.1,300 crore in the year ending March 2016, up from Rs.500 crore in
2014-15, and just Rs.100 crore in 2013-14.
E-commerce firms availing
India Post’s services include all the major online portals such as Amazon
India, Flipkart as well as Snapdeal.
The requirements to
register for the program is an identification proof and reference from two
prominent person known to the post office, after which the third party will be
given a licence to deliver and pick up articles.
With e-commerce and
financial services expected to take off, the department is expecting earnings from
these services to help break even in the next 6-7 years.
India Post recorded a
deficit of about Rs.6,000 crore for fiscal year 2015, a 14.4% increase from a
year earlier.
The department is also
looking at revenue from its online service, e-post office, which sells
philately products as well as the newly launched bottled Gangajal, water from
the river Ganga.
There is strong demand
for Gangajal with almost all the stock sold out, added Sinha.
India Post has sold at
least 4,000 bottles of Gangajal, considered holy by Hindus, from its post
offices and online and has witnessed strong demand from southern states such as
Tamil Nadu.
“While India Post doesn’t
generate any profit from the Gangajal program, it does create a lot of goodwill
for the department, which in turn can help attract users for its speed post and
banking services,” Sinha said.
Source : Live Mint