Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Courier vs. post

Courier services were started, and they thrived, thanks to the incompetence of postal services to handle growing demands. The postal department watched them grow without making any effort to improve its working. The move to throttle the courier services now, by stipulating that India Post alone can deliver mail articles weighing 300 gm and less, is unfair. Competition is elixir and the department should meet the challenge openly instead of seeking to impose restrictions on courier services.

P.J. Bagilthaya,
Bangalore

* * *

An amendment to monopolise postal services to handle covers weighing up to 300 gm is a retrograde step. If passed, it will cover the bulk of corporate and common man's mail. Can the department match the courier services, which collect mail at 6 p.m. from your house and deliver it to most destinations by 10 the next morning? They accept letters and parcels till 7.30 p.m. and sometimes beyond. The colossal impact the move will have on day-to-day transactions is unimaginable.

V. Krishnan,
Chennai

* * *

Courier services collect even single mails from doorsteps at a phone call, deliver them unfailingly the next day and provide an acknowledgement to the sender, all for a little more than postal rates. The postal department provides no comparable service. Yet it seeks to deprive the people of useful and reliable courier service without offering anything remotely similar.

N.J. Patel,
Mysore

* * *

While it is true that courier services deliver letters quickly, they cannot offer the kind of service the postal department offers. A 50-paise postcard travels to all corners of the country. Courier services operate only in select cities and towns. We should not denigrate the Indian postal service, which has a history of 150 years.

V. Pandy,
Tuticorin, T.N.

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