The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : SMS mooted for LPG home delivery

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Sunday, May 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

SMS mooted for LPG home delivery

Delivery hassles: The gas cylinder delivery boy on one of his rounds.

HYDERABAD: The shortage of cooking gas cylinders for domestic use is putting families to severe hardship. And, the misery compounds for working couples away in their offices when delivery boys of the gas agencies come to their houses with the cylinders.

The absence of anyone at home to receive the cylinder enables delivery boys to ascribe “door lock” status to the service. The consumer is thus forced to book the cylinder for the second time if the door is found locked for three visits. This problem will soon be a thing of the past if the plans of the Civil Supplies Department bear fruit.

It has decided to utilise the Short Messaging Service (SMS) facility to ensure that consumers are not denied timely delivery of cylinders owing to the “door lock” issue. Delivery boys will henceforth inform the dealer about the “door lock” houses from the consumers’ place itself.

The dealer will, in turn, send an SMS to the consumers’ mobile informing him/her about the visit of the delivery boy. He will also communicate the next date of delivery and ask them to make sure that they take the gas cylinder.

Allegations to rest

Once operational, the system will put an end to complaints that delivery boys are selling cylinders at a premium on the pretext that the consumer is not found at home.

“We proposed to extend the facility to all services, but the proposal was dropped due to the uncertainty over the volume of SMS’ required to be sent every day,” Chief Rationing Officer of Hyderabad D. S. Lokesh Kumar told The Hindu.

The new system will be introduced with immediate effect, but it will take a fortnight for the agents to streamline the information about the consumers in their respective jurisdiction for sending communications, he added.

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