BPS must move with times

The days of the Barbados Postal Service could be numbered if its employees are unable to adapt to a changing environment, in which traditional postal services are slowly becoming  obsolete.

As the posting of letters lessens and the delivery of bills moves online, Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams challenged workers to rise to the occasion and propel the government department to become the number one option for more contemporary services like the delivery of packages.

“Few can argue that modern communication technologies have not impacted on the mail industry. Customers are increasingly moving from letters to packets and parcels. Bill payments are going online, pensioners now need to have bank accounts. These remain critical aspects of the postal business, but the question is, for how much longer?” asked Abrahams.

“Before, when you thought about the post or the Barbados post office, you thought about the sale of stamps, the delivery of letters. You thought about things like that. But the postal service has moved so far beyond that, that if we stick there, we are going to die as a postal service.

“Most bills are delivered online by email, most payments can be made online, our additional operations, while not irrelevant now, are swiftly drifting in the direction of irrelevance. So what do we do? We can shut up shop or we can look at ways to re-imagine what we can do for Barbados,” he added.

The Home Affairs minister was addressing postal workers at the General Post Office at Cheapside, St Michael as two electric vehicles were handed over to the organisation.

Abrahams said the government could not continue to subsidise operations at entities like the postal service. Instead, he said the organisation would need to take on the character of a business as opposed to a mere department of government.

But according to 2019 statistics, they are now competing with a glut of approximately 30 couriers, many of whom are already thriving in the digital environment.

“Government cannot keep subsidising all of its operations. It makes no practical sense. So [Acting Postmaster General] Ms [Joanne] Busby, you are now effectively the CEO of the Postal Service and all of you here are service professionals and you need to act as such,” said Minister Abrahams.

“We need to figure out exactly what Barbados needs. We need to figure out what our niche is and we need to deliver on that better than what anybody else in Barbados can. That way, the postal service and the courier express becomes the service of choice, not because it is cheaper, not because the government is subsidising it, not because we have more buildings, but because we provide the [best] service.

“This means taking stock, recalibrating the organisation, moving from an administrative to an entrepreneurial culture, growing financial services, ensuring consistent branding among many initiatives. So the future focus will be more on parcels rather than letters in order to tap into the lucrative, global e-commerce market as well as being more customer-centric,” he added.

Currently, the Post Express, which is the courier arm of the BPS, delivers same-day service for the Immigration Department, the Barbados Licensing Authority, QEH pharmacy, and the US Embassy.

But Minister Abrahams underscored the need to improve simple areas like customer service and pointed to the transformation of the Immigration Department as an example.

Last year, the government approved a transformation plan for the BPS following warnings from consultants that failure to upgrade its operations could seriously affect the organisation’s outlook.

On April 15, the BPS will celebrate 170 years of service to the people of Barbados.

According to Abrahams, the gradual transition to renewable energy for its vehicle fleet is symbolic of the BPS’ intention to change with the times.

“What we are doing here signifies our going with the times, in that we are moving to electric in keeping with global trends and in keeping with what makes sense. Let all of the operations of this entity, all of the approaches of every department in this entity, also move with the times,” said Abrahams.(KS)