Not just letters or parcels; heavy goods such as refrigerators and motorcycles are now also being delivered to customers through the postal service.
Around 400 tonnes of goods have been transported through the Bangladesh Postal Department’s Speed Post service over the past two months. The charge is Tk 10 for the first kilogram and an additional Tk 5 for each subsequent kilogram—at this rate, the Speed Post service is operating.
Director General of the Directorate of Posts, Kazi Asadul Islam, disclosed this information in a recent interview.
The Director General said that any product that is not illegal under the laws of Bangladesh can now be loaded onto postal vehicles, unloaded, and delivered by postmen. Several motorcycles have recently been sent through the postal service on a trial basis. Refrigerators, cupboards, and wardrobes have also been transported, along with large pieces of furniture. Quilts, pillows, and bedding belonging to students have also been sent through the service.
In addition, kitchen cleavers, knives, pots and pans, pressure cookers, induction cookers, LED televisions, air conditioners, bicycles, and even pesticide-spraying machines can now be sent by post.
He said that approximately 400 tonnes of goods, including seasonal fruits, have been transported through Speed Post over the past two months—items that had never previously been transported by the Postal Department. To ensure that these goods reach customers easily and in good condition, a number of additional measures have been introduced to make the service more customer-friendly.
According to the Postal Department, an online postage calculator has been launched for the convenience of customers. Through this tool, customers can find out the transportation cost of their goods in advance.
At present, goods can be transported directly from several sub-post offices in the capital, including the General Post Office (GPO), as well as offices in Gulshan, Banani, Mirpur, and Uttara. For international parcels crossing the country’s borders, the Postal Department also offers the international EMS service.
He said that the Directorate of Posts has specified detailed procedures to ensure that the service operates in an orderly manner. Goods booked through Speed Post must be prepared for delivery by the relevant post office within a maximum of 24 hours when sent from a district town to Dhaka, 48 hours when sent from one district to another, and 96 hours when sent to remote and hard-to-reach areas. However, for security reasons, certain items have been excluded from the service. Explosives and flammable substances, harmful or hazardous chemicals, narcotics, live animals, firearms, and both full and empty gas cylinders cannot be sent through Speed Post.
Asked why the service is being offered at such a low price, Kazi Asadul said, “Rather than the amount of money involved, I consider establishing connections between people to be the greater achievement. Just as a mother raises her child with great effort without expecting anything in return and finds fulfillment in the child’s well-being, the Postal Department, as a state institution, likewise finds its purpose in being able to serve the people.”
Saying that people’s confidence in the Postal Department’s services grew during the 13th National Parliamentary Election, he said that more than 1.533 million voters registered for postal voting in the last parliamentary election. From casting their votes to the delivery of the ballots to the relevant returning officers, expatriate voters received real-time messages about every stage of the process and were able to track the progress of their votes. This helped build their trust in the Postal Department.
The Director General said that this experience subsequently spread by word of mouth and through social media without any promotional campaign. Small entrepreneurs and content creators have benefited the most from the service. They themselves took the initiative to promote it.
Noting that this popularity is opening up new possibilities for the Postal Department, he said that recently a customer who was being transferred to another district expressed interest in sending all the furniture from his home through the postal service while relocating. Postal departments in many countries around the world already provide inter-district household relocation services. Bangladesh also plans to introduce such a service in the future. To this end, the necessary logistics capabilities are being developed gradually. As part of the initiative, 50 electric bikes have already been procured under an environmentally friendly project. These bikes will run on green energy.
As part of this ongoing effort to increase capacity, the Postal Department has also changed its internal work plan. The Director General said that following a day-long workshop with colleagues, a recent decision was made to make full use of the Central Mail Processing Centre in Tejgaon, Dhaka. Under this system, mail coming to Dhaka from across the country, mail going from Dhaka to different parts of the country, and mail moving within Dhaka city will all be processed at a single location. He said the initiative has already been implemented.
Saying that the current capacity of the Railway Mail Service in Kamalapur has become limited, Asadul Islam said that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the facility to handle various types of items simultaneously, such as examination answer scripts and plant seedlings. Therefore, plans have been made to expand the Dhaka GPO campus and use it exclusively for export and import parcels arriving from or destined for overseas. In this way, the Postal Department’s mail management system will operate in an integrated manner through a total of three hubs, including Tejgaon and Kamalapur.
The Director General said, “As a state institution, profit is not our primary concern. The true success of Speed Post will be measured by our ability to connect people in every corner of the country through safe and affordable services.”
It may be noted that the Speed Post service was launched as part of the government’s 180-day action plan, in coordination with the BNP’s election manifesto. Initially launched for the transportation of seasonal fruits, the service has now expanded to include the transportation of large quantities of everyday consumer goods.
