Post office to introduce daily deliveries in an effort to meet EU standards

IN AN effort to meet European Union obligations, the government has decided to upgrade the Postal Services in order to make them more competitive and productive. The changes will include faster postal deliveries as well as the introduction of new services.
Following a series of visits to various postal district offices in Limassol on Thursday, Communication Minister Kikis Kazamias announced the Post Office would develop into a semi-governmental organisation. The objective was to ensure that postal services are able to offer greater flexibility and hence have greater potential and ability to compete with the private sector once the service is liberalised, he said.
However, Kazamias reassured postal workers that the government was not moving towards privatising post offices and merely called on them to show greater zeal and cooperation to improve their services.
Postal Services head Vassos Vassiliou said the move would make the postal service more independent. “We will be more autonomous and flexible,” he said.
The EU has specified that delivery services need to be improved, that deliveries must be made five times a week and that postal services should be set at affordable prices, said Vassiliou.
“We have some problems with our distribution at the moment and we must start improving it.” The goal is to achieve the highest possible percentage of all internal post deliveries within 24 hours, although the EU has allowed a 10 per cent margin for slower deliveries. “Post from abroad, particularly EU countries, will be delivered within three days from the day it was posted, or one day from the day of arrival at Larnaca airport.” Parcel delivery services are also set to improve.
“I believe we will be able to cope with the changes. We have the necessary technology and the infrastructure to do so,” he said.
Nevertheless, under certain weather conditions, such as extreme rain, post will still fail to arrive. The logic behind this move is simple: postmen do not have postal delivery cars and so they would get drenched in the showers if they carried on working on their mopeds.
“If the weather doesn’t allow for postal delivery services then it won’t be delivered in a day. However, weather conditions in Cyprus are good and so we rarely have such days,” said Vassiliou. Post will not be delivered at the weekend, he added.
The government has already taken into account the need for more staff, Vassiliou said. “By the end of the year, 30 more postmen will be hired and in 2004, a further 29 will be taken on.” Initially, they would be hired on a one-year contract basis and then made permanent when the need arises, he said.
The Postal Services are also planning to introduce new services, Vassiliou said.
“The primary service we are planning on undertaking is an internal courier service.” He said such a service already existed for outgoing overseas mail and now it was time to create one for mail within Cyprus. “This is our priority at the moment. (But) we don’t yet have a schedule for when it will be up and running.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.