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Postmaster General: Delivery rate up, staff down

Postmaster General Wayne Smith

The Bermuda Post Office has cut staff by 15 percent, along with improving its delivery rate in recent months, according to the Postmaster General.Wayne Smith told the Hamilton Rotary Club that 85 percent of the organisation’s customers are now satisfied with its service.Mr Smith said it was no secret that recent years have seen postal services worldwide hit by a “growing deficit” from higher costs, and declining mail volumes and revenues.“The Bermuda Post Office has been no exception,” he said.“In 2009, the Post Office legislation was amended to deal with the negative effects caused by the incorrect addressing of mail. We re-enforced the requirement for numbers to be erected on buildings as well as for mailboxes and cluster boxes to be placed on premises. By delivering mail as addressed, with properly located mailboxes, the Post Office has significantly reduced the amount of time spent on trying to find the recipients of mail and has focused its efforts on providing a more complete, consistent and efficient delivery of mail.”Following the 2009’s amendments, Mr Smith said the service has also relaxed delivery policies and reduced staff, while continuing to deliver mail with minor mailing infractions, since there is now a “significantly smaller” amount of incorrectly addressed mail.Staff numbers have been cut from 232 in 2011, to 196 today, and the post office now delivers 99 percent of all mail in Bermuda within “four working days or less”.Added Mr Smith: “It should be noted here that the majority (95 percent) of this mail is delivered within one and two days.”Strides in registered mail and express freight will help support the development of local business, he said.Mr Smith also said the Bermuda Post Office has:• exceeded international delivery targets for express mail delivery products with a current on-time delivery rate of 98 percent;• consistently meets the Universal Postal Union standard of 94 percent accuracy for its parcels;• completed customer service training of staff at all levels, significantly reducing the number of complaints.• installed a point-of-sales system that automatically processes daily sales at the general post office and sub-post offices, and has greatly reduced the number of human errors.