Imagine the postman in your area bringing courier from your online shopping, where other private courier’s hesitate to deliver. With a massive reach of 150,000 post offices all-around India that has 89 percent concentration in rural areas, Indian Post can bring massive turbulence in the e-commerce market and that’s what India Post aims to do in the near future. In its path to rebirth India Post has launched two new parcel services – Express Parcel service and Business Parcel service along with Cash on Delivery (COD) option that competes directly with private courier companies mainly BlueDart, Aramex and other.

India Post Express Parcel service

India Post Express Parcel service is available for both retailers and business customers that offers fast delivery of products/parcels through air mail or any other fastest mean available. It provides Door-to-Door service with door delivery irrespective of parcels weight. In addition India Post offers Cash on Delivery for the Express parcel service with maximum consignment value up to Rs 50,000. Main advantage of this service is that parcels booked under the services will be delivered at most in 72 hours.

Looking on to the charges, Express Parcel service starts from Rs 30 for local service, Rs 50 for delivery within the sate, Rs 60 for neighboring state and Rs 80 for delivery to other sates, for items weighing up to 500 grams. For additional 500 grams up to 5 Kg rates charged from Rs 8 to Rs 20 and for every additional 500 grams above 5 Kg will be charges between Rs 10 to Rs 22.

Currently the service is available for booking and delivery in limited cities – Agra, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi (NCR), Patna, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune, Parwanoo, Shillong, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram.

India Post Business Parcel service

On the other hand India Post Business Parcel service is contractual service, designed to suit requirement of business customers. Here the minimum chargeable consignment weight is 2 Kg and up to maximum of 35 Kg and offers Door-to-Door service. Unlike Express service which currently has limited reach, Business Parcel can be booked for delivery from any Post Office in the country providing a nationwide coverage. This service also offers Cash on Delivery on consignment which provides a collection of amount up to Rs 50,000 at the time of delivery.

Tariff for Business Parcels starts at Rs 45 for local service, Rs 80 for delivery within the sate, Rs 100 for delivery in neighboring state and Rs 115 for delivery in other sates, for parcel weighing up to 2 Kg. Every additional 1 Kg up to 5 Kg with be charged with Rs 12 to Rs 30 and Every additional 1Kg above 5 Kg will be charged from Rs 14 to Rs 32 respectively.

Salient features of Express and Business Parcel service include –

Fast and secure transmission by Air mail/land

Safe and secure handling

Fast and assured Door to Door delivery

Credit facility and flexible payment option for bulk customers

Collection of Cash on Delivery

Customized key account management

Weight limit up to 35 Kg

“Many e-commerce companies have shown interest to use parcel services of India Post. They have been demanding for more value addition to existing parcel service. Hence, we are launching Express Parcel and Business Parcel service.” commented P. Gopinath, Secretary, Department of Post (DoP).

Amazon India Partnership with India Post

Another interesting news coming up is the partnership of Amazon India with India Post, who has already started a pilot testing the postal service. Through this partnership Amazon aims to reach its presence to the deepest parts of India, where only India Post have service. This will intensify competition in the emerging Indian e-commerce market now ruled by Flipkart, Snapdeal and eBay. Amazon is also told to be piloting the Cash on Delivery service through India Post which accounts for two-thirds of ecommerce transactions happening in India.

“We are trying to add capabilities like cash on delivery and reverse logistics. Consumers don’t want to make an upfront payment. We are developing software to start the cash-on-delivery service with Amazon,” a senior India Post official told Economic Times.

Currently most of the private courier companies neglect the outskirts of towns, villages and other deepest parts of India, but with the emergence of India Post that has widest reach in any part of India can bring dramatic changes to whole e-commerce industry. In addition, this partnership will also provide a rebirth for staggering 150-year-old India Post that was going down due to the country’s telecom revolution and massive internet adoption. India Post wants to be the center of Indian e-commerce revolution, so it aims to invest about Rs 100 crore in the next few years to set up warehouses for e-commerce packages.

If the plans work out for Amazon then it can reach the top of the e-commerce industry in India just like in US and for India Post it will be a new life blood.