ISLAMABAD: With online shopping finally making inroads in Pakistan, a number of people have lost money trying to shop online, and many business owners have lost their products, because they expect customers to pay after delivery.

The Pakistan Post has attempted to resolve the problem by introducing the UMS-Cash on Delivery (COD) service. People can now sell their products through the Pakistan Post, with a guarantee that they will not lose their earnings.

Pakistan Post’s endeavour is part of several measures taken by the department to adopt modern technology and ways of doing business. However, in the case of the Post, the step was mainly taken to come out of a deficit.

An official from the Pakistan Post, who is not authorised to speak on the record, said there are 47,000 employees working in the department.

“But as much as 79pc of the department’s resources are being spent on operational costs. The issue of Pakistan Post’s continuous losses has been taken up a number of times in Senate and National Assembly standing committees,” he said.

Service hopes to revive department, as well as reassure online shoppers and sellers

“Private courier services, which are our competitors, have been adopting modern techniques and ways of business, due to which the scope and space of business for the Pakistan Post is continuously shrinking,” the official explained.

He said the step was taken to make the department profitable.

“Hopefully we will be able to save the future of the 47,000 employees,” he said.

Assistant deputy director general, Pakistan Post, Zakirullah Khan told Dawn that the department’s management had decided to adopt modern techniques after decades of little to no change to the department’s operations, in order to compete with private companies.

Mr Khan said: “Our share in the market will definitely increase after this step because people trust government departments more. We are also moving to provide online shopping facilities.”

International Post Service director Mohammad Zaheer said the UMS-COD service has been introduced at 226 post offices across the country.

He explained: “Now people and business professionals can hand their products over at the post office. Not only will their products be dispatched to the customers, the cost will also be collected from the customer and handed over to the seller.”

“Customers and sellers will receive information about deliveries through SMS, so they will remain aware of the status of their products and they can collect their amount as soon as the customer pays [it].”

According to an official statement from the Pakistan Post, the department is moving increasingly into the field of electronic services, and the launch of the UMS-COD service is a big step taken by the department to compete with private courier services.

The service was launched by communications ministry secretary Shahid Ashraf Tarar.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2016