What you need to know
Post offices are facing the challenge of transformation and reconstruction as new ways of transportation are threatening traditional postal services. Bloomberg reports, many countries have closed as many of their brick-and-mortar post offices as possible, moving these services into gas stations and convenience stores.
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Chunghwa Post announces that starting from February 1, 2016, all the post offices, except for the Taipei’s Palace Museum Branch and Chiayi’s Alishan Branch, will be closed on Sundays.
Apple Daily reports, Chunghwa Post said that in consideration of giving employees more time to rest, as well as according to the weekend-off policy that will be implemented next year, they have started to assess the cancellation of services on Sundays.
Each post office gets an average of two hundred customers every Sunday. It’s estimated that around 12,000 citizens will be affected by the new policy.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je says that nowadays the Internet is well developed; there is e-mail, LINE and other means of communication as well as e-commerce. He says with the changing times, post offices should have disappeared from the earth a long time ago. Ko suggests re-innovating post offices assets for future establishments.
Meanwhile, post offices are facing the challenge of transformation and reconstruction as new ways of transportation are threatening traditional postal services. Bloomberg reports, many countries have closed as many of their brick-and-mortar post offices as possible, moving these services into gas stations and convenience stores.
The Swedish Postal Service, Posten, has abandoned brick-and-mortar post offices since 2001 and integrated postal services into local supermarkets and convenience stores. In 2009, Posten merged with the Danish postal service Post Danmark, forming PostNord in order to counter declining mail volume by expanding the logistics business.
Daily Mail reports, in the UK, hundreds of small town and village post offices are being closed as officials cut costs. Their services are moved to supermarkets, petro stations and even pet shops to replace dedicated branches.
More than 4,000 of Britain’s 11,500 post offices have already switched to this new model, working from a single till point either in their original branch, or inside another shop. The Post Office claims this latter option will ensure a long-term future for struggling branches, because customers will be more inclined to spend money on services while doing their shopping.
Bloomberg reports, many countries used their extra cash to create digital mail products that allow customers to send and receive letters from their computers.
Itella, the Finnish postal service, keeps a digital archive of its users’ mail for seven years and helps them pay bills online securely. Swiss Post lets customers choose if they want their mail delivered at home in hard copy or scanned and sent to their preferred Internet-connected device. Customers can also tell Swiss Post if they would rather not receive items such as junk mail.
Sweden’s Posten has an app that lets customers turn digital photos on their mobile phones into postcards. It is also unveiling a service that will allow cell-phone users to send letters without stamps. Posten will text them a numerical code that they can jolt down on envelopes in place of a stamp for a yet-to-be-determined charge.
Translated and compiled by Vic Chiang
Edited by Olivia Yang
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