E-mails, virtual cards still no rival for the ol' snail mail
Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
There are several old customs that are never missed when one speaks of traditions to mark the Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year holidays. One of the must-dos is sending greeting cards to family, friends and acquaintances.
If that were not the case, why haven't people moved away from the old snail mail tradition to more practical and sophisticated ways of sending greeting cards like the use of Internet virtual cards and the cellular phones' SMS (short message service) to send a few lines of seasons greetings to others?
If the popularity of posted greeting cards had diminished, postmen could take respite from their tiring job and gather with their families like everyone else to celebrate the festive season.
The secretary of the Jakarta central post office Baharuddin estimated that there would be a 20 percent increase in mail to be handled during this holiday season.
He estimated that there would be almost 58 million letters and other mail to be sent from Greater Jakarta from Nov. 16 to Jan. 15, 2002, while more than 64 million letters would be received from outside the area.
Last year, during a one month period in the peak season, the office recorded 24,124,864 letters sent and 26,676,677 received.
"With the amount to be delivered, it means our work is doubled and we have to delay our holidays," Baharuddin said.
In certain sections like the delivery unit, sorting unit and other direct customer services, the employees would have to postpone their holidays.
To cope with the extra work, the post office which is located on Jl. Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta has recruited some 90 high school students who are on holidays, and former employees of the state-owned postal company to work during the peak season.
The casual staff are paid Rp 13,500 per day.
The state-owned postal company itself has 6,664 employees in Greater Jakarta.
"For us the most tiring work in the office is sorting the thousands of letters according to the suburbs like Menteng, Kebayoran Baru and others. We still have to do it manually because people rarely put zip codes on their address," Baharuddin said.
"It would really help us if people put zip codes on their address so that our electronic sorting machine could sort them," Baharuddin claimed.
The sorting process then continues according to more specific coordinates like the name of the street or the area, and at this stage, the work should be done by experienced post office employees and not the casual workers because it requires detailed knowledge of the areas.
After the sorting process, the mail will be placed in different bags.
"The delivery unit will take the bags of mail according to their assigned areas so none will have trouble delivering the mail to the right address. It saves time too," Baharuddin said.
The postmen, from the delivery unit, usually start work at 8 a.m. and work until 4 p.m., delivering around 200 to 400 letters a day.
"Probably, they will start a bit late on the first day of Idul Fitri. Some may need to perform the Idul Fitri prayer," he said, adding that the delivery might also be late on Christmas Day as some of the postmen are Christians.