Rain or shine?

From Bisnis Indonesia

Writers of letters to newspaper editors have often complained about the slowness of PT Pos Indonesia. Including the postal code as recommended by the postal service does not seem to help speed up the delivery.

Slow delivery of letters harms customers -- a prospective student may be late for registration because he has received the notification of his admission too late, a job applicant may miss his chance of being hired by a company because the application letter arrived one week late.

I once sent a letter from Jakarta to Bogor. After two weeks I met the person I had sent the letter to. He had not received my letter.

It took one month for a Rp 300 letter to get from Jakarta to Kudus in Central Java (Jan.25 to Feb.23). An express letter sent the same distance had not reached the addressee in two weeks. The service is better the other way, it took only four days for an express letter from Kudus to get to Jakarta.

Is it because large quantities of mail are handled by a relatively small staff? If so, I propose PT Pos Indonesia hire additional staff. With the increased volumes of mail PT Pos Indonesia should be in a position, with its increased revenues, to expand its staff in order to improve on its services. If deliveries continue at this slow pace, the public will gradually lose its trust in the postal services.

SURYANTO WIBOWO

Bekasi, West Java