Cambodia Post (CP) has imposed more stringent time demands for its domestic Express Mail Service (EMS) across its branches to carve a larger slice of the local market and offset the Covid-19 pandemic’s toll on international postage services, the state-owned enterprise said in a notice on March 19.
CP director-general Ork Bora said in the notice that EMS mail to and from Phnom Penh, as well as between adjacent provinces or those linked by national road must be delivered within 24 hours.
EMS mail between provinces that passes through Phnom Penh must be delivered within 48 hours, or three days for the to-the-door registered mail service, for which recipients must sign, he said.
The notice ordered all CP branches to notify logistics centres when mail is headed their way so that they can prepare the necessary vehicles from prompt delivery.
“All CP [logistics] centre directors and branch managers must implement this instruction in a highly effective and responsible manner,” the notice directed.
Online retailer Thong Sreyleak noted that the majority of her customers prefer Virak Buntham Express Tour & Travel, J&T Express Cambodia and Capitol Tours Cambodia for package delivery.
“Most ship their orders through these companies because their services are fast and they accept mail or packages to anywhere. I’ve noticed that a good number of them don’t seem to have caught on that CP offers delivery services to the provinces,” she said.
Bora told reporters in January that CP was liaising with private partners to improve its shipping services and promote the use of domestic delivery services.
He made the comment after revealing that the state-owned enterprise had logged $6.5 million in revenue for 2020, which he noted was a 46 per cent drop from the $13 million posted in the previous year.
He ascribed the decrease to CP’s suspension of international mail from March-July, which he said was reinstated on August 1.
The mail service provider handles 1.5 million packages each year and is 95 per cent dependent on international services, he said.
“To consolidate revenue, we’ll claim a slice of the local market and work hard to find postal service workers to collect, sort and deliver our mail. And we’ll need to further enhance the logistics infrastructure,” Bora said.
