News
 Global
Postal Update: Intelligent Letter Boxes
Saudi Arabia’s public postal operator, the Saudi
Post Corporation, which may soon be privatized, is
responsible for one of the Middle East’s most
innovative transformation projects, modernizing its
various sectors of activity, and providing
door-to-door delivery.
Until now, the 842 million items sent annually have
been delivered to post office boxes located near the
addressees. Thanks to the Wasel project, most homes
in the Kingdom will be allocated an address, and
then provided with a home letter box. A million
boxes have already been installed since 2006, and
another five million are in the pipeline. And the
special thing about them is that they have all been
fitted with an RFID chip containing the exact
address of the box.
Before delivering the mail, the postman uses a hand
scanner to check that the address of the box
corresponds to the one shown on his scanner; and in
the case of EMS items or registered mail, the system
even becomes interactive, sending the addressee
email notification of the arrival of an individual
item. Staff have been trained to make the best use
of this new technology.
As Dr. Usamah M.S. Altaf, Saudi Post’s deputy
chairman, puts it: “We can already say that the
initial response of our customers and staff is very
positive. The use of RFID labels has made the
introduction of this new delivery system far easier,
and greatly reduced the margin of error.”
The Post also plans to fit its postal vehicles with
RFID labels to monitor arrivals and departures at
its various sorting and delivery centres.
---Sources:
Reported by Bob Hull, director of business
development at Melissa Data, and written by Laurent
Widmer of Union Postale Magazine (UPM).
|
|
|
Melissa Data
|
 |
| Enhance your
website, software or database with
easy-to-integrate data quality programming tools
and web services. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Save money on postage using leading
mail preparation software and other
direct marketing products. |
|
|
|
|
 |
Update & standardize addresses and
find out more about contacts in your
database.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Find new customers perfect for your
business with our online and
specialty mailing lists.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Locate the business information you
need such as ZIP Codes, address
verification, maps.
|
|
|
|
|
Facebook
Twitter
