Bermuda Post Office and Best Express announce new mail service

Remarks by:

The Hon. Michael Scott, JP, MP
Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce

Good morning and thank you for being here:

For the past two to three decades the world’s postal system has experienced annual declines in mail volumes. These declines are due in part to the advent of the internet and electronic communications. Bermuda has been no exception and, is now seeing a general decline in business and residential mail volumes in keeping with the global trends. The Bermuda Post Office therefore is committed to further developing other lines of revenue.

Over the past two years the Bermuda Post Office (BPO) has moved to capitalize on new competitive mail service products in an effort to significantly enhance the vision of its customer outreach and increase revenue. In October 2008 we launched the track and trace system which allows our customers to track their express mail parcels and letters. The team at the Post Office did not stop there; the public will no doubt recall that as part of its ongoing commitment to offset the cost of public postal services and become more viable and competitive, September 2009 saw the launch of R-Post®. This new service allows customers to send international and local business correspondence — including invoices, contracts for signature, required notifications and general information — via e-mail with verifiable proof of message delivery, content and official time stamp. A link has been set up on the Bermuda Government website at www.gov.bm that will take members of the public directly to a co-branded web site where they can learn more about the product by live demonstration and free trial of 10 Registered Email units.

I am pleased to be here today with the Post Master General George Outerbridge, Mr. David Sousa Chief Executive Officer at Best Express and Mr. Roger Moniz the Best Express Export Manager, to announce yet another service available to Bermuda public.
The Bermuda Post Office and Best Express (BEST) have formed a public -private joint venture to expand the range of overseas parcel delivery and to provide Island wide collection points for goods purchased overseas and brought into the Island through Best Express and the Bermuda Post Office.

There currently is a great demand in Bermuda for express freight to the Island. With the advent of the Internet coupled with Bermuda’s high computer literacy and the ever increasing number of computers in our homes, the demand for goods from overseas continues to be fuelled.

Given the expertise of both entities in the delivery of parcels, there is a natural synergy for BPO and BEST to work together in order to provide a faster, easier-to-use and economical service. By taking advantage of respective industry expertise, strengths and networks, a more efficient operation can be achieved and enjoyed by both parties.

The Bermuda Post Office has an island-wide network of sub post offices for the distribution and collection of parcels which BEST does not have. The Bermuda Post Office International Data Express and Express Parcel Services, while reliable and cost effective, are reliant on a network of global postal administrations and commercial airlines and therefore do not ship or receive parcels within three days or less. BEST has a proven international shipping and cargo delivery service in place in the US, Canada and the UK, thus being able to provide the customer with a ‘local’ address to have their goods shipped to the Island overnight, or within three days or less. As you can see, this partnership simply just makes sense.

This joint venture offers our customers overnight delivery of goods from overseas through BEST and the option of collecting their packages from the General Post Office in Hamilton or the parish sub post offices. Alternatively, customers can use the current Bermuda Post Office International Data Express and Express Parcel Services as more cost effective delivery options.

The Bermuda Post Office and BEST plan to make this service option available to the public on Monday 15 February 2010.

Thank you.

Tags: Bermuda Post Office