By John Oyuke
When did you last write a letter? With electronic mail (email) becoming so popular, the pleasure of sticking a stamp and sealing an envelope full of letters for loved ones is fast fading.
The advent of new technology has pushed several traditional services to a corner one among them being the good old post boxes or letter drop boxes that have been part and parcel of our cities for around two centuries.
Gone, it appears, are those golden days when people used to demand that the Post Office mount post boxes in their locality. Indeed, the era of speedy communication gadgets like mobile and Internet have put to test the sustainability of letter-boxes.
Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) last week gave a hint of the prevailing state of affairs as new, faster ways of communicating poke holes in the postal service and life of letters.
The state-owned firm announced availability of 25,306 vacant rental letter-boxes spread out in 41 locations in Nairobi region. Acting Corporate Communications Manager, Mr Gichuki Njeru, said that the letter-boxes are up for rental to customers. Out of the total vacant rental boxes available, the recently opened Eastleigh Post Office has the highest number with 8,043 units followed by the Nairobi General Post Office with 4,700.
Nairobi region
City Square Post Office has 1,800 boxes and Jamia Post Office 1,737. Other areas with ready boxes are Village Market (602), Mobil Plaza (500), Parklands (300), Ngara (649), Embakasi (733), Kamiti (500), Enterprise Road (200), Kiambu (300), Thika (300) and Ruiru (400).
PCK’s Nairobi region covers a vast area that runs through the counties of Nairobi, Kajiado and Kiambu. According to the corporation, the rental rates are Sh4, 200 for corporate organisations and Sh1, 400 for individual customers with a one-off deposit for keys of Sh350 for both categories.
Njeru said there are letter-boxes for rental in Kajiado, Kayole, Dandora, Kitengela, Kiserian, Magadi, Makongeni, Mchumbi Road in South B, Namanga, Ngewa and Ongata Rongai.
Others boxes are located the following post offices: Madaraka, Gatundu, Kanjuku, Gatura, Gatukuyu, Ithanga, Gituamba, Kangemi, Mathare, Wangige, Lower Kabete, Kijabe, Karuri, Matathia and Githunguri.
Postal service
PCK believes though Kenyans had slowed on writing letters, a number of companies or even individuals could still utilise this postal service by posting.
Recently, PCK announced it would introduce residential letter-boxes that would enable home delivery of mail. The announcement comes against a backdrop of an emerging consensus amongst those with a direct interest in the postal service that the letters segment is now in decline. Statistics show letter volumes reached peaked in 2005 but have been declining since then.
The experience of declining volumes and demand for letter-boxes is consistent with trends in mature mail markets across the world. For instance, the US Postal Service reported a net loss of $451 million in January when mail volume declined by 1.3 per cent year-over-year to 13.7 billion pieces.
In the first four months of its 2011 fiscal year, the US Postal Service has reported a total net loss of $781 million. Total mail volume has been flat up to now, rising 0.9 per cent, according to data provided by Postal Regulatory Commission.
