E-service to show mailbox content via smartphone

Dubai: Residents will be able to decide whether a trip to the post office is needed or not through a new e-service that will allow customers to view a scanned picture of the letters they have in their mailbox, an Emirates Post Group officer said during a media briefing held yesterday.

Ebrahim Bin Karam Chief Commercial Officer at Emirates Post Group, said that an executive committee is currently working on the service, which will be launched in the first quarter of 2014.

“All the letters will go through an ‘Ebox’ scanner that will scan the outer content of the letter. The customers can then access the scanned image on their computers or smart phones and judge whether it is an important letter or not.

According to Bin Karam, the launch of the new service came in light of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision to transform all governmental services into smart ones.

The new e-service will also allow customers to track their mail, renew their PO Box and identify post office locations.

During the briefing, Bin Karam also spoke about the Emirates Post Group’s accomplishments as well as received complaints regarding the national ID card.

“We have distributed 9,000,000 national ID cards. Per day we distribute 25,000 to 28,000 IDs through our 125 offices located around the UAE. Some people complain about delay in receiving the cards. A big contributor to this problem is that most of the customers come between 9am to 1pm although we are open in the afternoon as well.”

Bin Karam said that raising awareness about the post offices opening hours can help in resolving this problem.

He also highlighted that Emirates post is the only post in the Middle East and Africa that was able to withstand the shift caused by most people using the internet to send mail instead of sending letters.

“Emirates post is the only postal service provider in the Middle East and Africa that makes profit. We were able to withstand the shift caused by technology by constantly being innovative and finding other ways to provide postal and non-postal services.”

Emirates post provides 33 postal services (58 per cent of total services) and 24 non-postal services (42 per cent of total services).

Bin Karam said that the number of services and offices is likely to increase as Expo 2020 approaches.