Dawn of a new era for postal service

The Balearic Post Office is now preparing for a major technical improvement project which will involve a complete redmodelling of the main sorting office in a bid to improve the much criticised service. Work will start in earnest next month and, once completed, the new sorting office will be completely automated and able to sort 40'000 letters per hour, a huge improvement on the 9'000 letters per hour the sorting office is only able to sort by hand at the moment. The cost of installation of the new system, which should be in full operation by the end of the year, is 2'000 million pesetas and yesterday Javier Barba, the post office's logistics chief, said that the main aim of the improvements is to provide clients with a much better service. The automated sorting office will also mean that less human resources will be needed and that the extra staff will be used to improve the delivery service. This month has been relatively quiet for the post office, despite the high number of tourists. On the whole, the amount of post drops because the bulk of companies and businesses are on holiday and it is this lull which the post office has taken advantage of in order to get ready for the improvement project. Last week the postal service in 20 areas of Palma was criticised for failing its clients and lacking staff. However Barba said that there are only around 8'000 letters waiting to be delivered “you have to bear in mind that there are some companies who will post 20'000 letters at the same time,” he said.