People queue up at the speedpost counter at Meghdoot Bhawan on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos

Nov. 10: It is called speedpost, but those using the postal department?s much-vaunted service from its headquarters at Meghdoot Bhawan feel it is time to rename it slowpost.

?If you have to wait for over an hour to get things done then how can you call it speedpost? Things should move with speed both within and outside Meghdoot Bhawan,? said Rajib Barua, a private company.

With only one counter to cater to 60 to 70 people on an average in the first half from 10 am to noon daily, the service is fast losing its image and business to private couriers.

?Most customers are hardpressed for time and have to leave the queue midway to get their work done by private operators. It is not only the customers who are suffering, even those behind the counters find it hard to tackle customer request, which is only natural,? a source said.

On an average, 5 to 10 per cent of the customers switch over to private couriers daily. ?Who will wait for an hour or two to get their things done? Everything associated with speedpost has to be swift,? the source said.

Most of the customers complain that long queues discourage people to send their mails through speedpost. Rajiv Baruah, an employee in a private company, said if the situation continued the postal department would lose a lot of customers.

?A person cannot wait the entire day to post one letter. I do not see any reason why the postal department is not opening more counters,? Baruah said, adding that the lone counter remained overcrowded everyday, creating problems for the customers at the other counters on the same floor.

Baruah said the people prefer to approach private couriers, which are simple, easy and fast. He said the private couriers charge slightly more than speedpost, but are faster and never overcrowded. ?There are several courier services in the city and the postal department should improve its services to meet the competition,? he added.

Though the chief post-master-general could not be contacted, another official said the department had opened a solitary counter for speedpost when it introduced the service, but has failed to increase the number since then. He said the counters could only be increased after being approved by the senior officers. He said the department had increased the number of multi-purpose counters after receiving complaints from the customers.