French postal operator La Poste has announced plans to equip its postal delivery staff withsmartphone mobile terminals by 2015 to be able to offer more enhanced doorstep services.
La Poste said that the new devices have so far been tested by about 1,000 postmen and postwomenat 41 locations across the country. A further 10,000 workers will receive the devices this year andthe remainder of the delivery staff by 2015. The size of the investment and the device supplierwere not stated.
The new ‘Factéo’ handhelds, designed in cooperation with postal workers, will not only be usedfor working purposes but will also be available for private use.
The smartphones will have three main forms of use. With the ‘My Phone’ function, the staff willbe able to make calls, send SMS messages and e-mails and use the internet. The ‘My Post’ functionprovides access to internal company information.
The ‘My Round’ function will cover information relating to the delivery round and customerservices. Three applications have already been tested, covering signature for tracked items,authorisations and generating returns.
La Poste said the investment was “a strong signal about the future of the job of the postman,its modernity and its capacity to respond to new customer expectations in terms of direct servicesand trustful relationships” and would put delivery workers at the heart of the strategic project “2015 – Reinventing Mail”.
The devices would improve the relationship between delivery workers and recipients bysimplifying working procedures and enabling new services, it added.
