File No. 39-12-2005-06-00-mu (computer NO. 3099328) ANNEXURE Government of india Ministry of Communications & Information Technology Department of Posts BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING DIRECTORATE (Marketing Division) 6th floor, Dak Bhawan, Parliament Strset, New Delhi 110001
Operational Procedure for DIRECT POST No 39-1/2000-BDD 2nd June 2005
1. What is Direct Post:
1.1 "Direct Post" comprises of unaddressed mail articles like letters, cards, brochures, questionnaires, pamphlets, samples, promotional items like CDs/floppies and Cassettes etc., coupons, posters, mailers or any other form of printed communication that is not prohibited by the Indian Post Office Act 1898 or Indian Post Office Rule 1933.
1.2 The Direct Post articles would be accepted for delivery within India.
1.3 Articles posted as 'Direct Post' will bear no address or name on the communication. The articles will be accepted in bulk in designated post offices and will not be posted in a letter box. As a product, it will enable the customer to send the same message/article to a large umber of addresses, households and organizations in targeted areas.
1.4 A minimum of 1000 articles would have to be posted by a customer to avail of services under Direct Post.
1.5 The articles would be accepted only in PIN code wise bundles contained in secure station wise packets.
1.6 Articles to be accepted as Direct Post should not exceed length and width of A3 size paper.
1:7 The mailers of Direct Post may specify the areas and number of articles to be delivered in each of the areas, in which the mailer wishes the Direct Post articles to be distributed. However, no commitment would be given for delivery of the article to any particular address or a person.
1.8 In case the mailer desires the Direct Post articles to be printed, or requires any other pre-mailing activity, these should encouraged and be undertaken under the Business Post. While these activities can be combined with Direct Post, they do not form part of Direct Post.
2. Who can use Direct Post:
Any person or organization can use the service.
3 Acceptance of Direct Post Articles
3.1 Ciroles will identify offices for acceptance of Direct Post. These could be a Direct mail Centre, Mass mailing Centre, Business Post Centre, GPO/HPO, or any other suitable office. These offices may be designated 'Direct Post Centres' (DPCs) for the purpose of Direct Post. Usually, only one DPC would be. identified in a city.
3.2 In each DPC, a supervisor would be designated as the Manager for the DPC.
3.3 To avail of Direct Post, a customer will fill in the details as in Part I of Annexure 'A', in duplicate, and give to Manager of the DPC.
3.4 The Manager will check the information given by the customer in Part I of Annexure 'A', calculate the charges, check the stamps/franks, and fill these in the space provided in Part II of Annexure 'A', including the postage if the articles are not stamped/franked. He shall return a copy of the Annexure 'A' to the customer after filling in these details.
3.5 The customer should deposit 100% of the charges in the form of cash, cheque or Demand Draft. In case of payment by cash, the amount should be deposited in a post office, obtaining an ACG 67 receipt. Original receipt should be attached with the order form i.e. the form at Annexure 'A'. In case the payment is made by a cheque or Demand Draft, it should be drawn in favour of Director General Posts, and should be payable at the station in which DPC is situated.
3.6 The receipts on account of Direct Post will be as per the charges prescribed by the Director General, from time to time. The payments will be booked under the head" 1201.101.03.07- Postal Receipts for Direct Post" The Manager, DPC will maintain a register as described at Annexure "C" to keep track of all orders and payments received.
3.7 A receipt in manuscript indicating particulars of customer, ACG 67 receipt no. & date, DD/cheque no. & date, and amount will be granted to the customer for receipt of the order under the signature of Manager DPC over his designation stamp.
3.8 On receipt of the payment, the Manager of DPC will arrange to have the articles accepted after checking the number, weight and other parameters to see that the articles are in accordance with the information given in the order form. The articles will be accepted only in PIN code wise bundles.
3.9 The DPC will frank and send, with a covering note, in duplicate, as in Part I of Annexure B, the articles in PIN code wise bundles to the concerned delivery offices, along with extracts of the customers' instructions for delivery. In case of articles meant for delivery in other towns, the DPC would accept the articles in PIN Code wise bundles and send them in one or more packets to DPC in the destination towns, or to individual delivery offices where there are no DPCs, with the customers' instructions for delivery of articles, and returning the information in Part II of Annexure B, indicating that the articles had been delivered as directed
4. Delivery of Direct Fost articles
4.1 At the delivery office, Direct Post articles will be distributed among the delivery staff on the working day following the day on which the articles are actually received. The number of articles to be issued to delivery staff will depend upon probable addressee locations in his beat as per instructions of the client. The number of articles issued to Postmen will be entered in each delivery person's book by Supervisor under his signature.
4.2 The instructions of the customer regarding delivery of Direct Post articles, received from the booking DPC will be explained by the supervisor to the delivery staff and got noted on Part III of the order Form if the DPC is a delivery office. Where extract of instructions for delivery is received by delivery office, the instructions will be got noted from the delivery staff on the extract itself.
4.3 The delivery persons will effect delivery according to instructions noted by them. After delivery, the supervisor would note the number of articles delivered by each delivery person, and obtain their signatures. Random check of delivery of Direct Post may be carried out by PRI (P)/ Head postmen wherever available and result reported to the Supervisor.
4.4 The Supervisor will keep all copies of order forms or extracts of instructions received as the case may be, in a guard file for six months after completion of work.
4.5 Delivery post offices will send the report of completion of work, in Part II of Annexure B. to the DPC, immediately on completion of work. The DPC will, in turn, inform the customer in writing that work contained in his order (reference number to be quoted) had been completed as per his instructions.
4.6 Delivery Post offices, in towns other than the booking DPC, shall send the delivery information to their DPC, in case they had received the articles fro that DPC, and the destination DPC would send the information to originating DPC in one copy of Part II of Annexure B that they had received from the originating DPC.
5 Marketing of Direct Post
5.1 Marketing of Direct Post, in terms of publicity, and contacting big customers will be undertaken at Circle level by the Business Development/ Marketing Group in Circles. Similar action would be taken at Regional level by Postmaster Generals. In the case of Divisions, the action will be taken by the marketing staff and the Divisional Head.
5.2 At the national level, Business Development Directorate will undertake the publicity and marketing of Direct Post.
5.3 General Policy and strategy in this regard will be laid down by Business Development & Marketing Directorate from time to time.
