Mr. Abubakar Usman, the General Manager, Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Abuja Zone, says the Last Mile Bikes of the service are to achieve timely deliveries to customers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Usman said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
NIPOST launched over 150 bikes in Lagos and Abuja in 2018 as part of reforms aimed at improving the quality of its service delivery.
According to the general manager, the initiative is to get rid of delays in delivering messages to customers.
He said that “the last mile bike is an initiative of the postmaster general and the essence of it is to actually provide quality service to our customers.
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“The last mile means the final delivery of packages and parcels to final destinations, where motorcycles are used, with the riders well kitted.
“The essence of this is to portray the corporate image of NIPOST and to let people know that the organisation is moving with the trend.
“The motorcycles are branded to carry NIPOST colours, and the officers are trained to deliver messages to every nook and cranny of Abuja in real time.
“The success story is that we have been able to meet our delivery target, which is between 48 and 72 hours and we have been getting commendation from our customers.”
Usman said feedback from customers showed that people were satisfied with the services offered by the organisation.
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However one of the bike riders who would not want to be identified told NAN that riders have challenges that they had to contend with.
According to him, though all the bikes are new and do not have mechanical problems, they need to be serviced occasionally.
He also said that the money to fuel the bikes was always short and the incentives promised the riders had not been paid and appealed to the management to meet these needs.
The rider added that they still faced the challenge of wrongful street addressing and urged customers to provide the phone numbers and addresses of parcel recipients clearly.
He said this would enable the riders to know who to contact in case of wrong addressing or movement from that address.
Usman, while responding to challenges that the bike riders encountered on their line of duty, said no system was totally devoid of challenges but that management would do all it could to ensure that the challenges were addressed. (NAN)