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| Mohammed Benten, President of Saudi
Post, explains how the new system of zip codes,
internet and smart chips will change mail delivery
in the Kingdom. |
The incorporation of new, high-tech systems into the
Saudi postal network is not only changing the system,
but it is opening up other opportunities for the kingdom.
Here Mohammed Benten, President of Saudi Post, sheds
some light on the subject.
Dr. Mohammed Benten, Saudi Post: You mentioned that
it is about moving mailboxes to houses, but it is more
than that. In fact, we had a problem in the country
before, because we never had proper addressing. In Saudi
Arabia, just like many countries, the concept of zip
codes does not exist. Also, in the past, we used what
we called "relative addressing". It is a very
old technique, which consists in picking up a landmark
and start describing the way to your house from that
landmark. So this is how addressing used to be done;
you would say the name of the street around it, or behind
it so that people could get there.
Of course, this system does not work when we talk
about a huge number of mailed items. So we had to solve
the problem. The other thing is the Arabic names. When
I say "Mohammed Al Thaher Street", a French
man would spell it differently than two British people.
So we have a real problem. Street names in the West,
like for example, in the United States, are not found
in the dictionary. You cannot come up with a name and
say: "this is going to be a street name".
But here, because of the culture, you may name the street
in anyway, like for example with the names of historical
legends, kings, princes, prominent personalities, or
even heroes. This is all right; the problem is spelling.
And 70% of our communication has Latin origins, which
means that the name "Mohamed" can be written
in so many ways ("Mo", "Ma", or
"Mu").
So we looked at the problem and tried to investigate
how we could get a standard address so that we would
know exactly where the destination was just by passing
it through the machine. First names would not work.
Even Macca; people will still write it "Mecca",
"Macca", or "Mekkah", and this would
be a problem. Moreover, in Arabic, the handwriting would
be impossible to recognize. But we realize that people's
businesses will increase and the number of letters will
increase. So there is no way we can rely on manual sorting.
It has to be done by an automatic machine. So the automatic
sorting machine will solve the problem of addressing.
We also should standardize addresses; Jeddah addresses
are different from Riyadh addresses and from Dammam
addresses. Every city should have its own style of addressing.
So we concentrated first on what should be the standard
addressing. Is it going to be street number, street
name, city, or zip code? Not a P.O. Box, a zip code.
We should have house addresses, and we would like to
make the permanent address part of the identity of the
person. It is not enough to have a national identity
number; you should also have a permanent address where
the mail can be delivered.
Many Ministries have subscribed to this project. We
knew that we needed it so we did it. And when we put
this standard address, we were faced again with the
problem of recognizing mails. But we worked hard on
it. We used computer technology and many other advances
in Internet, IP addresses, domain names...
Many things have evolved in the last ten years, but
we should still utilize these techniques. If you are
a university graduate, you know that the student number
used to mean a lot. If you are a foreign student, you
also know that numbers can mean a lot. So we wanted
to use numbers. For example, a zip code should not exceed
one squared kilometer, and when you look at the zip
code, it should be rich with information about its location.
You should be able to look at a map of the Kingdom and
locate the area.
Also we would like to use the number of the street,
designed in such way that if you know the zip code,
you know its location by-the-meter (it should be a scale,
not a static number, i.e. house number 1, house number
2…) within this zip code.
The other interesting thing is that we put other specifications.
We also wanted a linear map between the GPS points and
this simple addressing. In other words, if I give you
the street number, the zip code, and the extended zip
code, you should be able to tell me the GPS point. And
if you give me a GPS point, I should tell you what the
address is.
These are very high specifications added to addressing.
We started researching in this area and succeeded in
coming up with this simple mechanism. In fact many international
postal companies would like to use this. There are so
many countries in Africa and Asia that do not have proper
addresses, street numbers and zip codes, so this solution
could come handy.
We have been implementing this in Riyadh and in Jeddah.
We are going at the rate of five thousand houses per
day in Riyadh. It is a huge operation. We have already
started in Jeddah, and we will start in the Eastern
Province very soon. For every city we cover, we issue
a guide. This is, for example, the Jeddah guide with
all the zip codes. Every zip code is shown in here,
and for simplicity, to let the people know how to use
it, you can pick the street name and it tells you the
page and the area within the page. So this is a full
addressing guide that will be available on Internet
very soon. In the G-Web, when you put the address, it
will give you the map and you will be able to know exactly
where the house is.
P.M. Communications: How is the population reacting
to this operation? Very positive, I suppose, but are
they familiarized with this new technique which requires
lots of up- to-date information?
Dr. Mohammed Benten, Saudi Post: This is an interesting
question. People are not used to home delivery. I lived
in the West and I understand that mailboxes are part
of our life, and we check it everyday. But people here
are not used to checking their mailboxes or getting
their mail delivered to their houses, so it will take
a while.
In some modern countries there are specifications about
how and where you install your mailbox. And you will
not get the license for the house if you do not install
the box and get the number. Besides, you have to put
your mailbox adjacent to the sidewalk so it can be accessible.
If you put it away from the sidewalk, they do not deliver
your mail, unless you pay a special subscription fee
to the post. The other thing is that your mailbox cannot
be locked with a lock; otherwise you have to pay an
extra fee.
Now these are boxes that are going to be installed
in the houses, but require somebody to go there. It
has a lock, and it has a lot more features than regular
boxes. They are more advanced than the regular mailboxes,
and we do not take money, addresses are free.
We offer a subscription to anybody that wants to use
a mailbox, and it has extra features. It is optional.
He gets a mail forwarding service, which is, of course,
paid. And he gets mail holding, multiple delivery per
day, registers and parcel delivery by digital signature.
"We just read the signature from the ID archive
in the chip; he does not have to sign…"
You can see this is very advanced for the culture,
just like when banks started to offer Internet service
but nobody was using it. So it will take people some
time to understand.
We expect that this will revolutionize the industry
of home delivery, and it will even increase banking
trust, as banks will know the customers´ permanent
addresses, so they will be able to give more loans.
It will create an economic boom. You can go to the shop
and just give him the address. And it is not a fake
address like before, when he would go around and around
looking and would never find out where the house was.
Now it is a number.
So hundreds of delivery services will start to bloom,
like e-government or e-business, but we still have the
resistance from some people. I talked about this in
many events in Europe, like in Stockholm at the pre-Nobel
Prize show, and everybody just does not believe it.
Postal Technology Magazine ranked us, among with the
US, UK, Japan and Germany as one of the highest users
of technology in the postal system.
And we have so many Post Companies from other countries
scheduling visits to come to see us, especially in the
Gulf area, where there is no addressing and people depend
on mailboxes. They would like to use this addressing
scheme.
P.M. Communications: Could we say this service,
which is quite revolutionary, will be under subscription?
Dr. Mohammed Benten, Saudi Post: Using this service,
that is, the addressing, is free. But the use of this
box is not free, because it has been built by an investor,
who has won the public tender.
We will provide mail forwarding, as I said. And also
mail holding, permanent and temporary forwarding mail
and electronic signature, so that clients do not have
to sign for registered mail or EMS. Of course, we will
deliver all the outgoing mail from his box, all for
the price of three hundred Riyals per year, or about
eighty USD. There are people who are not used to such
activity, while others say that they will have it even
if it is one thousand Riyals per year.
If you have a mailbox in the post office, how many
times per month are you going there to check it? Each
trip to the post office will cost ten Riyals and time.
If you calculate it, it will cost much, much more than
our mailbox. But it takes time, education, and production.
P.M. Communications: Are those being installed at
the moment the ones who have subscribed?
Dr. Mohammed Benten, Saudi Post: No, we are installing
them everywhere, and then it is up to them to subscribe
or not. We are working on a huge campaign. We still
have not started the subscription campaign. We started
an introduction campaign, and we are observing the reaction
of the people. We think that businesses will offer subscription
services on behalf of the costumers. They can put an
advertisement saying: "if you open an account,
I will subscribe to you". So we are targeting not
only the customers but also the businesses that are
benefiting from knowing the real addresses of the people.
It is a very challenging project, a big change. And
it is all connected; from the distribution, the high
technology car and the control centre, to the counting
and sorting machines. It is a full information system.
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