Mail and money order to be tracked through SMS
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 15:43 IST   |    8 Comments
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Mail and money order to be tracked through SMS
New Delhi: After the launch of electronic transmission of money orders in October 2008, now, Department of Post (DoP) has announced that a customer sending an electronic money order or a speed post article can now keep track and trace their money or article through SMS (Short Messaging Service). Speaking to The Hindustan Times, Alok Sharma, General Manager - Business Development and Marketing, Directorate Department of Posts (DDoP) said, "Earlier money order forms used to be physically moved from one post office to the delivery post office. Now, we can track the delivery of the electronic money order on our website - www.indiapost.gov.in by providing a unique PNR (Passenger Name Record) number. The customer could also do so by accessing the website and providing the PNR number. Now we can track it by sending an SMS to 55352." Currently, the eMO (electronic transmission of money orders) is being offered in more than 7,000 post offices all over the country. The tariff structure is the same as that of the ordinary money order - 1 for every 20. The messages however have to be in standard codes. The tracking facility is through 18 digit PNR number which gives the status delivered or not delivered. Similarly for the articles booked under speed post, it was possible to keep track and trace the movement of articles on the website but now it is possible by just sending an SMS. "For money orders, you type MO eMO PNR number and for speed post articles type SP speed post number. The service is not case sensitive and available across all service providers like MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam), Airtel, Vodaphone," said Sharma. There are 315 national speed post centres and 991 state speed post centers. Speed post is a premier service of the department that provides guaranteed delivery with faster transmission. Speed post which started in 1986 and is available for 97 countries, earned a revenue of more than 500 crore in 2008-09 dealing with a traffic of 2114 lakh speed post articles . S Rajendra Kumkar, Joint Director, Postal Training Centre, Mysore, who developed the tracking software for tracking money orders and speed post articles, said that every article in speed post is given a unique bar code and with help of a bar code scanner the movement of the article can be tracked from the time it is received till it is delivered, both by us and the customer. "The software is now integrated with mobile service providers. Now the customer can send an SMS on 55352 to track and know the status of his article," added Kumkar.

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