People will be able to use EasyCards and other electronic means to pay for packages delivered to their homes when Chunghwa Post couriers are equipped with new personal digital assistants (PDA), the company said on Tuedsay.
Chunghwa Post chairman Louis Wei (魏健宏) said that the company must strive to provide digital services, as they are an irreversible trend.
Large tour buses have already been equipped with GPS to help settle liability issues and to provide evidence in special circumstances, Wei said.
Welson Hsueh (薛門騫), director of Chunghwa Post’s mail business and operations, said the company in February started trials in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) and Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正), where couriers have carried new PDAs on delivery rounds.
“In the past, couriers needed to stamp a sheet whenever they collected packages, but the PDAs allow them to scan a barcode on the mailbox to update the files,” Hsueh said.
More functions will be added, he said.
Some of the new functions include allowing people to sign electronically for deliveries, he said, adding that people would be able to pay with EasyCards, iPass, iCash or Happy Cash cards, as the PDAs would be able to read them.
The devices also track the whereabouts of couriers and analyze their workloads, Hsueh said.
In the future, the functions of the devices would be enhanced to allow people to check estimated arrival times of registered mail so they could schedule their time to be home for a delivery.
The company said that 1,200 of 1,500 old PDAs would be eliminated by the end of this year.
It plans to acquire 7,500 new PDAs next year, the company said, adding that the plan will only come to fruition if legislators agree to its budget.
The goal is to have all couriers equipped with new PDAs by 2020, Hsueh said.
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