Railways is starting door-to-door parcel service, goods will be picked up from home and delivered directly to the address; The tension of going to the station is over

New Delhi/Special Correspondent. There is a relief news for common citizens, small traders and e-commerce sellers sending goods, heavy parcels or commercial goods through Indian Railways. Making a historic change in its traditional parcel system, the Railway Administration has completed preparations to implement ‘Door-to-Door Parcel Service’ on a large scale. Till now, to send any item through train, people had to carry heavy luggage to the parcel house of the railway station, where hours were wasted in long queues, weighing process and paperwork. Apart from this, after the goods reached the destination station, the receiver also had to make efforts to go to the station and release the parcel. After this new initiative of Railways, all this hassle of visiting the station is going to end forever.

To implement this ambitious service, Indian Railways has joined hands with ‘Indian Post Department’. This integrated model has been named ‘Joint Parcel Product’ (JPP).

• First Mile and Last Mile Connectivity Department of Posts has: The vast and reliable network of the postal department will be responsible for picking up the goods from your home or warehouse (First Mile Pickup) and delivering the goods to the recipient’s door at the destination (Last Mile Delivery).

• Long Distance Rapid Transport Responsibilities of Railways: The delivery of goods from one city to another at high speed, in a safe environment and at minimum cost will be done by the express and superfast parcel trains of Indian Railways. In this way, the strengths of both the government undertakings are coming together to offer a high-tech logistics solution.

This modern service of Railways has been made completely digital and consumer-friendly. Now anyone can book a parcel from their smartphone or laptop in just a few clicks at home:

1. Online Request and Slot Selection: The customer will visit the official portal/app of Railways or Postal Department and enter the weight, size, pickup address and delivery address of the parcel and schedule the pickup time.

2. Weighing and Barcoding at Home: At the appointed time the postman or logistics representative will reach your home with a digital weighing machine, weigh the goods, issue a digital receipt and paste a secure barcode/QR code on the parcel.

3. Real-Time GPS Tracking: As soon as the booking is done, the tracking ID will come on the customer’s mobile. Through this, the customer will be able to see at every moment in which train his goods have been loaded, at which station it has reached and when it has come out for delivery.

4. OTP based secure delivery: The goods will be delivered at the destination only after verification of the One Time Password (OTP) sent to the registered mobile number of the recipient, thereby reducing the risk of the goods getting lost or falling into wrong hands.

At present, private courier and logistics companies charge huge charges for picking up and delivering goods from home. Especially when the goods weigh 15 to 50 kg or more, the courier expenses go out of the budget of the common man. This joint service of Railways and Postal Department will be available at very affordable and transparent rates compared to private companies. In this, everything from small 5 kg boxes to heavy household items, electronic products, clothes, books, machinery parts and even two-wheeler parts can be sent easily. Due to the vast network of railways, delivery of goods even to remote towns and north-eastern states will be possible in the shortest possible time.

The biggest benefit of door-to-door parcel service is going to be given to the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), handicraft artisans and seasonal fruit and vegetable growers. Now, be it chikankari suits from Lucknow, sarees from Banaras, brass utensils from Moradabad or apples from Kashmir – artisans and farmers will not have to visit any middleman or transport city to sell their produce. They will be able to get the goods loaded directly from their home or factory and deliver them directly to the customer sitting in any corner of the country.

Railway Board officials say that after the successful trials of the pilot project, this service is now being rapidly expanded to all the major Tier-1, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities of the country. This step will prove to be a milestone towards making Indian Railways the strongest and modern pillar of the modern supply chain.