Lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday froze NT$174 million (US$6.05 million) of Chunghwa Post’s budget plan for the next fiscal year that had been earmarked to expand the number of iPostbox terminals, saying that the company has failed to raise the usage rate of the service since it was launched in 2017.
The committee said that Chunghwa Post would be given access to the funds after it presents a special briefing on the issue.
As of July, the company had spent about NT$561 million installing iPostbox terminals across the nation, with the number of units expected to reach 2,400 by the end of this year.
Photo courtesy of Chunghwa Post
With the proposed funding, the company was aiming to have 3,000 units installed by the end of next year.
However, the usage rate of iPostbox terminals has not shown significant growth, increasing from 48.8 percent in 2017 to 51.8 percent in 2018, before falling to 51.7 percent last year and to about 30 percent this year, prompting calls from lawmakers across party lines to either eliminate or freeze the funding.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) and Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the company faces strong competition from convenience stores, which most people use to send and receive packages.
Chunghwa Post should figure out ways to compete with convenience stores and conduct a comprehensive assessment of the service, otherwise it would be simply burning cash without reaching its goals, they said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Ming-che (魯明哲) said that the company should at least try to elevate the usage rate before considering expanding the number of iPostbox units.
Chunghwa Post chairman Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) said that iPostbox has an advantage in terms of reverse logistics management, allowing people to easily return products.
To boost the usage rate of the service, the company has been offering discounts for sending and receiving mail and packages through iPostbox, the company said.
The lowest cost to send a package domestically is NT$48, whereas domestic express mail costs start at NT$58, it said.
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