What are the services provided by the Indian post office? India Post has been helping the country in communication and socio-economic development for more than 150 years. The post office has been in touch with the lives of people throughout the country, from letters handling to receiving deposits and providing retail services for example bill collection and sale of forms, etc.

The main task of the Indian post office is to collect, process, transmit and deliver mail. All postal articles containing messages can be classified as mail containing letters, postcards, internal postcards, parcels, standard, registered, insured items, speed post, and value payable articles.

Mail is further divided into first mail and second class mail. Inside India, first-class mail gets air transmission for free. While second-class mail only gets airlift if it paid air charges in advance. 

In this post, we will take a look at some of the services provided by the Indian post office.

Mail Services

Mail service is one of the services provided by the Indian Post Office. We can send letters to friends and relatives. Similarly, we may be in correspondence with NIOS regarding your concerns. We can send gifts and greeting cards to our friends on special occasions.

In all these cases, the post office helps you to send the mail as well as bring the mail to you through a type of service called the mail service. The mail service is one of the main postal services dealing with the collection of letters and parcels from senders for distribution to recipients. 

India Post service handles domestic and international mail. Internal mail or domestic mail is mail in which the sender and recipient of mail reside in the same country. On the other hand, international mail is mail that is sent from one country to another i.e. sender and recipient is residing in different countries.

Postcard

A postcard is a card on which we can write our message on both sides. It has a specific space for entering the recipient’s address. The card is the cheapest way of written communication. There are two different types of postcards available at the post office.

 One is a “normal” and the other is a “competition postcard”. While normal postcards are used to write letters, competition postcards are used to answer the questions asked in various competitions advertised through radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. Although the two postcards are the same size, they differ in color and price.

It is important to keep in mind when writing on a postcard that if you write a message in words or pictures on any side of the postcard, you will have to pay extra postage. These types of cards are called printed postcards. Reply postcards are also available at Post offices which are attached with the postcards to send a reply. So postcard service is among the services which are provided by the Indian Post Office.

Inland Letter

Like postcards, you can also send text messages via internal mail. Inland blank letters can be had from post offices and inland letters are usually used to send messages within our country. Unlike postcards, the inland letter’s written part is folded and sealed.

Only the sender’s and receiver’s names and addresses remain open. This ensures message secrecy. Enclosure within a domestic letter (inland letter) is not allowed. To send messages to foreign countries a special type of letter is used, just like an inland letter. This is called an aerogram.

Envelope

On a postcard or on an inland letter card messages can be written. However, sending secret messages on postcards is not suitable. It is impossible to send attachments in an inland letter. At all Indian Postal offices, post envelopes are available. They are widely used in all public and private offices and commercial companies to send letters and other documents.

In addition to sending letters, we can also send lightweight attachments such as photos, greeting cards through envelopes. At the post office, you will find many different types such as ordinary envelopes, registered mail envelopes, etc. These envelopes do not need additional postage if the weight of your attachment is within a certain limit.

Parcel Post

Let’s say you want to send a book to one of your friends who lives in a nearby city. Through the post office can you send it? Yes, you can send it through the post office parcel service. Parcel Post is a facility of the post office through which items can be sent in the form of parcels.

It offers a reliable and cost-effective package delivery service. With parcel service, it is possible to send parcels of a certain size and weight both domestically and abroad. Postage costs vary by package weight. Payment must be made separately for domestic and foreign parcels.

Also Read: List of International Courier Services in India

Book Post

Printed material articles, printed books, greeting cards, magazines can be sent as a book post. In a book post, envelopes with books or documents should not be sealed they should only be closed. Book Post should be mentioned at the front of the envelope.

Remittance services

Let’s say you work away from home and want to send money to the family. You can send it through the postal service offered by the post office. It provides the ability to transfer money and postal orders by mail, where people at home and abroad can transfer money from one place to another. To know more let’s take a look at money and postal orders.

Money Order

The duly completed form is then handover to the post office along with the money to be transferred. In one remittance form, we can send the maximum amount of Rs. 5,000 /. The money transfer form also includes a field for addresses where you can type your message.

The completed form is then sent to the post office where the payment will be made. The concerned postman carries the money and forms with him and after receiving the signature from the addressee, hands him the money.

The post office receives a certain commission from the sender for this service. The commission varies depending on the amount of money sent. The post office offers various types of services for money orders such as ordinary money orders, telegraphic money orders, satellite money order, and speed post money order, for the convenience of customers. A corporate money transfer service is also provided for the convenience of business people.

Postal Order

You can send money via postal order i.e. IPO (Indian Postal Order) with the help of a money order. It is an easy way to send money from one place to another and is mainly used to send exam fees or when applying for any job. At all post offices, postal orders are available in various denominations, such as Rs.1, 2,5, 7, 10, 20,50, and Rs. 100/-.

After paying the above fees, we may purchase and send postal orders after stating the name of the recipient and the name of the post office where it is intended to be encased. Upon receipt of the postal order, the payee makes it to the post office designated for payment. On the top left-hand side, you can cross a postal order by drawing two parallel diagonal lines same as in the case of a bank draft or cheque to ensure payment to the right person.

Banking services

Banks are dealing with money. From the public, a bank accepts deposits and gives loans to the persons who need money. In addition to accepting deposits and lending money a bank also facilitates customers to safely store their valuables, facilitates money transfer from one place to another place, provides information for business, etc.

The post office performs some of these services, such as receiving money from the public for deposits and withdrawing these deposits. Therefore, we can say that the post office offers banking services. As part of this service, the post office offers several schemes to encourage and motivate people to save.

These services include Post Office Monthly Income Scheme, Post Office Recurring Deposit Scheme, Kissan Vikas Patra Scheme, etc. 

Conclusion

The largest postal network in the world is the Indian postal network. There are various services provided by the Indian Post Office, from traditional postal services to banking and e-commerce services. Non-commercial services are also offered by it such as old-age pension payments and wages of the MGNREGA scheme.

Electronic money Order (EMO), Instant Money Order (IMO), etc like services can be used through post office India. Users can track Speed Mail, international mail, pay fees, and can search PIN codes of different areas within India. It also provides information on the business, Postal Life Insurance (PLI), banking, express mail, logistics post, and other related services.