Postal Corporation of Kenya has received the go ahead to venture into the public transport sector and it will have two passenger buses on the road in March, postmaster general Enock Kinara said yesterday.
The corporation has gotten approval from the National Transport and Safety Authority, he said, adding that Posta will be exempted from joining a sacco unlike other private operators in the public transport sector.
“Our plan to venture into the public transport sector is going on very well. Being a state corporation, we won't join a sacco. We are now fulfilling other smaller requirements of the NTSA,” he said in an interview after the launch of a new digital mail delivery solution in Nairobi.
“We expect to have another 20 to 25 buses on the road by June this year,” he said.
Kinara said the buses will be leased from dealers and the project will cost approximately Sh300 million.
He said the first two buses will be operating along the Nairobi-Mombasa-Busia route.
“The two buses were funded by the Universal Postal Union and they specifically wanted us to hit the border point at Busia in order to improve mail delivery,” he said.
Posta, a wholly state owned corporation, has been facing stiff competition from digital services, which has seen its fortunes fall significantly over the last decade after most clients embraced technology.
It wants to increase revenues from Sh3 billion currently to Sh14 billion in 2018.
Kinara said the venture into the public transport will allow Posta to eliminate private contractors who are hired to deliver mail to different parts of the country.
“Our mail circulation is going to improve because the passenger fares will be used to cater for the cost of delivering mail,” he said.
