Doha: Over the past four months, the State of Qatar has seen a 70 per cent drop in the arrival of international mail and goods as over 90 countries around the world suspended mail services under efforts to contain the spread of the deadly Coronavirus. In spite of the effects of the global pandemic, Qatar Post continued to provide the country with a reliable and secure delivery service, connecting people with record volumes of essential mail and items, ensuring that people’s needs are met and day to day is continued.
Qatar Post’s response to the Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH) call for collaboration with Hamad Medical Centre (HMC) and Primary Health Care Centre (PHCC) for the home delivery of vital medications to thousands of households across the country has been met with high praise and appreciation by MoPH partners and patients.
The home delivery of other essentials such as groceries from Carrefour hypermarket and e-government documents along with e-commerce deliveries on behalf of many merchants has enabled local retailers to quickly adapt their sales strategies from in-store to online, allowing them to remain commercially afloat. On average, Qatar Post has been delivering over 10,000 items per month for these commercial businesses, connecting local consumers with their purchases from a range of Qatari and international retailers from various outlets across fashion, sports, electronics, cosmetics and home accessories.
The Medicine Delivery program allows patients to order their refill medication directly from HMC and PHCC, as well as to acquire newly prescribed medication, and have them delivered directly to their homes. The service was launched within three weeks of the approach to Qatar Post by the Ministry of Public Health and involved the mobilisation of additional resources in record time. The speed and quality of these vital deliveries are monitored daily and managed through weekly virtual programme meetings with MOPH Officials and the Qatar Post Team. Since its launch, the service has witnessed over 80,000 deliveries per month cross the country during the pandemic.
Commenting on the success of their services Hamad Al Fahida, Chief Operating Officer, at Qatar Post stated: “We are honoured to have the trust of our customers and the Qatar community to deliver vital goods and services during this unpredictable time. In fact, these difficult circumstances have given rise to greater opportunities for Qatar Post to show its innovation for delivery solutions and we have delivered over one million items to valuable customers and our Qatar community during this Pandemic period.
Every day, I am proud of our Qatar Post front line staff who work with courage and dedication to carry out the essential deliveries that serve our customers basic needs so that their families can stay indoors and remain safe. Qatar Post is pleased to play a vital role in safeguarding the community and will gladly continue carrying out these responsibilities.”
Qatar Post has extended the same delivery arrangements to cover the distribution of medical reports, medical consumables, nutritional and diabetes-related products keeping patients away from pharmacies and health centres in an effort to contain the potential spread of the Coronavirus. These services have now further expanded to include service providers from the private sector such as Sidra Medicine for the delivery of medications and supplements.
Throughout the Covid-19 period, Qatar Post has also continued to support various government ministries by providing a trusted, timely and safe delivery service for important documents on behalf of Qatar’s Metrash2 e-Government service. This includes the delivery of driving licenses, vehicle registrations, Qatar IDs and passports to citizens and expats enabling the day to day life in Qatar to continue. During the pandemic, Qatar Post has dealt with a 30 per cent increase in these important deliveries.
During the holy month of Ramadan period, Qatar Post supported local business, Widam Foods, by ensuring the safe distribution and delivery of more than 8,000 sheep to Qatari citizens across the whole of Qatar for the holy month.
Qatar Post’s own e-Commerce service CONNECTED.qa has also provided an online shopping experience for Qatar-based customers from US, UK and Singapore stores by offering a hassle-free international shipping service directly to their home. Connected.qa has seen a 60 per cent increase in shipments as customers have looked for alternative ways to buy their desired goods that have not been available locally due to Covid-19 restrictions.
For the 90 plus countries around the world where mailing services were suspended, Qatar Post made use of its Global Priority Service, offering an alternative, courier-like service to customers who could send packages to loved ones back home in lieu of standard postal services. During this period, over 4,300 packages have been safely delivered throughout the world on Qatar Post’s Global Priority and Freight Forwarding services alone. These services have been made available by keeping its core retail network across Qatar open, with over 51,000 essential packages collected by customers.