Employees of Postal Services St. Maarten (PSS) were still holding work stoppages on Tuesday, despite interim Prime Minister Rafael Boasman having guaranteed payment of their November salaries. They may receive their wages in a matter of days, but the problems are many and in some cases of a structural nature.
The entire starting position when the former Netherlands Antilles (NA) Post was split up as a result of constitutional reforms within the Dutch Kingdom per 10-10-10 was disadvantageous from the beginning, in terms of finances, property and personnel.
The organisation requires restructuring to confront the enormous impact the World Wide Web as well as parcel shipping and delivery services such as FedEx and UPS are having on traditional mail, yet at the same time needs to make better use of the possibilities the Internet offers. Plans exist to have PSS run by the Caribbean Netherlands postal company and there are prospects to make it profitable or at least healthy.
Take, for instance, the MoneyGram service. Primarily immigrant workers send tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and euros abroad on a daily basis.
The practice is sometimes frowned on as the island losing capital and foreign exchange, but it’s a reality of life and booming business on both the Dutch and French sides. In fact, closure of the big Western Union in Cole Bay and legal problems facing “El Rapidito” have left a void that offers PSS a golden opportunity.
However, with its main building in Philipsburg damaged, the service is now being provided from a small temporary office across the street that is hardly a suitable location. Clients must wait outside in long queues while only cash is accepted, creating a security risk too. This is one aspect that ought to be improved post-haste, because it’s obviously a revenue-generating activity.
People should also keep in mind that the country has international responsibilities regarding mail and phone services, with Bureau Telecommunication and Post (BTP) as regulator. The closer one looks, the clearer it becomes that PSS is in need of a “reboot” sooner rather than later.
