It is no secret that speed of delivery of mail has been one of the reasons why private courier services are prized over the BVI Post Office, and one of the areas where the facility is losing revenue. As part of the improvement efforts, Cabinet at its July 30 meeting gave approval for the BVI Post to move forward with arrangements to facilitate speedy mail service.

It was disclosed at that Cabinet Meeting that the BVI Post was permitted to enter into an agreement with EMS Cooperative, which is an international postal Express Mail Service for documents and merchandise. This arrangement will enable the BVI Post Office to provide express mail service worldwide.

On the domestic mailing side, Cabinet at a meeting on May 30 waived the tender process in order to allow the Post Office to procure what was described as durable letterboxes. These new boxes are expected to replace those destroyed by the hurricanes of 2017.

During that meeting, the Cabinet decided that the boxes would be acquired from U.S. Mail Supply Inc., which was selected over and above two other companies.

It was disclosed that U.S. Mail Supply Inc. will be awarded a contract for the sum not to exceed $482,676 on the basis of durability, the manufacturing time factor and the urgency of restoring the BVI’s postal services.

The box replacement is expected to be executed in a phased manner. This year phase one would be undertaken at a cost of $257,999, in 2020 phase two would be carried out at a cost of $174,312, and in 2021 phase three at a cost of $50,365.