The South African Post Office Limited has made a major investment in portable data terminals to enhance its nationwide mechanisms for tracking and tracing the vast amount of parcels and letters which it handles on a daily basis.
Capitalising on the power of mobile computing and wireless communications, the Post Office has purchased 600 portable data terminals from Symbol Technologies and the outcome is a reduction in the time it takes to trace a parcel from as much as six months to as little as one hour.
Paul Kumalo, senior manager, IT development at the Post Office acknowledged that an outdated manual system sometimes took up to six months to handle an inquiry regarding the whereabouts of a registered item or to identify the signature of the person who received a registered package.
"Utilising the PDT 3100 Series from Symbol Technologies we process in excess of 90 000 parcels per week, 500 000 registered items which entails approximately two million signatures upon delivery. Each item has an individual barcode which is scanned and we estimate that we carry out almost four million scans per month. All the relevant information is then downloaded from the PDT 3100 terminals to PCs and then it is sent to a central data processing system where it can be retrieved at a moments notice," said Kumalo.
Peter Little, executive account manager at Symbol Technologies said the lightweight data terminals are built for unmatched durability, and they are designed for flexible, single-handed operation.
"With expanded display, 2-D laser scanning and Spectrum24 - Symbol`s next generation wireless LAN - capabilities, this family of portable data terminals delivers more options for collecting and communicating data. The PDT 3100 offers a choice of 4- or 8-line by 20 character displays and you can choose between 35 or 45 alphanumeric or 21 numeric keypad configurations and optional integrated linear barcode scanning capabilities," said Little.
He added that nationwide training was implemented for the new terminals and third party support is provided by Wang Global with additional support available when necessary from Symbol Technologies.
Share
Editorial contacts