LIVE IN COSTA RICA – There was a time when nobody in there right mind would use the country’s postal service. Inefficiency, delays and thefts were the order of the day. All of these problems gave birth to a whole slew of private mail companies like Aerocasillas and JetBox.
However, with the help of various sectors of the previous administrations the country’s postal system has made a comeback and is now a respectable institution.
In the year 2006, 80 percent of the company’s income came from sending correspondence and 20 percent came from telegrams. Today this trend has changed with letters only make up 30 percent of the earnings and 70 percent coming from the new services the postal Correos de Costa Rica now provides.
In addition, EMS Courier service, which is similar to DHL or Fedex, has shown a 28 percent growth rate. All of this is despite the fact that the volume of traditional mail in almost every country in the world has dropped by an average 15 percent due to the growth of e-mail and the Internet.
Today the country’s postal system is not just a place to send and receive correspondence. Now this institution offers new innovative services for Costa Ricans, foreign residents and retirees. The new services are: Box Correos ( for purchasing over the Internet, www.boxcorreos.com), the implementation of call centers, the delivery of new license plates, the registering of firearms, the distribution and delivery of packages and documents like residency cédulas, visas to travel to the U.S. and judicial summons are just some of the new services offered by Correos de Costa Rica.
All of this has enabled Correos de Costa Rica to recover financially and become viable institution. This growth is reflected by the number of new employees which has risen from 1,083 in 2006 to 1,700 presently.
The aforementioned improvement has been so notable that Correos de Costa Rica was selected as one of the finalists for the World Mail Triangle award. Not only public but private mail services like DHL are competing for this honor. Costa Rica is the only country from Latin America that is a contender.
This is not the only honor for Correos de Costa Rica, In 2012 it was chosen by the Chamber of Commerce as the most innovative business in the country.
Article by Christopher Howard | Live in Costa Rica Blog
