How to send a letter via Indian Post Office

Dated:14-Sep-2019 New Delhi India 13:17 hrs

Put your typed or handwritten letter sheet inside a correct size envelope ! Glue it

Write Complete To & From Name, Address, Delivery P.O,Pin Code,Mobile # of both Sender & Receiver in Centre & Bottom Left of the Envelope ! Don't shirk on this for your own good.

On Top centre of the front face of envelope write “By Ordinary Post”,On Top Left Write “Urgent” & “To be Delivered On Or Before “DD/MM/YYYY”

If you have a needle pointer or digital weighing scale at home weight it,if not visit the post office ! Carry a Tube of Fevistik Glue Stick from home as Indian Post Offices don't have glue or if they 've, it doesn't 've adequate sticking power.

After weighing, purchase & paste postal stamps @ Rs 5 per 20 gms or part there of on Top Right Side of the front face of envelope.Ex: for 20 gms Rs 5.00,50 gms Rs 15,100 gms Rs 25, 110 gms Rs 30 & so on.

Put your envelope in the post box outside the post office, keeping your ears, to the bottom, of the box, so that, you hear the letter drop, on the metal box floor ! Note the Box No,date time of posting & clearance timings.Wait one week to a fortnight for it to be delivered depending upon distance !

Over weight/under postage paid Envelopes ‘ll be penalised, fined, which is recoverable, from Receiver,If he refuses to accept the letter & pay the fine, then it’ll be returned to sender who ‘ll be fined twice plus the cost of returning the letter ‘ll be recovered from him.

If you post your letter without sender address & it is under postage paid detected at Delivery P.O which the receiver refuses to accept it’ll be destroyed.

The Post Office sells Inland Letter Card(ILC) Post Card(PC) for ₹ 2.50,₹0.50 for within India & ₹ 15.00 Aerogramme Card for International Mail which you can purchase & keep in stock, if you wish to write short letters regularly within the space available therein but no enclosures are allowed in these.

The P.O also sells a Pre-Stamped ₹ 5.00 envelope + ₹ 1.00 stationery cost for upto 20gms letter weight but it's size is very small for a A4 sheet to fit without folding twice.

All 4 can be posted in any India Post Box which has a lock & will reach it's destination safely within 1 week ! Aerograme may take upto 15 days depending on Country !

But each ILC & PC delivered will incurr a loss of Rs 7.00 & Rs 11.65 to India Post which is in a net loss of 15,000 crores for FY 2018–2019.

If you want your letters to be delivered with 99% guarantee within a certain time frame then opt for Registered or Speed Post ! Registration Fees is Rs 17.00 plus the postage as per grams for envelope as given above in my example ! For this you 've to visit the P.O each time.

No need to paste postal stamps for sending by Registered or Speed Post ! Just mark the envelope “By Registered or By Speed Post” & hand it over to the P.O Counter Assistant, who will weight it in a Digital Scale, affix a bar code tracking number i.e RT or ET/ED, put the details in the CSI System, print a postage cum addressee addressor receipt,one ‘ll be pasted on the envelope, other ‘ll be handed to the sender for tracking & Postage Fee in cash collected.

Carry sufficient coins(1,2,5,10) lower(₹ 10–50) higher(₹ 100–200) denomination notes if you'vnt calculated the exact postage in advance ! If done, tender exact amount, to the P.O Counter Assistant to save his, yours & the time, of those behind U in Q. Don't try to get change for a ₹ 500/2000 note at the counter out of your SP & RP work of ₹ 102 ! This ain't the correct place for this & you 'll be the end loser in terms of short cash returned.

Please check the Speed Post/Registered Post Receipt at counter itself to ensure that the postal assistant has fed the correct addressee name, delivery pin code, postage, in the CSI system. If wrong, immediately correct it there & then.

This happened to me on 30–07–2019 in a local speed post of Rs 18. The addressee pin code was 110067 but it was entered by the clerk as 110035. I didn’t check it at the counter but only the next day. But as other Quoran’s have written, by Lord’s grace it was sorted manually at NSH Delhi and sent to Pin Code 110067 correctly and delivered the next day 31–07–2019 itself by 1400 hrs.

This P.O Booking receipt with tracking # needs to be preserved till RP & SP are delivered but even longer for reimbursement purposes or for any other purpose under law.

National Speed post can be booked in any P.O but international Speed Post cannot be done so. This needs to be ascertained before at your local town. 

Please don't send cash via RP & SP as they’ll get detected in X Ray machine during processing & returned to sender who can be fined for subverting money order rules,by trying to avoid paying money order commission which is ₹ 1 for ₹ 20 M.O sent !

In certain cases envelope may be marked lost in transit/non traceable not handled by India Post being opened by postal staff & booty shared !

Under law the reimbursement for non insured, non declared value of goods, merchandise, documents, sent under RP & SP is Rs 500 only, that too, after a prolonged legal process.

Rates via Speed Post is much higher ‘ll vary depending on weight & distance which can be calculated on Post Info App or India post website. Speed Post is also loaded with 18% GST.

In certain long distance >2000 kms or even local mail after a certain weight sending via “The Professional Couriers”(TPC) would be cheaper quicker than Regd Post or Speed Post !

My personal example. On 07–08–2019 @ 1730 hrs, I sent 2*Quantum Blister Pack, PC USB Sound Card Sticks,packed, wrapped in a Bubble Foam envelope(150 gms) from PIN Code 110005 to PC 641041 a distance of 2,750 kms via TPC, it costed ₹ 70, was delivered on 10–08–2019 @ 16:45 hrs in pristine condition with no damage or tampering.

By Speed Post it 'd have costed ₹ 82 + standing in Q in PO + Delivery only on 12–08–2019 or later.

If you write frequent letters in A4 Size paper & post them,then keep a Stock of Rs 5, 10, 20 postal stamps with proper size brown or white envelopes, A 1 Kg plastic or digital weighing scale, at home/office, so that, you don't have to go to the post office everytime & letters can be posted in your nearest post box.

Also keep printed address labels of sender & receiver with Mobile # so that they can just be pasted in middle & bottom left of the envelope which'll save time & repeated writing labour !

The above is what I practice myself. I make use of speed & registered post for those mails which can be sent by 15:00 hrs from my local P.O and The Professional Couriers for mail beyond 15:00 to 19:00 hrs with no concern towards cost.

Upon your first visit to your home/office nearby P.O get the Landline # of that P.O & Mobile # of Counter Booking Assistant ! Next time before visiting, call & confirm that the P.O CSI System of Booking SP,RP & Finacle System for Small Savings Accounts is working & then visit the P.O otherwise it 'll be a wasted trip & unnecessary anguish, cursing all.

These days P.O System Downtime has become in months after TCS implemented CSI in my nearest East Patel Nagar P.O-110008.

Writing the above made me remember those days in 1980-2002, when during four consecutive postal or festival holidays, post boxes, used to be filled with mail overflowing from top ! We used to keep latest pin code directory, stamp book, urgent wax seals,a good stock of postal stationery, copy book,stamps etc @ home !

After posting letters, I used to wonder, as to where, 'd be my posted letter, at a given point in time, in it’s 5 days 2800 kms journey, wishing I’d a handheld, Led Display Monitoring System, like Euro Rail Control Munich, Germany, as shown in Alistair McLean “Death Train” Hollywood Movie.

Till year 2002, STD Calls, via PCO's Landlines used to cost ₹ 100 p/mts during day & ₹ 25 p/mts at night.

Post was the lifeline, for the majority of Indians, till 2002, when waiting list on wireline phones was abolished, they became available on demand,May 2003 when incoming calls became free on GSM Mobiles,Dec 2005-Jan 2006 Life Time Free Incoming calls schemes led to one person one mobile revolution !

Till year 2002 end before e-mail, SMS, became regular, in my Local S.O Delivery, it was 24*7 with 8 Hrs Shift for Mail Sorting, Both Incoming Delivery & Outgoing Mail Rcvd at Counters & those Collected from Post Boxes !

When one ’d to send important reply letters during the same day by evening for mail received in the morning one ’d to rush to the Post Box to post the mail before collection time & if missed chase the box clearer mail man & handover the mail to him so that it would be loaded on same days night train or flight !

Mails used to be sorted even in RMS Coaches attached to long distance trains like JAT-CAPE Himsagar Express & big sacks of mail thrown on platforms of important stations from RMS & picked up by RMS enroute. I remember seeing this in 1983 [@ 6 yrs of age] on NDLS-MAS Route Train # 12616 G.T Express.

Then due to Volume of Mail, Post Boxes were Segregated in Green, Red, Blue for Local National, Metro City, Mails ! They used to be painted in a special post office red color shade regularly & as a 7 year old Chandamama Magazine Child, I used to watch it with keen interest & fascination.

Innocently I used to ask my parents as how the letters put in the box don't go to “Bhuma Devi” i.e the “Goddess of Earth” but reach others !

Now 3 post boxes outside my residential area in Red are lying deserted, dusty with none to care, admire, adore, respect them,about their service rendered in the past. It has been years,they haven't been painted ! But they are opened daily once @ 12:30 p.m[Seen myself on 09–09–2019] by postal staff .

Technology & Time destroyed them but still they have their use like the good old pen, paper, pocket book, bicycle,Wireline Telephone,2G Feature Phone, MW/FM Radio. For international postage rates click Current Postal Rates in India

Swami Aniruddha !