State enterprise Thailand Post has joined hands with food delivery platform Robinhood, utilising postal workers to assist the Thailand-based app in delivering food from eateries in Bangkok's inner-city areas during rush hours.
The Thailand Post workers are expected to support Robinhood in the delivery of food items from eateries located in the Bang Rak, Yannawa and Rong Muang areas of Bangkok.
Robinhood is operated by Purple Ventures, under SCB X Group.
The cooperation with Robinhood is expected to help increase the income of small restaurants using postal workers for delivery services, said Dhanant Subhadrabandhu, chief executive of Thailand Post.
"The postal workers can offer food delivery for customers at home or in the office during rush hours, when food orders spike but the number of drivers is limited," he said.
Mr Dhanant said postal workers have greater potential than courier services, which could help strengthen Robinhood's professional delivery services.
Srihanath Lamsam, managing director of Purple Ventures, said the cooperation is in line with both firms' intention to assist small-scale vendors and drivers. The move also allows postal workers to earn extra income by working for Robinhood, he said.
In the initial period, the focus will be on food delivery, but in the future postal workers could assist by delivering groceries and other products available on the platform, he said.
"Robinhood is preparing an intensive training course for Thailand Post's workers to level up their skills and capacity, in line with our service standards," said Mr Srihanath.
Thailand Post is pursuing a major transformation plan as it faces stiff competition from various parcel delivery rivals, particularly financially strong foreign operators.
Thailand Post posted a record net loss of 1.6 billion baht in 2021, including over 500 million baht allocated for its early retirement programme, a significant drop from the net profit of 300 million baht it recorded in 2020.
