Dear All,
You'll be happy to
know that the Dte Canteen Services and QMG's Br are working on implementing
this. I was told that there are some issues which need to be resolved, which is
only to be expected. So let's look fwd to a major improvement in collection of
CSD items, both for the units and for us consumers.
Regards, Dhiren Bahl
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Forwarded message
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From: WordsWay
To: ddgcs@csdindia.gov.in
; qmgbr-ihq@nic.in
Sent: Sunday, 3
May, 2020, 04:38:16 pm IST
To The Quartermaster
General Sena Bhawan Army HQ
The Directorate of
Canteen Services Army HQ CSD
Subject: CSD
Items Home Delivery Delivery
Amazon, Flipkart,
etc. are doing home delivery of all kinds of goods, size and weight no object.
If serving and retired personnel can log in to the website of a CSD
canteen/depot in the station/city, check the availability and costs of the
items they want, and place their orders, to be delivered at their homes as with
Amazon, Flipkart, etc, imagine the amount of savings which will
accrue to lakhs of people not using their own vehicles or public transport for
going to the CSD canteens, searching for their items of choice, hauling them
around in carts, waiting in long queues, paying, and driving back several kms.
The saving of petrol alone, plus the time, effort, tension of traffic, etc.
will make customers happy to pay for delivery charges, sitting comfortably at
home.
This system will be
especially welcomed by the super-seniors and those who have
difficulty in movement or travel. Distribution of canteen profits can be done
on the basis of the type and number of cards of each URC (Unit-Run Canteen).
The number of URCs in a station can be drastically reduced, retaining two or
three for those who are not comfortable with online shopping. Manpower of URCs
can be pooled, with an overall reduction. Units will save transport for
collecting from CSD Depots.
The space saved by
closing several canteens in stations all over the country can be better utilised
for other purposes, like additional ECHS Polyclinics (PCs), for which
accommodation would otherwise have to be hired or constructed, e.g. the NOIDA
PC has around four times dependency than its sanctioned capacity of
20,000-plus, so if the Central Org ECHS wants, the space vacated by the Sector
21 Air Force CSD can well be given to ECHS to open another PC, which will be
much more beneficial for residents of Jal Vayu Vihar than going to the Sector
37 PC.
Such spaces saved can
be hired out to banks, for AWWA shops , other shops, ATMs, etc. as was the case
with the Sena Bhawan Canteen earlier. For units/formations in field areas the
present system of URCs will perforce have to continue.
The existing system
of levying taxes will need no change.
The website should be
a secure one accessible only by logging in with ones Canteen Card no. as the
user ID and the PIN as the password.
Annual contracts will
need to be done for collection from depots and home delivery as with Amazon,
etc. which outsource this function while taking a suitable security deposit
depending upon the value of items handled by the logistics contractors.
Packaging for
sensitive items like liquor will have to be good, to be given in the contract.
Since customers will not have physically seen the items they have ordered, a
return and refund policy will be required, returns to be checked in the
presence of the delivery person. Covid-19 precautions in situations like the
present and minimisation of infection even in normal times will also be much easier
to follow, compared to scores of customers in cramped spaces in canteens.
The operating models
of Amazon, Flipkart, Grofers, etc. must be studied, and a pilot project
undertaken in one or two stations in addition to the existing canteens to test
the feasibility, response of customers, and teething troubles.
This is an idea whose
time has come, greatly successful with retail chains in India and the world.
CSD being the single
largest retail chain in India should certainly find this model both financially
more profitable for itself, as well as preferred by customers.
CSD has to keep pace
with the times.
Resistance to change
is always to be expected to any new idea whether by the users or others, but if
this system is found better and cheaper, it deserves consideration, at
least of a trial.
Lt Col Dhiren
Bahl
Mob: 9868112671
(Source : Via Gp e-mail FROM BB GHAI)
