Why does mail sent to Europe take months to arrive?

Dear Editor,

When you send a letter abroad you must pay more for the postage than if you send one to a destination within Guyana. That is understandable. What is not understandable is that the mail to Europe takes months before the letter reaches the addressees. In 2012 I sent some letters to Germany. The addressees got the letters two to three months later. So why must one pay more for a service which the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) cannot provide?

Also mail from Germany to Guyana takes up to three months. Yesterday, I received a letter from Germany after 146 days! The record is broken.

Guyana now has a flag carrier in the form of Caribbean Airlines. Nevertheless, the mail takes months before reaching the various destinations.

Why? My information is that post office corporations all over in the world must pay freight costs to the airlines for the mail. That is the reason you have to pay more for the airmail service.

Is it that the GPO doesn’t like to pay the costs charged by the airlines? If that is the case, where are they ‘parking’ all the mail from Guyana to the addressees abroad? It seems that the GPO has some problems. I forgot to mention that in the 1990s a letter from Germany to Guyana took only two to five days.

Yours faithfully,
Hans M Buer

Editor’s note

We are sending a copy of this letter to Ms Nicola Berkley, the Customer Services Officer of  the Guyana Post Office Corporation for any comment she might wish to make.