Mail Service

In recent years the Indonesian mail service has improved greatly. Letters are rarely lost any more. Past horror stories of items stolen from every box delivered and letters being sent never to be seen again, are not commonplace. Letters take approximately:

• 2 to 3 days for Kilat service and 5 to 10 days for regular service

Bulk mail

Bulk mail broadly refers to mail that is mailed and processed in bulk at reduced rates. The term does not denote any particular purpose for the mail; in particular, it is not synonymous with "junk mail."

As an example, in the United States, the United States Postal Service (USPS) defines bulk mail broadly as "quantities of mail prepared for mailing at reduced postage rates." The preparation includes presorting and placing into containers by ZIP code. The containers, along with a manifest, are taken to an area in a post office called a bulk mail entry unit. The presorting and the use of containers allow highly automated processing of the mail, both in bulk and piecewise, in processing facilities called bulk mail centers (BMCs).

In 2009, the USPS announced plans to streamline sorting and delivery, which would recast the BMCs as "Network Distribution Centers".

Certified Mail

 

United States 15c certified mail stamp of 1955, postman

Certified Mail is a type of Special Service mail offered by the United States Postal Service and other postal services which allows the sender proof of mailing, as well as proof of delivery.Certified Mail also provides the sender with a copy of the recipient's signature, which is obtained at the time of delivery, by the Postal Service. Certified Mail is only available for Priority Mail and First Class Mailletters mailed within the United States and its territories (including APOs and FPOs). Each piece of certified mail is assigned a unique tracking number. This number serves as both an official record of mailing and receipt of the item by the Postal Service.

Sending Letters

There are several types of mail service for letters:

pos udara	international air mail service
express	international delivery in 2-3 working days
kilat biasa	domestic delivery
kilat khusus	overnight domestic delivery
terdaftar	registered

Post offices, kantor pos, are located throughout the city. Ask your driver or a neighbor for the location of the nearest post office. You may prefer, for example, to send your mail from the larger post offices, kantor pos wilayah, to ensure quicker delivery and availability of stamps. Smaller post offices often run out of various denomination stamps and may not provide complete postal services. You can easily send your driver or other household staff, to the local post office to mail your letters for you.
Indonesia has an active philatelic association and regularly produces beautifully designed stamps and first day covers highlighting special events, famous people or items of cultural interest. There is a philatelic museum at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta.
General inquiry numbers for the Indonesian Central Post Office are (62-21) 384-7120, or 381-4427.

Sending Packages

Packages, as a rule, are best sent from larger post offices. Some small post offices will not even accept packages. There is a separate entrance for the office that handles packages. It's best not to seal up your box ahead of time as the postal officials may want to see the contents first. The postal staff will help you to pack, wrap and tape up your package, for a small fee. The bigger post offices also sell the packaging materials.
When receiving packages from overseas, your mailman will leave a notification slip at your home which tells you where to pick up the package. Give your driver or household staff: 1) the slip, signed on the back, 2) the fee (which is written on the slip-usually Rp 7,500 to 10,000) as well as, 3) a photocopy of your KITAS identification card. With these items in hand he should be able to retrieve the package for you.
Shipped parcels will be granted a duty-free limit of US$50. Whenever these limits are exceeded, however, import duties will apply. So, if the items sent to you in a package have a value of over US$50, as claimed by the sender on the customs slip, you will be charged duty. Dutiable packages have to picked up at the main post office for your mayoralty. To avoid the hassle and customs fees, it is recommended (even by the postal workers themselves) to put a value of less than $50 on incoming packages from abroad.
Quick Tip: Tracking numbers work way better than positive thinking when it comes to international postal service. Choose a shipping method that allows you to track your package's progress.

Pos Keliling

In many locations across town there are mobile post offices housed in orang mini-vans which park in various parking lots at the same time each day. When their back window is open they are open for business. You can send mail and purchase stamps from these pos keliling.

Parcel post

 

is a service of a postal administration for sending parcels through the post. It is generally one of the less expensive ways to ship packages that are too heavy to be sent by regular letter post and is usually a slower method of transportation.

Express Mail from Abroad

Please be aware that delivery estimates from abroad are often off by as much as 1-2 weeks. Your post office in the US, for example, may say that something you send to Indonesia will arrive in 3-5 days. Two weeks later your recipient still has not received the package/envelope. Consider that delivery estimate the time it takes to get to the main Indonesian Post office. From there delivery can take from 1-4 weeks within Indonesia. Express Mail from abroad is handled the same as regular mail and gets no preferential delivery time. If timeliness is an issue, use a reliable courier company like DHL.

Thanking Your Mailman

It is advisable to give a token of your appreciation to your mailman just prior to Lebaran, Rp 50,000 or an appropriate amount. If you receive a lot of mail at Christmas time, it may be wise to tip your mailman at that time too. These small gestures will help to ensure that your mail will be delivered promptly and that letters and packages don't go astray.

Know Your Address

To ensure delivery of your mail, be sure to give your correspondents your complete address. This will include the name of your housing complex (if any), street name and number, the kelurahan, kecamatan, city and postal code (zip code). If you don't know your address, ask your landlord or check your phone/electric bills as they list the complete address. Postal codes are listed in the index of the Falk Street Atlas.
A typical address:
Eliy Executive
Kompleks Eksekutip Paradiso
Jl. Arteri No. 58
Cilandak Timur, Pasar Minggu
Jakarta Selatan 12430
Indonesia
Many housing areas use a system of numbered and lettered blocks, for example:
Tommy Techie
Kompleks Pertambangan
Jl. Mas VI Blok S9 No. 7
Cipete Selatan, Cilandak
Jakarta Selatan 12620
Indonesia
Other areas do not have named roads and are simply designed with the RT and RW:
Susie Sunshine
RT 07/ RW 009
Desa Kaliwangi, Kel. Mandiluhur
Kec. Ayu, Jawa Tengah 24550
Indonesia

Courier Services

Several international courier services have offices in Jakarta, including DHL, FedEx, and UPS. They provide international-standard door-to-door services with the only additional charges being Duty and Taxes. These can be high in Indonesia, but they are levied against the value of the goods and the type of commodities. Goods such as golf clubs attract luxury tax, so if you are shipping these in be prepared to pay something like an additional 50-60% of the value to the government in duty and tax. Personal items and items of low value (about US$50 or below) should generally flow through duty free.
Use a courier service that has a transparent system and is up front about additional charges paid to the Customs for duty or warehouse charges. Goods under US$50 that go straight through Customs have no additional charges from DHL.
It is also helpful if the courier service has an automated shipment tracking service available through their web site. Through this service you can track any shipment you have made or that is being sent to you to know it's location at any time.
There are many domestic courier services. Two of the more reliable for sending packages in Indonesia for a low cost are Tiki and JNE. Call the main office, listed in the yellow pages, to ask for the agent nearest you.

Company Mail Pouch

Some companies allow their expatriate employees limited use of the company mail pouch. Ask before you come if you have use of this facility. Personal letters can be sent in the mail pouch that goes out to the head office on a regular basis. The letters will be dropped in the domestic mail on the other end. If you do have use of this company facility, be sure to bring a good supply of stamps from your home country to mail letters using your domestic postage. Likewise, the company may allow you to receive mail through the mail pouch, though the company may have restrictions on the number or size of packages and they may not allow you to receive periodicals.

Stopping Package Delivery

In answer to the many inquiries from we receive from abroad, there is no one involved with this website that can assist you to stop delivery of a package to an Indonesian address. You need to contact the Indonesian Central Post Office are (62-21) 384-7120, or (62-21) 381-4427, or contact them through their website at www.posindonesia.co.id