Chunghwa Post should form an emergency response team ahead of distribution of the government’s “Triple Stimulus Vouchers” on Wednesday next week to deal with any possible contingencies, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung said yesterday.

Lin watched a drill at the Jinnan Post Office in Taipei designed to test the employees’ responses to various scenarios, including how to deal with angry customers unhappy about having to wait in line for a long time.

Chunghwa Post has conducted several drills on facilitating distribution of the vouchers, but it still needs an emergency response team to monitor the situation nationwide and take quick action in case of an emergency, Lin said.

It also needs to inform the public about the procedures they should follow, as well as the time they can collect their vouchers, he said.

Given that the disabled and low-income citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic can start claiming their government subsidies on Wednesday as well, large crowds are expected at post offices, he said.

Chunghwa Post must ensure that all customers are properly guided, and those who want other postal services can access them, he said.

The waiting time for collecting vouchers should be no more than 20 minutes, he said.

Elderly or physically-challenged residents of remote villages who might have trouble collecting their vouchers in person should ask their borough or village wardens to do so on their behalf, he added.

Chunghwa Post Co president Chiang Jui-tang said that 23.97 million people are qualified to claim the vouchers and that as of yesterday, 10.35 million have either placed orders for the vouchers at convenience stores, or added the vouchers to their credit card or electronic payment accounts.

It is likely that the remaining 13.62 million people would start picking up the physical vouchers as of Wednesday, but if they choose to get them at post offices, it would take the company at least three weeks to process all the requests, as it can handle a maximum of 600,000 requests per day, Chiang said.

People who want to collect their vouchers at a post office should bring their National Health Insurance card and a NT$1,000 bill, on a day according to their national identification card number, and they should be able to get their vouchers within two-and-a-half minutes, he said.

Chunghwa Post said people with odd number IDs can claim their vouchers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, those with even numbers on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while Saturday would be open to all.

One person can claim vouchers on behalf of a maximum of five people, and the ID card number of the person making the pickup would determine what day they should go to a post office, it said.

On Saturday next week and the following Saturday, all 1,269 post offices would remain open until 5pm to process voucher requests, it said.