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Fourth, the Post Office guarantees to meet all advance orders, even if this means printing more stamps.
Fifth, all post offices will be open from 8 am - 4 pm, compared to 9.30 am - 5 pm for most offices on weekdays.
"These measures, taken together, will minimise the need to queue, and will greatly speed up our ability to handle those who still decide to queue," said Mr Footman.
The Post Office also plans to nearly double the number of security guards on duty from 300 to 570, and to increase its own staff on crowd control by about 100. The Post Office will use discs throughout the day to avoid queue jumping. And it will further strengthen its cooperation with the Police.
To ensure that these and other arrangements work smoothly, the Post Office will be mobilising the management grade from all divisions of the department to monitor arrangements across the network of post offices.
Mr Footman added "These measures have been developed through the Review Committee we established last month to examine arrangements for stamp sales. Membership of the Committee comprises representatives from the Post Office and, at our invitation, from the ICAC." Other measures agreed by the Review` Committee include the cessation of staff and customer relations sales.
Mr Footman said "These improvements build on the many improvements we have made over the past few months, in particular the Local Standing Order Service, under which some 57,000 customers have placed advance orders for stamps this year. With the added measures we are in a good position to meet our objectives to meet demand with maximum convenience to customers."
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He said "I must however add a word of caution. Demand for our stamps and related products is at unprecedented levels. It is clear that much of the upsurge in demand is related to this special time in Hong Kong's history. Stamps provide a good souvenir of this time and there are many people collecting our stamps now because of this.