KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — The Communications and Multimedia Ministry today announced a three-pronged action plan to upgrade and further improve the local courier industry following a dip in quality, user experience, and profitability despite increased patronage.
Its minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the initiative, called the Pakej action plan, aims to upgrade and further develop the industry to ensure first-class service, a properly integrated last-mile delivery system, while ensuring satisfactory user experiences.
Saifuddin said the plan was necessitated by the digitisation of the economy and many such services, and a spike in courier services users which in big part was due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He stressed the Pakej plan is not a stimulus package but a framework aimed at upgrading the industry, adding that approval for new courier licenses has been frozen since September last year to ensure the existing players are first up to par and the plan’s effectiveness.
“Over the period from the end of 2019 to 2020, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia and Commission (MCMC) discovered a significant drop in the quality of courier services.
“A huge part of customer companies received or about 86 percent involved bad service and treatment, delayed deliveries and even lost packages.
“The average of completed deliveries also rose from 2.1 days to 4.6 days. Even more surprising is profits of these companies also dwindled despite an increase in deliveries,” he said during a virtual press conference this evening.
He said such conditions show unhealthy development within the industry, and gave price dumping or undercutting as the industry’s main problem.
“An unhealthy industry will not be able to invest especially in efforts to digitise to further improve the quality of services to consumers,” he said.
Saifuddin said the initiative came following a discourse session organised by his ministry and MCMC with those in the business last year called National Postal and Courier Industry Lab (NCPIL).
He said the NCPIL drove home four objectives that service providers should bear in mind: reachability, reach, relevance and resilience.
Other objectives set under the Pakej action plan include setting up more independent parcel collection and pick-up centres, an effort to consolidate assets owned among service providers, a restructuring of courier service license conditions, condoning the use of more economical vehicles.
“(And) informing and adhering to the stipulated delivery periods while offering insurance and making available premium-level services,” Saifuddin said.
He added the measures implemented with the Pakej initiative will be monitored by his ministry and MCMC.
