KUCHING: The poor services experienced by many at courier services including PosLaju needs to be looked into during the Conditional Movement Control Period (CMCO) by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, says Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
Dr Yii said that doing so was for the convenience of the public, especially since many turn to e-commerce and online shopping to reduce the risk of crowds and to curb the spread of Covid-19 in shops or shopping malls.
“We have received multiple complaints from the public since the beginning of the MCO on how bad services are in post offices and Poslaju centres where people are forced to queue up for long hours.
“Due to the surge in online shopping and the use of courier services such as Poslaju during the MCO, many have complained that their parcels take up to two months to arrive and in most cases they do not send it directly to the homes as they normally would,” he said after a visit to the Poslaju Jalan Song centre today.
“I paid a visit to one of the Poslaju centres this morning and had a short meeting with the officers to better understand the issues faced as well as to give some suggestions to improve the services and cut waiting times for the public. They will implement some of these suggestions as well as look into hiring more part timers to make the necessary deliveries,” he revealed.
He added that this should not happen as the customers have paid for their parcels to be delivered to their doorstep, yet still had to personally go to Poslaju centres and queue up to four hours to collect their parcels.
In some cases, parcels ordered from months ago also somehow get lost even though Poslaju’s online tracking service stated that it had arrived at the centre, he said.
“We also received report of ‘runners’ given special treatment by cutting queues, delaying the whole waiting process for the rest of the public,” said Dr Yii.
“We are concerned as social distancing is not properly observed in some areas, and this runs the risk of the formation of a new cluster and the spread of Covid-19 especially among asymptomatic carriers.”
He added that he will raise this concern up to the Ministry in Parliament and through an official letter to address this issue.
While he understood the inconvenience suffered by the workers in courier services and Poslaju centres due to probable logistical issues due to the MCO, he said the Ministry should look into ways to improve the service especially as they now encourage more people to get into e-commerce and online businesses as everyone adapts to the new norm.
Dr Yii suggested that they should look into improving their delivery services, hiring more delivery personnel, investing into assets that will quicken the sorting of parcels and even opening more counters for collection.
“In order to see an improvement in e-commerce business in our country, the government must be proactive to upgrade, and improve our delivery services, as well as to prepare to enhance services even during the CMCO period. Even after two months, nothing much has improved and, in some places, services have gotten worst,” he lamented.
While there are also other private courier services, the government should take the lead and improve Poslaju.
In countries such as China, one of the reasons for their booming e-commerce secto, is affordable and efficient delivery services, he added.
“There is much for us to improve as we strive to reach those standards.”