New rules require courier firms to deliver within a day

Corporate News

A Postal Corporation employee carts parcels. PHOTO | FILE 

By MUTHOKI MUMO

In Summary

• The operators will have an extra day for items sent within Kenya except designated hardship areas.
• Customer satisfaction will also be taken into consideration under the proposed regulations.
• Similar regulations were first mooted in 2015.

Courier operators will be required to ensure same-day delivery for at least 80 per cent of all parcels sent within cities or face fines. 

Under proposed Quality of Service (QoS) standards by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) the operators will have an extra day for items sent within Kenya except designated hardship areas where they will have four days to make sure goods reach their destinations. International parcels will have to reach their destination five days after the day of posting.

The industry regulator already sets similar standards for the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) and is now keen to impose them on the private sector.

“Due to the market potential of postal courier service, proper performance measurement is needed in order to improve the overall service level,” said the CA in a document calling for public input on the standards.

Companies that damage or lose more than one per cent of parcels and letters will also be fined.

Customer satisfaction will also be taken into consideration under the proposed regulations with CA stipulating that the proportion of customer complaints to customer base should be less than one per cent.

Kenyans have until March 6 to submit their views on the standards.

Real-time tracking

This is not the first time that the CA is seeking to impose quality standards on couriers.

Similar regulations were first mooted in 2015. Last year, the Authority also said that it would require couriers to provide customers with real-time tracking of parcels.

Last year the regulator revoked the licences of 38 firms for failing to pay up their licence fees and engaging in businesses other than those stipulated in the government regulations.

Although the revocation of the licenses reduced the number of operators in the market, the sector has been on an overall growth trajectory over the last two decades with the end of Posta’s monopoly.

The latest statistics from the Authority indicate that there are 170 courier operators in the country running 1,599 outlets.

In the year ended June 2016, the number of courier items sent in Kenya rose to 3.8 million from 2.5 million the previous year.

With the growth of e-commerce in Kenya, the courier business is expected to grow. However, the industry faces its own challenges key among which is the lack of a proper addressing system in the country.