Private courier services lose sheen

Nellore: Courier services which thrived due to negligent postal staff and their lax activities earlier is now facing doldrums in the district with exorbitant charges and poor services. Postal department picked up in technical aspects like introducing computers, online transactions, speed services and others. 

• Customers prefer Postal dept over private couriers due to exorbitant charges, delayed services
• Postal department is gradually gaining popularity with good services at affordable charges
• Computers, online services, tracking facility and less charges are attracting consumers

The falling down trend had started as soon as the courier services increased charges even for Hyderabad and other cities across Telugu states. Earlier, the cost of a small cover that contains one to two papers was Rs 10-15 and it gradually increased to Rs 30-40. 

After introducing the GST, just for a hike of Rs 2, they increased Rs 10 on each packet which now augmented to Rs 50, a minimum charge. “We were getting huge business earlier before GST. But, after the system, these people have increased the charges excessively.

The Postal department is accepting speed post for Rs 25-30 while private courier services are collecting Rs 200. Unable to bear the huge charges, consumers and are gradually switching over to the Postal department even though they are having technical problems. 

Our business reduced by more than 50 per cent when compared to the previous months,” said an employee working from a popular courier service in the city. The service time of the courier services is also similar to the Postal department which distributes the material within 2-3 days.

If the consumers demand for immediate service to be delivered on the very next day, they are charging Rs 200-350 per packet depending up on their brand name. So, finding no difference in service timings and huge variation in charges, consumers are now standing in queue lines at post office branches for handing over the parcel packets. 

An employee of a sub post office in the city said the business has gradually been increasing due to failure of courier services delivering on time. The speed post and others are the popular now as the packets would be delivered within 2-3 working days at comfortable charges. “I had to send a key to Bengaluru within next 2 to 3 days and approached a popular courier service, who demanded Rs 350 for a small packet.

Then, I handed over it at a post office and booked under speed post where they charged Rs 41 only. It reached on time,” said P R Teja from AK Nagar area. He enquired several other courier services, but they quoted excess charges for a small packet. Now, speed post and others are also similar to the courier services where the tracking is also available to the consumers. So, they can track parcel’s movement and check the delay if any. 

“The problem comes with the technical aspects where the employees of the Postal department behave indecently in case of any failures. On Thursday, I waited for more than one hour to book a registered post. The clerk at the post office was not responding and finally informed the service was not available,” said Ranjith, works with a vehicle dealer from AK Nagar, who tried to book 5 parcels. 

By P V Prasad