Communications Authority locks out rogue courier operators

The Communications Authority of Kenya is instituting tighter controls on courier operators in a bid to rein in on rogue players. The telecommunications industry regulator said it would start measuring the quality of service offered by courier operators and penalise players for delays in delivery, damage, loss or theft of parcels as well as the physical attack on their staff.

Since the semi liberalisation of the postal and courier sub-sector, the industry has grown in terms of private sector participation that have not always delivered as per agreements with clients. Some of the entrants include public service vehicle operators, where though there are many that competently double up as courier operators, there are those that have failed their customers.

CA has set parameters against which it will gauge the quality of services offered by courier firms. These include requirements to deliver a parcel within the same town on the same day and the following day for parcels going to other towns across the country. Operators will get five days to deliver a parcel to hardship areas, which according to CA are places with adverse climatic, infrastructural and security conditions largely located in Northern Kenya and parts of Rift Valley.

“The primary objective of quality of service standards is to provide a basis on which the Authority can assess the performance of operators,” said the authority on Tuesday when it published the parameters for measuring quality of service among courier operators. CA expects the public and industry players to give their views on the parameters by March 6.

“It is required that operators release quarterly reports and publish their quality of service performance through their internal tests and the Authority undertakes independent surveys on performance status of the operators. The standards ensure that users get value for money in the process of seeking services from operators.”

Set parameters

Postal and courier services are becoming critical as Kenyans slowly take up to e-commerce, which need a reliable parcel delivery industry and a credible addressing system to thrive. CA last year shutdown 39 couriers for non-compliance with regulatory requirements, some of which had been operating without licences.

This has seen the number of operators now stand at 170 while the outlets operated by courier subsector reduced to 1,599 as of September 2016 from 2,117 in March 2016.

It has implemented a similar Quality of Service among mobile phone operators, which jointly paid a fine of Sh190 million in 2015 for failure to meet the set parameters such as dropped calls, non-completed calls and signal strength. This fine on mobile operators is equivalent to 0.1 per cent of their gross annual turnover.