KUCHING: The federal government should improve the postal service following a spike in dependency to the service since the imposition of the nationwide movement restrictions.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said there have been numerous complaints by the public on the postal service such as long queues to collect parcels and the lengthy time taken for parcels to arrive at its destination.
“The government especially the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia should look into improving the poor services at all the post offices including Poslaju especially during this conditional movement control order (CMCO) period.
“This is for the convenience of the public especially as we encourage more online or e-commerce to reduce the risk of crowds and also spread of Covid-19 in shops or shopping malls,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Dr Yii said, due to the surge in online shopping and the use of courier services, many 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 were normally done.
“This is not supposed to happen as they have paid for the delivery charges. Instead, customers will have to go to the Poslaju centre and queue up to four hours just to take their parcels.
“In some cases, parcels ordered months ago also somehow got lost even though the online tracker states that it has arrived at the centre.
“I will also raise this concern up to the Ministry in Parliament and will also write officially to the Ministry to address this issue,” he said.
He added the Ministry should look into ways to improve the service especially when the government was encouraging more people to get into e-commerce, or online businesses as the nation adapts to the new norm.
“They should look into improving their delivery services, hiring more delivery person, investing into assets that will quicken the sorting of parcels and even opening more counters for collection.
“While there are also other private courier services, the government should take the lead and improve their own courier service — Poslaju, especially to further encourage e-commerce trading and also for the people to adapt to the new normal,” he said.
