Industry comments will
shape revised regulations
COURIER OPERATORS are anxiously awaiting the outcome of negotiations with the Department of Communications which will decide whether or not they will have the right to continue booking and carrying packages weighing less than one kilo.
A series of meetings between the service sector and the Postal Regulator's division of the department have been held ever since news that postal authorities intended implementing regulations which gave them exclusivity over the handling of this size package sent shock waves through the industry.
In terms of Section 61 of the Postal Services Act of 1998, parcels weighing up to one kilo have to be sent through the postal authorities. With many smaller courier companies depending on the dispatch of documents, this spelt disaster for their future existence.
But the Postal Regulator's office responded by calling for submissions from the industry regarding its concerns. Topping the list was the vast number of job losses in the private sector that strict implementation of the law would cause.
The department called for a revised set of regulations to be in place by end March, and a spokesman told Airfreight Express that these had been shaped around the many comments received from the industry which were considered Ôenlightening and very helpful to the directorate'.
"They have been most co-operative in dealings with us," says a leading Gauteng courier operator. "I think they have understood our dilemma. We, the bigger ones, could have gone on with our business caring for the heavier parcels. But so many of the little guys would have gone to the wall, had the rules been imposed on us.
"We still don't know the outcome, and we've been told that we can expect to hear later in April. It's a case of holding thumbs and waiting."
