BY SOON LI WEI
Postal service steps up on entrepreneurship programme to meet e-commerce demand
Pos Malaysia Bhd is offering its employees new income-generating opportunities to earn a better living.
This is being done through the company’s Entrepreneurship Programme (EP) which allows their delivery personnel to become their business partners in the last-mile delivery of parcels and mail.
As of January 2021, a total of 798 delivery partners were working with Pos Malaysia through EP with potential earnings of RM7,000 to RM8,000 in commissions every month, compared to their fixed salaries of less than RM2,500 they earned prior to joining the programme.
EP is part of Pos Malaysia’s five-year transformation plan and it is aimed at providing new income opportunities for the employees and plays an important role in scaling-up last-mile delivery capacity, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic’s new normal period.
Pos Malaysia Postal Services chief executive officer Mohamed Rozaidi Md Sharif said the introduction of EP as their delivery partner programme was also part of their initiative to offer opportunities for their B40 (Bottom 40 percent group) employees to earn a better living.
The EP is also aligned with the initiatives under the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) to promote employment and reskilling of Malaysians, especially those in the B40 group, to help with the country’s recovery.
“The EP is aimed at providing our delivery personnel the opportunity to become an entrepreneur and independent delivery agent and enable them to own their own business and generate a better income,” he told Bernama recently, adding that all delivery personnel including courier employees are eligible to participate in the programme.
He said a total of 18,500 Pos Malaysia employees are earning below RM2,500, which effectively places them in the B40 group.
Pilot programme
Pos Malaysia conducted an EP pilot programme at the Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur Pos Laju centres in November 2019, where it managed to attract 19 Pos Malaysia delivery personnel to sign up for the programme.
With the success of the pilot scheme, Pos Malaysia implemented the second phase of EP by recruiting an additional 22 delivery employees based at the Bandar Baru Bangi and Wangsa Maju Pos Laju centres.
“Pos Malaysia’s proof-of-delivery rate has increased to more than 95 percent. This is good for the company in the long term as it has raised customer confidence levels through enhanced efficiency and reliability.
“As of January 2021, a total of 798 delivery partners were working closely with Pos Malaysia through EP,” Mohamed Rozaidi said.
EP benefits
Mohamed Rozaidi said similar to the Pos Rider initiative which is open to non-employees, EP partners can keep 100 percent of the commission they earn from each parcel delivered.
“In ensuring the success and sustainability of EP, Pos Malaysia provides programme participants with essential assistance, which includes business start-up capital and a vehicle ownership plan.
“The delivery partners are offered discounts for the purchase of Pos Malaysia delivery vehicles such as vans and motorcycles for their business.”
Free entrepreneurship courses are also conducted for EP participants to enable them to learn the basics of running a business and how to maximise the opportunities provided through the programme.
“Parcel volume is guaranteed for EP entrepreneurs to gain a consistent income,” he added.
Mohamed Rozaidi said delivery employees who are interested in participating in the programme can get in touch with their Delivery Outsourcing Unit or fill up an EP Application Google Form online.
He said all applicants are required to go through a screening process “to ensure that our delivery partners meet our requirements and quality standards”. They should be adept in delivery operations and should not be under probation or investigation for misconduct or facing any disciplinary action.
“Based on the programme, we found that the productivity levels of our delivery personnel have increased, motivating them to do more and providing them a better livelihood,” pointed out Mohamed Rozaidi.
Moving forward
Mohamed Rozaidi said the introduction of EP is also timely as demonstrated during the first movement control order (MCO) last year when parcel volume soared to a record high, prompting Pos Malaysia to turn to their delivery partners to cope with the deliveries.
“During MCO 1.0, Pos Malaysia processed an average of 487,000 parcels daily, with the highest number being 800,000 parcels a day. Similarly, during the current MCO 2.0 and in conjunction with the Chinese New Year, our parcel volume surged to above 800,000 parcels a day,” he said.
Mohamed Rozaidi said EP delivery partners played a critical role in helping Pos Malaysia to deal with the surge in parcel volume and helped the company to move more parcels than usual with improved speed and efficiency.
“Due to this, we were able to cope with the unexpected increase in parcel volume while managing cost efficiency,” he added.
Mohamed Rozaidi said EP is set to enhance Pos Malaysia’s capacity in handling higher parcel volume in the future and help mitigate the cost of delivering one million parcels a day, which the company aims to achieve by the end of this year.
“The increasing trend of e-commerce necessitates a larger last-mile delivery capacity. As customers increasingly rely on it for retail purchases, fast delivery has become a key demand and requirement for customers as part of their seamless online shopping experience.
“With the increasing trend in courier volume, we need to have a flexible and dynamic courier delivery network, which the EP has helped to establish,” he said.
“Currently, EP is available in all states and we are planning to expand the programme across major cities in Malaysia and aim to recruit up to 2,000 postmen entrepreneurs under this programme by the end of this year,” he added. – Bernama
