Necessity of cargo services, road network improvement.

Byline: Khalil Ahmed

PAGE: You views on cargo services and charges in Pakistan:

Barkatullah Lone: Cargo services industry in Pakistan has had little ups and downs in the last couple of decades but this industry has not had big jolts like other industries. Quality of cargo services whether it is local or international has always been good by all the companies operating in Pakistan.

Margins of cargo service companies are always squeezed due to the fierce competition of many local as well as multinational companies but still the cargo service companies are earning reasonable profit as the operational cost of this sector is not as high as other industries like manufacturing.

Cargo service companies, beyond all doubt, have rendered excellent services at corporate as well as individual level but the exorbitant increase in the price of courier in the last few years has been taken negative by the masses. With respect to pricing, one thing is still very positive that the cargo service prices in Pakistan are still much lower than countries like Saudi Arabia where I am living. Honestly speaking, it costs more than Rs 15,000/- to just send a single document through courier from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan.

Even the local (within Kingdom) courier charges are more than five times higher than local courier charges in Pakistan. Factually, this should have been the other way round as the operational cost of courier in GCC countries, in particular, in Saudi Arabia is much lower than Pakistan but the prices here are too high which indicate that the courier service companies of GCC are earning very high profits.

If we see the entire courier industry in Pakistan, we see that many companies have entered the market in the last twenty five years, which has made the market very competitive. This competitive market has benefited the final consumer in prices as well as quality of service. We should also thank to this industry as the courier service companies have generated good employment.

PAGE: How could Pakistan improve its cargo services?

Barkatullah Lone: Cargo services in Pakistan are already improved as the failure of timely delivery is probably lesser than 1% but still there is room to improve in some areas. The main area where improvement is needed is the time duration that it takes to deliver a courier. We have noted that it takes even a week to deliver a courier at some parts of Pakistan. I remember, last year I sent an item through courier from Lahore to...