Pos Malaysia Needs Our Attention

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IN THIS posting on Pos Malaysia - the national courier company which was supposed to soar higher years ago - let's take a peep into its prudential agenda for the coming years after some uncertainties hit the business.

As its FYE Dec 2019 was down 4.4 per cent mainly on the decline in postal services and aviation, the company is taking a very strategic approach to weather all these in order of Pos Malaysia to really reflect the 'national courier' flagship and stand better or at par with international courier companies.

The postal services which was down by RM61 million due to mail volume decline, the aviation sector down RM20 million on the back of cessation of AirAsia business and the sliding courier business by RM8 million due to a malware attack in October 2019 and intensified competition from others, were among the factors leading to its reduced annual earnings.

However, there were improvement to the contribution from other subsidiaries, namely Pos Digicert, Datapos and Pos ArRahnu by chalking an increase of RM11 million. This includes RM3.8 million from Pos Logistics.

The company posted a weaker performance from its postal services, courier and aviation business in the three months ended Sept 30, 2019, led it to post a net loss of RM29.33 million versus a net loss of RM16.57 million recorded in the same corresponding period last year.Revenue for the period fell 6.57 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to RM549.9 million as its core postal service business registered lower revenue of RM146.5 million due to continuous structural decline in traditional mail volume.The loss was a result of continuous decline in its mail volume and higher cost in serving the Universal Service Obligation (USO). It was also attributed to the continuing decline in the mail volume, coupled with the increasing costs in serving the USO to accommodate the increasing growth of addresses nationwide.Pos Malaysia launched the second Integrated Parcel Centre in Kuala Lumpur International Airport in April 2019, which has increased 78% of its capacity to 530,000 daily from 300,000.The statistics then dipped further before it was allowed by the government to hike its service tariff, which I opine should be done five or six years ago, and the management given a full GO in charting the company's business future.While the tariff hikes are minimal as compared to other courier companies in the region, Pos Malaysia's management is full of zest on providing among the best postal solutions to local and foreign customers as well as to its staff.As the transformation planning continues, the only essence missing here is the support from Malaysian conglomerates. For instance, when AirAsia terminated its contract, Pos Malaysia aviation revenue was very much affected when the airlines turned to others without even considering it.Local companies - public and private sector - must support our national company. When the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission issues licences to about 90 courier companies to operate in this sector, Pos Malaysia was not given a comprehensive highlight.Looks like Pos Malaysia has been left on its own. For that 10-year of 'hardship' when then government and MCMC neglected its woes, the company has had to put up a market-capitalisation fight with others. When some companies were aided by the MCMC, Pos Malaysia did not even got their attention.This is the problems plaguing Pos Malaysia, and I agree that it must be given a free hand to move forward and not comes under the government dictation. Take a look at the ever-prospering courier companies in the world today, and where is Pos Malaysia. It did even get to Tier-2 group of courier companies!We will look at the transformation agenda later on. For now, let's hope for the best. The management, I believe, is benevolent and professional enough in steering the company to a greater height...

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