EDS Express Thrives on Transparency –Udoh

Udoh Felix, the managing director/chief executive officer of EDS Express Limited, a courier, haulage and logistics company, has harped on the need for courier companies in Nigeria to exhibit transparency in their dealings with their clients to restore the confidence of clients on the courier industry. This according to him, will be able to take the industry to the next level .He said the confidence of clients in the industry has been smeared as a result of a number of sharp practices perpetrated by some bad eggs amongst them in the past.
Udoh emphasized that the Courier Regulatory Department is now trying to do everything possible to correct some of those wrong doings to ensure that the courier industry is properly shaped. Furthermore, he said there is need to redeem the confidence that has been lost over the years so that people can walk up to courier offices and entrust them with their mails and consignments without being scared that such mails may be tampered with, dumped, misrouted, or get lost in transit even as he urged entrepreneurs and investors in the industry to invest more money saying that courier business is capital intensive. 
On the importance of Information and Communications Technology on the sector, Udoh said the gains of ICT on any industry or economy even to an individual cannot be overemphasized.  He said with one of the tools called track and trace, customers of the company can sit in the comfort of their homes and offices and track the movement of their mails all over the world once you send such document or parcel. He said the company gives the client an airway bill number with which he can log on the company’s website to monitor the movement of his parcel until such a parcel gets to its destination.  According to him, such a facility can also allow one to know who assigned for the letter on arrival and at what time.
Udoh also informed that to exploit the ICT further that the company is working to ensure that all its operations are computerized at least in the zonal districts to link up with the head office to be able to sit down in Lagos and know what is happening in Abuja for instance and in other locations.
Customer satisfaction remains a core passion and strong selling point of the young company that has within barely one year of its operation, having been licensed in July last year by the CRD, opened 15 branch networks in the country.
“We would rather run at a loss, deliver customer consignment at a loss than delay it one minute longer than necessary. We believe in doing things the right and proper way. When it comes to bulk mail, if for any reason we cannot deliver anyone, we would rather send it back to the owner even if he decides not to pay us. We would rather feel satisfied that we have done a good job than dump the mails and come forward to say that we have delivered,” he said.
The kind of conscience we operate he explained will not allow us to do that for we believe in transparency, speedy delivery and reliability. “We believe that if a man walks into our office and gives us a piece of paper  which you may not know the value of, we believe  that the man who owns that piece of paper and is paying for its delivery  has high regard for that piece of paper.”
On what informed the setting up of the company? Udoh said the directors of EDS had thought over the past years some of the things not properly done in the courier service delivery including misrouting of mails, pilfering, delay in delivery and service failures among other things and decided to play a leading role in transforming the sector by providing first class service to clients.
He noted that some of the courier companies would claim to be able to deliver within 24 hours or return sender’s money and at the end of the day you have a document that is urgent taking two to three days before reaching its destination. “For us at EDS that is not supposed to be the face of courier,” Udoh said.
“When you talk about courier service, it has to do with speed, reliability, transparency. If you are a courier service operator and I walk up to send my document through you , I want to believe that document shouldn’t be tampered with  and I also expect that it should be delivered on time too because I paid for it”
To further underscore the importance of speedy mails delivery, Udoh said looking back, courier service all over the world started with the airline from the aviation industry and that in those days when the aviation industry came on stream, first area of service as a matter of priority was mail delivery and passenger service was secondary.
On how to regulate the sector adequately, EDS CEO said the issue has come up a number of times at CRD organized workshops and trainings for courier operators but he believes anything that will shape the future of the courier industry will be a worthwhile development.
“I don’t see anything wrong in CRD being given an autonomous title to fully regulate the industry. For now there is a limit to which it can regulate the industry. Except a person that is fully empowered to regulate the industry, there are certain things he may not be able to do and even to achieve. CRD is doing marvelously well. The man at the helm of affairs, Dr Simon Emeje is the kind of man we need there. He is the kind of man we believe will take the courier industry to the shore. He has a passion for the job, he is focused, he is open and transparent, he leaves his doors open at any time irrespective of who you are,” Udoh disclosed.
On the company’s expansion plans, Udoh said in the next few years the target of EDS is to have outstations in all the 36 state capitals in Nigeria. According to him, the company has at present outstations in about 15 cities and network agents in all the cities of the federation as he said even now that the company has consignments going to almost all the cities of the federation.  He emphasized that for a courier company and service delivery  that there is great  need effective network system without which one  cannot break even. “So part of the focus we have for the next five years is to ensure that we have superlative network coverage,” he said.