Columba Okwashi, chief operating officer Courier Masters has said that his organization is an assemblage of people that really know the art of courier and all it takes to run the business.
He said gathering people with outstanding track record in the courier business has helped to position the eight-year old company as a reliable and dependable company in terms of service delivery and as a company that ranks the first 10 amongst the courier companies in Nigeria.
Okwashi said that having looked at the Nigerian market, the management of the courier outfit under Mrs. Uche Obi as managing director /chief executive officer, discovered that courier companies on ground had not been able to meet the challenges of the market and they felt they could come and carve a niche in the market place by addressing those areas that had not been met.
He said the courier industry is passing through different times where a lot of services are now involved in courier apart from document delivery, light and big parcels which they carry from one place to the other and the delivery of AGM documents, IPOs and dividend warrants.
Okwashi informed that what is happening in the banking sector where the banks are opening a lot of branches across the country has stimulated that they now go into removals providing support to banks in the movement of stationeries, furniture, safe and other logistics for banks to various parts of the country even as he also hinted that Courier Masters is also being driven by the expansion to think of going beyond locating their branches in the 36 states of the federation to other nooks and crannies to make their services available to their various bank clients .In doing this, he said it may not be cost effective for the company but they are looking into the future.
Okwashi disclosed his displeasure over the activities of quacks in the industry and said the practice has given his registered colleagues a bad name in the industry. He said the Nigerian market is a very large one and that if anybody wants to operate courier, the person should get registered and play by the rules of the profession instead of cutting corners and rubbishing the name of the courier industry. He commended the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD) for their effort to sanitize the sector through their several raids on fake courier operators.
Okwashi who said his company has one of the best networks urged the courier association bodies, Association of Nigerian Courier Operators (Anco) and Nigeria International Courier Association (Niaca) to work closely with CRD to improve the business even as he saw a great hope and projected that things will get better for the industry before the fall of the decade.
Okwashi informed that to remain in business and face the challenge of time the company is looking towards improving their service delivery because as he said, the courier business is all about speed and safety delivery of consignments.
In this regard he said "We have put on grounds schemes on service controls. By this, we look at our transit time which is very important because if you must continue to receive patronage from your clients, you must continue to service them well and give them quality service. You have to make sure their shipments are delivered in good time and in tact’’
