As efforts are being intensified by industry stakeholders, the government and the Courier Regulatory Department to reposition the postal sector to meet the aspirations of the 21^{st century market environment, it is also important that consumers of postal services should be in the know what their rights and limitations are in dealing with operators of courier companies.}

Considering that information is power, consumer awareness of the products and services rendered by courier companies will go a long way in stimulating the postal market as well as creating confidence in the minds of consumers. There is need to shore up confidence level of indigenous courier companies compared to their multi-national counterparts. There are some people who would never send their consignments or letters through the indigenous courier companies simply because they believe the indigenous ones are not good enough. Obviously the judgment is as a result of bias formed over the years when letters used to disappear in transit with the Nigerian Postal Service surface mail system. But all those is now history as the Nipost has showed determination and fervor to compete with private courier companies in the postal business in recent times.

In the market economy that is Information and Communication Technology driven, some courier companies are still shying away from exploiting possibilities provided by the ICT platform. Most of these courier firms have websites which are never updated for over four years thereby leaving visitors to such sites with little or no information to work with. To say the truth some will move to another location while their websites still maintain the old addresses. What they achieve with this is only but to mislead the public. I had a sad experience when I visited the site of one of these courier firms one day and what did I get? Virus of course. It was an expensive visit in deed.

It keeps beating my imagination why majority of the courier practitioners are shy to divulge information about their organizations which will be of immense pay back to their organizations even when disclosing such pieces of information attracts no cost, whereas their counterparts in the other sectors see the press as partners in progress and are willing to court and marry with the media.

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The postal and courier sector needs to be opened up. The present world economy thrives on co-operation and collaboration and no longer on I can do it alone mentality.

The Courier Regulatory Department of Nipost has in its series of seminars and workshops been trying to sensitize the postal and courier sector on the modern ways of doing business among other areas, but there is also need for the department to device a strategy to accommodate and listen to customer complaints which may arise as a result of failed service delivery on the part of courier operators. Each courier company should be made to display in all their branch offices the Courier Regulatory Department’s phone numbers through which customers can reach the department and somebody should be made to attend to complaints arising from customers at any point in time.

I witnessed an encounter involving a courier company and a customer who sent her consignment through the courier firm. The van conveying the consignment was attacked by hoodlums along the way and goods were alleged to have been stolen. The encounter revealed how naïve and ignorant some customers are with the processes and procedures for sending their parcels through the courier companies. To cut the long story short, the customer was allowed to send her consignment without having to disclose and record taken by the clerk at the counter all the items the customer was sending out. It was obvious from the account that some of the bags for delivery were not even opened.

As a result of the robbery, the customer was contacted to declare the items which she sent through the courier company that were missing. The claims she made revealed that all the items she packaged were not recorded in the manifest by the clerk. Now how would this matter be resolved as the courier company threatens not to be liable to the spurious claims (as the GM of the courier firm puts it) emanating from the customer?.

The missing link is lack of information on the customer in knowing what his or her rights are. Courier companies should also at their own level be involved in educating their customers whenever the opportunity arises and not only be interested in pocketing clients’ monies alone. Service for what has been paid for has to be delivered. Educating their entire work force through training and workshops should also be a regular phenomenon in courier companies. This will help to improve the level of trust customers have in courier companies which is necessary for the growth of the postal business.

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