CYBERJAYA: Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil today urged all courier companies in the country to participate in the Courier Safety Passport Training Programme to further enhance the safety of workers and the efficiency of parcel deliveries.

He said the programme also aims to ensure the safe handling of parcels and to provide necessary skills for courier industry workers to perform their duties effectively.

“This is an effort from several parties to emphasise to courier companies the importance of focusing on worker safety and parcel delivery.

“This is an initiative that we celebrate and welcome, and we hope more courier companies will get involved in the future,“ he told the media after launching National Courier Day 2024 here today, which was also attended by his deputy Teo Nie Ching and the Ministry’s Secretary-General Datuk Mohamad Fauzi Md Isa.

National Courier Day was officially celebrated on November 1, 2024, to recognise and appreciate more than 160,000 courier workers in the country.

Elaborating further, the minister said that to date, there are 104 courier companies that hold postal and courier licences in the country, managing almost 97 percent of parcel deliveries to customers.

At the event, Fahmi witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Association of Malaysian Express Carriers (AMEC), in collaboration with the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), for the implementation of the programme.

Earlier in his speech, Fahmi said the courier industry has provided job opportunities to over 160,000 Malaysians and is expected to continue growing in line with the government’s target growth rate of 30 parcels per capita by 2025.

Sharing data from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in 2023, he said the courier industry has achieved a rate of 26.1 parcels per capita, a figure that shows positive progress toward that target.

He also advised AMEC to hold a meeting with the Ministry of Human Resources to discuss the progressive wage policy to ensure fair pay for workers.