Coronavirus crushes courier services in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Courier services in the city have taken a hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Every year during the festival season, most courier companies used to be extremely busy with the load, however, the market for the service providers is extremely dull this year, claim the representatives from the sector.   

Bluedart Ameerpet branch, owner, Chandrashekar said, “Every year during Raksha Bandhan, we would start getting customers a month before the festival, however, this time just a week is left for the festival and I have received only hand full of customers.” He said that there are around 80 branches of Bluedart in the city and the condition of most of the branches is the same.

Rakesh Kumar of CNL Express said that courier service is not a seasonal business, however, just during Rakha Bandhan, they get a large number of customers. “As many corporate offices are shut or have given work from home to their employees, we have also lost most of our customers from the corporate sector as well. We do not know when business will resume.”

For the last four months, inter-state bus travel has remained suspended to curb the spread of Covid-19. The train and flight frequency is also less due to which the courier service providers are facing issues. “The prices of courier services have also doubled due to the lack of transport. This is another reason why many are not willing to send couriers,” added Kumar, who has been in the business for the last 20 years.

Rajeshwari from Professional courier service said, “We are not even taking delivery orders from the locations where Covid-19 cases are high. Meanwhile, the services are also taking more than the usual time for delivery this time.”

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