NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Following an announcement made by Minister of Transport and Local Government Renward Wells earlier this year that the government plans to increase its revenue collections through a partnership with international courier company, FedEx, one local courier company said yesterday fears about their survivability of increased competition.
An executive of a local courier company, who did not wish to be named at this time due to fear of being victimized, told Eyewitness News Online, “The fact they want to do something like this and not even consider Bahamian-owned entities to represent it — they want to use FedEx which is international, I just don’t get it.
“This will affect tons of people that are employed throughout the Bahamas in this industry.
“If this is what the government is proposing then yes, it will be a huge threat to everyone in this industry.
The executive said the industry is already challenged in an already competitive market.
He said, “We are already fighting a very tough and competitive market and it’s just mind blowing that this is something that they are thinking about, but then I should also remember that this is the Bahamian government we are talking about and clearly they don’t believe in Bahamians, if is this something that they’re considering.”
In May, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis announced plans to develop an information center at the General Post Office — relocated to the Town Centre Mall — for people who have disabilities or lack access to computers at home.
He said they would be offered assistance in filling out forms and accessing services.
He also said that the government was forging a partnership with a major private postal, later identified as FedEx, to help modernize operations.
Of the partnership, Wells said, “I don’t know whether the agreement is signed as yet, but I know that we are in the process of forging a relationship with FedEx.
“We’re also looking to expand the online mail ordering part of the postal service, and we’re going to be looking at how we can get a dedicated section of the post office that will deal with those purchases from Amazon and other global companies that will be coming into The Bahamas, so that we can help increase the revenue stream in the post office.
“This is a long time coming and we had projected what we wanted to do with regards to trying to provide a safe working environment for the employees at the post office. It was a very vexing problem. We as a government decided.”
There have been limited details on the proposed partnership with FedEx since the announcement, however.
Repeated request for more details on the issue have been unsuccessful.
Calls placed to Wells have not been returned.
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