Sundarban Courier Service: The 10,000-strong company that delivers anything from needle to couch
The country’s first private courier company, which is delivering more than 1,000 kg mangoes every day this season, has grown to become the country’s largest courier service company too. And all of it dates back four decades to a simple idea shared by two friends
In 1983, two friends Iamamul Kabir Shanto and Hafizur Rahman Pulok returned to Bangladesh from Germany with a plan up their sleeves: to build a courier service company.
But why a parcel delivery company of all things? "In Germany, Shanto and I saw how the Deutsche Bundespost, German state-run postal service and telecommunications business, was run by private organisations and we realised that with a growing population, Bangladesh will need this service," said Hafizur Rahman Pulok, Sundarban Courier Service's Vice Chairman.
Until 1983, there was an air express service in Bangladesh, meaning that the document and non-document parcels were transported through the use of airways. This posed a problem because the air express service depended on the availability of an airport or at least a runaway for the airborne parcel carriers. Bangladesh Post Office also operated parcel delivery service, but like many other government services, it was not very reliable.
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To address this problem, Shanto and Pulok wanted to offer the service of a 'courier.'
Then one day in 1983, the air express service came to a halt. And on the first day of November, Sundarban Courier Service (SCS) started their journey as a parcel and document delivery company, along with three other delivery service companies: Continental air express, Dolphin air express and Dreamland air express.
But there's a catch. Among the four companies just mentioned, only SCS operated as a by-road courier service agency, making it the country's first private courier company. "We wanted to go to people's doorsteps, which was not possible for the air express," said Pulok.
And that they did. Because today, after nearly four decades in operation, Sundarban Courier Service has become the largest courier service company in Bangladesh. Starting from a small room in Shegunbagicha in 1983, this company now has 10,000 employees with more than 700 branch and agent offices around the country in 64 districts.
But why did they choose the name Sundarban and a tiger as their logo? "Shanto and I, both, are originally from the Sundarban belt of the country; he is from Kushtia and I am from Khulna. And what could symbolise Sundarban better than our very own Bengal Tiger?" replied Pulok.
SCS has international branches in Singapore and Malaysia as well. However, since the death of the company chairman Iamamul Kabir Shanto in 2020, the international branches remain inactive.
Stupendous scale of operations, services and e-commerce support
The company has 700 covered vans and every day 110 vans travel to Dhaka with products from all over Bangladesh and 110 vans leave Dhaka every night. General Manager Toufiq Islam said, "Everyday we get bills of Tk30 lakh at our head office just for the 110 vans that arrive and leave Dhaka."
The company also has a dedicated wing for e-commerce enterprise support, which includes product delivery and cash collection. This wing was created in 2012.
Currently, 150 to 200 e-commerce companies use SCS for deliveries outside Dhaka and more than 10,000 products are delivered through the company. Additionally, 100 regular bikers are appointed all around the country to deliver these products.
Naznin Afroza owns Vermillion BD, a Dhaka-based e-commerce business. She operates mainly through Facebook and Instagram and sells women's accessories that include purses, jewellery, etc.
Afroza uses the SCS branch near her house to deliver her products outside Dhaka. "It's convenient as most areas have an SCS branch and I don't usually get any complaints from my customers," Afroza told The Business Standard.
The company also has a service called 'liqupack,' which is essential for delivering liquid products like honey, ghee, mustard oil, palm jaggery, etc.
Mango fever and SCS
A special SCS team maintains the fruit delivery section during the mango season. Currently, SCS is delivering more than 1,000 kg of mangoes every day this season, according to Toufiq.
He also mentioned that during the fruit season is the time of year when SCS receives the most complaints from customers as fruits tend to spoil and rot.
And sometimes, once in a thousand, your mango cart may get misplaced. "In that case, we first listen to the customer's complaint and then compensate with another crate of mangoes or the amount," said Toufiq because customer satisfaction is what SCS prioritises.
Customers can call the SCS call centre to complain. Al-Amin, the head of the SCS call centre said, "We are a team of 38 people taking calls from our customers 24/7. In three shifts, we take our customer's calls, and listen to their frustrations and afflictions."
Al Amin said that his team attends to at least 15,000 calls from around the country daily regarding problems they are having with their parcels or to make enquiries about the service.
Security concerns
The company delivers everything, from a needle to a couch. And the fee is decided according to the weight and space it is going to take.
The document fee ranges between Tk8 to Tk25. And for the non-document parcels, SCS has three polybags - the yellow bag (priced at Tk100 and carries 1kg in weight), the white bag (priced at Tk140 and carries up to 3kg in weight), and lastly, the blue bag (priced at Tk200 and carries up to 5kg in weight).
Apart from these three, the company has another polybag for the e-commerce products and it costs Tk130. The speciality of this one is that it is transparent which allows them to monitor if the right product is being parcelled or not.
"Whatever you send, be it an e-commerce product or anything you send for your family, you will have to show it to us. We have clear SOP [standard operating procedure] guidelines from the Department of Narcotics Control and also the Ministry of Home Affairs that allows us to check this. It's basically to prevent drug trafficking," explained Pulok.
However, from first-hand experience, I can say that not always the package content is checked. But an official does ask what is being sent.
The company has proposed to the Courier Services Association of Bangladesh (CSAB) to arrange for scanners at the courier service centres. Pulok, also the president of CSAB, told us that currently there are more than 500 courier service organisations in Bangladesh, among which only 75 are licensed and 150 companies are connected with the association.
But the rest of the companies are absolutely off the radar. "This puts us at risk of building an unprofessional sector. And we don't know if these unregistered companies are connected with drug trafficking or not," said Pulok. This is the reason the association has proposed to the ministry to make the companies register and get licences.
Sundarban Courier Service has contracts with DHL, Overseas Communication Service (OCS) of Australia and Desk to Desk Courier and Cargo (DTDC) of India to deliver parcels worldwide. The company also plans to further expand their business outside the country.
"For now, we are trying to revive our international branches in Singapore and Malaysia. And we are also planning to open one more branch in London and another one in Dubai," said Toufiq.
