The Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission has advised companies, which are not courier service providers but render such duties, to regularise their operations and obtain the necessary licensing.

The Commission also urged new companies who wish to provide courier services to obtain the said license before commencing business.

Speaking at a news briefing on Wednesday, Mr Isaac Annan Riverson, Executive Secretary of the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission, said the Commission would not wish to be going to court with regard to related issues.

“Our hands have been strengthened to do what is in the best interest of the public because we are a public institution performing a public function,” he said.

Mr Riverson said online companies for instance are not subject to the Commission’s regulatory functions but if they add courier and delivery services to their activities, then they need to get a license from the Commission.

“If you are a bank and you acquire motorbikes to deliver documents, bills, among others directly to your customers- door to door, for whatever consideration, that activity becomes a courier service and you need to acquire a license from us,” he said.

He said arrests made, during a May 2 campaign by the Commission, had led to an increase in registration and licensing.

Mr Riverson said a recent crackdown by the Commission was necessitated by the blatant refusal of some operators to obtain licensing, after 10 years of education and sensitisation since the commission’s establishment in 2004.

Section 10 of the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission Act 2003 (Act 649), which established the commission, states: “Subject to this Act, a person shall not establish or operate a postal or courier service except under a licence issued by the Commission under this Act.”

Mr Riverson said there is the need to review the law to empower the Commission and specify what sanctions should be meted out to unlicensed service operators and what deliveries, parcels and packages fall under the Commission’s mandate.