MPC currently operates intercity coach service
* In its enormous turnaround strategy
* We must give Malawians the best city bus services just like in other African countries
* Honours faithful customers through coach ticket luck draws
* Livingstonia University student goes away with K300,000
By Duncan Mlanjira
As part of turning Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) from loss to profit making business-oriented parastatal in line with the reforms it has developed, MPC plans to invest into luxurious passenger bus services to commute in the country’s cities.
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This was disclosed by acting Postmaster General, Zachaeus George Meke on Friday when the company presented monetary awards to three passengers through the coach ticket raffle draw the Post Bus Service introduced some two months ago.
Meke said the raffle draw was introduced as a token of appreciation to reward the passengers for their faith and confidence in their coach service and to build good rapport with the customers going forward.
Meke presents the reward to Nkhoma
From the grand draw, third-year Education in Humanities student at University of Livingstonia Laws Campus, Elizabeth Nkhoma went home with K300,000; Elsen Luciano won K150,000 while Gilsida Sandilamu received K50,000 — all based in Blantyre.
In other weekly draws before the grand draw, other passengers won branded coffee mugs; golf & T/shirts; caps; umbrellas and Meke said this was all to encourage their customers to continue patronising their services.
Elsen Luciano receives hers from acting Director of Buses & Courier Thom Kachale
“We have gone through a lot of challenges since we started our operations which impacted us negatively but passengers chose to keep their faith in us because we offer the best services,” he said.
“We received a lot of negativity when we were launching our coach service, with some saying we don’t have the expertise in this industry as this was not our line of business.
Prizes given in weekly draws
“But we knew we can operate a bus service to complement our inter city courier service deliveries we already were in business and was thriving.
“People start any business from a position of no experience which they gain over time and like any other business, teething problems are experienced but we learnt from them, picked ourselves up and transited to another level.”
Meke added that their trudging on was energized through the confident patronage they received from passengers, whose numbers increased despite all the challenges they experienced as since 2019 they have serviced close to half a million commuters.
“Malawians have embraced our coach service. Over the Easter Holidays, we received overwhelming patronage that encouraged us to provide two coaches on any of our routes.
“Going forward, we intend to increase the fleet for intercity coach services as well as introduced city busliners which will be very luxurious.
“We had city busliners in the past and now it’s time Malawians enjoyed such services just like in other African countries, which operate luxurious city bus services,” Meke said.
A city bus service in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Nkhoma, the ticket grand draw winner, said she is based in Blantyre and every time she travels to and back the University of Livingstonia Laws Campus through Postal Bus.
“These coaches are very luxurious, offer best transit services and are always on schedule — making us believe in them,” she said.
This is in Kigali, Rwanda