SA Post Office’s Speed Services tested — and compared with other courier services

Testing by MyBroadband revealed that The Courier Guy and Fastway easily outperformed the SA Post Office’s courier service, Speed Services.

The South African Post Office (SAPO) and Icasa are fighting to stop private courier companies from delivering packages under 1kg in South Africa.

According to the Post Office, it is the only licensed provider who can deliver reserved postal services under the Postal Services Act 124 of 1998.

Reserved postal services include all letters, postcards, printed matter, small parcels, and other postal articles up to and including 1kg.

Private courier companies have warned that it can have devastating consequences if the Post Office’s legal bid is successful.

They argue that the SA Post Office does not have the capacity to replace the services offered by private courier companies like FedEx, UPS, The Courier Guy, and Fastway.

MyBroadband decided to test the SA Post Office’s courier service, Speed Services, and compare it to two alternatives — The Courier Guy and Fastway.

Speed Services advertise various courier services, including door-to-door, counter-to-counter, and counter-to-door parcel delivery.

According to the Speed Services website, all three of these services offer next day delivery, with the door-to-door and counter-to-door service promising delivery by 10:30.

The Courier Guy and Fastway offer similar services, including door-to-door next-day deliveries.

Courier delivery test results

MyBroadband tested the courier services by sending Chipfox tracking devices between our Centurion office and an address in Port Elizabeth.

We hit an immediate snag with the Post Office’s Speed Services when we tried to arrange door-to-door delivery. We received no response via email, and the contact number to arrange collection was not answered, even after holding for more than 30 minutes.

We had to settle for counter-to-door services from Speed Services, which required us to visit a Post Office to send the package.

Our results showed that The Courier Guy and Fastway comfortably outperformed Speed Services.

The Courier Guy parcel arrived at our test recipient’s door in Port Elizabeth the next working day, as promised.

The parcel sent with Fastway took two working days, which is well within the promised 2 to 3 working day delivery.

The Speed Services counter-to-counter parcel was delivered to a Post Office branch close to the recipient four working days after being sent.

The counter-to-door parcel was delivered after two working days, a day later than what was promised.

We also tested a return trip from Port Elizabeth to Centurion. This was done in early December when the courier services were busy.

The Courier Guy parcel took three working days to be delivered, which was slower than the expected delivery time.

Fastway delivered the package within two working days, which was impressive considering the busy period during which we sent it.

The parcels sent using Speed Services counter-to-counter and counter-to-door services took six and seven working days, respectively.

The Post Office’s Speed Services was much slower than the rest and did not deliver what it promised.

The table below provides a summary of the results. The images below the table show the movement of the packages with data from our IoT GPS devices.

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The Courier Guy — Pretoria to Port Elizabeth

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The Courier Guy — Port Elizabeth to Pretoria

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Fastway — Pretoria to Port Elizabeth

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Fastway — Port Elizabeth to Pretoria

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Speed Services counter-to-counter — Pretoria to Port Elizabeth

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Speed Services counter-to-door — Pretoria to Port Elizabeth

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Speed services counter-to-counter — Port Elizabeth to Pretoria

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Speed services counter-to-door — Port Elizabeth to Pretoria

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Now read: We tested IoT GPS trackers in South Africa — with good results