If the statistics speak of stability and favorable results, why do customer complaints persist? The question aroused abundant reflections this Friday in a meeting of the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, Manuel Marrero Cruz, with representatives of the companies that receive and distribute the packages that arrive in Cuba from abroad destined for natural persons.

According to data offered at the meeting – which also included the participation of Vice Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca – at the end of January there were 75,823 packages in the country to be delivered to the population, 1,251 of them with more than 30 days, numbers that may not be alarming if we compare them with previous years, but which are still high and generate a lot of dissatisfaction.

When analyzing several of the complaints received, Marrero Cruz said that it is a matter of "a high level of sensitivity for people, because they need those products that are sent to them," and insisted on shortening the deadlines and explaining to the population, with transparency , what are the terms established in the contracts and how the freight forwarders work, which have the challenge of satisfying the demand of the recipients.

During the last stage, intense work was carried out from the logistical and organizational point of view, about which Pablo Cuéllar González, director of Freight Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation, spoke, who explained that in 2022 the distribution of international parcels reached stability regardless of the limitations that the country has faced in all spheres of the economy.

When questioned about the causes of packages that have not reached the client for more than 30 days, he mentioned recipients of unaccompanied luggage that have not arrived in the country, deceased recipients or out of province, documentation errors, illegible data and other factors.

"We are not satisfied and deficiencies persist, although we work to deliver the goods as soon as possible, because in many cases they are very sensitive resources such as medicines, personal hygiene, food," he said.

There has to be transparency

In order to improve the traceability of packages, Marrero Cruz directed that the Ministry of Transportation create a digital site with updated information on the movement of freight forwarders and where existing delays are explained.

“That people on a cell phone can know where their package is, if it is still at its origin, on a ship, or if it is already in Havana awaiting distribution. We have to aspire to that, but people must also know when their packages were sent, and when their deliveries correspond, according to the two contracts (of the family member who sends with the agency abroad and the contract that the latter has with the Cuban freight forwarder)," the Prime Minister said.

He demanded greater efficiency in the contracts of state entities with micro, small and medium-sized companies that distribute packages, to establish responsibilities as a result of this link. "We have to make a good contract with them and demand their compliance," he alleged.

Likewise, he stressed the need to be fair in the compensation that customers receive for the loss of their packages, and called for an evaluation of the procedure used for this.

Sometimes, Marrero Cruz pointed out, parcels may be subject to certain delay ranges, based on the grouping of merchandise that agencies make before shipping to our country and, therefore, the responsibility does not lie with national entities. In fact, an important group of claims is concentrated in packages that have not reached Cuban territory.

"There, it must be transparency throughout the process, from origin to delivery, and the responsibility of each of the participants must be cleared up, whether they are agencies abroad, freight forwarders or carriers," he insisted, referring to progress in the objective of speeding up the internal process.

The managers of the parcel companies offered an overview of how much is done to distribute shipments as quickly as possible, and what are the obstacles that reduce efficiency and speed.

In this sense, something became clear during the day and it was the reflection of the prime minister: the problem in freight forwarders is solved "when the Cuban family receives their package" and "as long as there is only one dissatisfaction we have to review ourselves."