LBC Express Inc., a leading courier in the country, announced it would suspend its cargo services for five days, beginning Sunday, July 12.
“While putting all [the] safety and logistics measures in place, our capacities were exceeded and have created backlogs,” LBC Express said in a statement e-mailed to reporters late Saturday.
During the five-day suspension, all LBC branches will not accept cargo shipments, such as parcels and boxes for forwarding to all destinations, the Araneta-led company said. Its cargo service will resume on July 16.
“To bring us back to speed, we will temporarily pause cargo acceptance in certain areas from July 12 to 16, 2020,” the company added.
Affected areas include National Capital Region (NCR), North Luzon, South Luzon for all domestic cargo, and also for the Visayas and Mindanao for domestic cargo to NCR, north and southern Luzon.
LBC added that it needed to suspend operations so they could implement safety reinforcement to protect its employees and customers from COVID-19. It said a backlog is being created while the installations are being done.
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“LBC has been operational all throughout the ECQ and GCQ. Reinforcements, such as three new warehouses, have already recently been opened, to ensure social distancing and other protocols, and facilities are also being equipped with protective shields, disinfection booths, while new online touch-points to provide contactless options are being launched,” the company said in a statement.
There have been “frequent rapid testings to protect us all from the pandemic,” it added.
Meanwhile, its money remittance and bill payment services will remain available to customers across all its 1,500 branches nationwide and through its online platform.
LBC said its income increased to P187.71 million, 24 times higher than P7.57 million in 2019, partly on the implementation of lower income taxes for the period.
The Araneta family founded Luzon Brokerage Company in 1945 as a brokerage firm.
The company created the moniker “Hari ng Padala” in 1990. Products like Branch Pick-up and Bills Payment were added in 2005. In comparison, the more secure mail service for personal documents, loose cargo, and container load was introduced in 2010. From individual services, the company also expand their reach and target, business owners.