Abu Dhabi: The Emirates Identity Authority has stopped sending ID cards to applicants through courier, as the service companies are unable to deal with the large number of cards issued daily, a top official said.
"We stopped giving new cards to courier companies recently, because they don't have enough capacity to deal with about 30,000 cards printed by the authority daily," said Dr Ali Al Khoury, director general of Emirates ID. He said courier companies are still clearing their backlog, but no new cards are being handed over to them.
The four courier companies engaged by the authority had the capacity to handle a few thousand cards only, he said.
But Emirates Post has the capacity to distribute thousands of cards a day through 120 post offices across the country, Al Khoury said. So Emirates Post alone will handle the cards distribution, he said.
Complaints
Most of the ID cards have been distributed through post offices since Emirates ID engaged Emirates Post in February 2011. Courier companies have also been delivering the cards but that has been stopped now.
There were widespread complaints also against courier services about delayed delivery and improper communication with customers, he said.
As Gulf News reported earlier, applicants have been complaining that it was unfair to ask them to collect their cards from the post offices despite paying courier charges when they applied for the card. In response to the complaints, Al Khoury had said that of the Dh70 extra paid by an applicant, Emirates ID receives about Dh10 as courier charges which is paid to Emirates Post.
He said Dh60 goes into typing, envelopes and packaging. Courier companies were charging more than Dh10 which was paid by Emirates ID, not by the applicant, the official had said.
Cards not collected
Al Khoury pointed out that more than 250,000 ID cards are ready for delivery at the post offices for months now, but have not been picked up although their owners have been notified several times.
As Gulf News reported earlier, 40,000 cards that are lying with Emirates Post for more than 90 days will be returned to the authority. Those cards cannot be collected any more, as applicants had to collect them within a month from the date of notification.
Although some of the applicants might have left the country, many others might have given wrong contact details in the application forms or ignored notification to collect the cards, the official said.
"This happens despite repeated warnings from the authority," he said.
