What a RM5 parcel leaves the courier

My best guess is about 60 sen, and only if the courier is as big and as tightly run as the largest operator in the region.¹ A smaller one may well lose money on the same parcel. I couldn't find this for Malaysia, so I'm doing sums on one foreign filing and telling you where they wobble.

Is it even five ringgit?

Sort of. The regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), set a minimum of RM5 for parcels of 2kg and below. Pos Malaysia's chief executive called it "merely a guidance" in that same report.

In early 2026 the head of GDEX told The Edge it still hadn't been gazetted, and that he believed few companies follow it. So RM5 is a price that's written down somewhere, which isn't the same as a price anyone pays.²

A rough check

One analyst values the logistics business parcels have built at an estimated RM6.9 billion for 2025.

A spokesman for the couriers' association expected more than 1.4 billion parcels that year, and one divided by the other comes to almost exactly RM5.⁴

I wouldn't lean on that tidy answer. Both numbers are estimates from different people, and I don't know what's inside the first one.

The counts don't agree either.

That analyst repeats an official 899 million parcels up to the third quarter of 2024.⁵ The association says 1.26 billion for the whole year.⁴ I'm going with the association because it's a full year, and I can't explain the gap.

The one receipt I could find

J&T is listed in Hong Kong, and it breaks a parcel down for its Southeast Asian business, which covers seven countries including Malaysia. There's no Malaysian line, so this is a regional average. It's still worth reading, because The Edge reports that J&T and SPX Xpress together hold 73.5% of the Malaysian market.³

The average parcel brought in US$0.59.¹ I make that about RM2.50, assuming a bit over four ringgit to the dollar.¹ So across the region, the biggest operator isn't getting anywhere near five ringgit.

Where each parcel's money went at J&T in Southeast Asia, 2025

More than half goes on the two ends of the trip. I couldn't find what a Malaysian rider gets per parcel, and that slice also has to cover the outlets. The filing does say it pays couriers on "a volume-related pay model", which tells you how the rider got tired.¹

The hub surprised me. It's the part with all the impressive machinery, and it takes about 7%.¹

Walking RM5 through it

Now say a RM5 parcel splits the same way, which is my assumption and not anyone's accounts. About RM2.70 goes on pickup and delivery.¹

J&T's adjusted operating margin in the region was 11.9%, so about 60 sen is left once head office is paid.¹

That's my sum. The filing's own money is smaller. It made about seven US cents a parcel on its cheaper average, or about 30 sen, from dividing its adjusted profit by its parcels.¹

You could argue the other way. If a parcel really costs about RM2 to move, a five-ringgit one leaves RM3.¹ I don't believe that here, since I'd guess Malaysian wages sit above that seven-country average, and the regional figure can't settle it.

What would change my mind is a Malaysian cost audit. The government has said any mandatory floor price would be backed by one, and I couldn't find any results.³

The part I keep coming back to

J&T's revenue per parcel fell from US$0.71 to US$0.59 in a year.¹ Its adjusted profit in the region rose by about three quarters. It cut its price by about a sixth and made more.

The reason is the volume. It handled an average of 21 million parcels a day, up by about two thirds, and the trucking cost per parcel fell by a third.¹ The filing credits fuller vehicles and better routes, and I can believe it.

That's lovely if you're the one with the volume. Pos Malaysia had accumulated losses of about RM1.48 billion since 2018, and The Star described GDEX as loss-making in recent years, though those are whole companies and not parcels.² GDEX's boss says it's moving towards business-to-business work, which sounds to me like leaving a fight rather than losing one.³

Would a floor price help?

The argument for a mandatory floor is that it stops a race to the bottom, and I can see why a smaller courier wants one. But The Star reports that more than 70% of parcels start on the big shopping platforms, and more than 70% of those go into the platforms' own delivery networks.² That's about half of all parcels that never come up for anyone else to win.

A floor would give a small courier a better price on parcels it still might not get. It would also cost the shopper, who was never asked. I could be talked round if the audit shows small firms losing their parcels on price alone.