hi,
In Malaysia many services make use of "runners."
For example, if you're booking air line tickets via an agent, and you need a visa, the travel agent will often do it all for you using :
1). A runner to get the visa.
2). A runner to deliver the visa and air ticket to you.
The cost of all of this is included in the travel agents' charges.
There's also runners for a lot of other things. If you need planning permission, then your architect will use a runner. If you need any form of visa, license, any application made or collected via an agent, solicitor, etc then it's probable that a runnerwill be used.
As these runners are in contact with the front desks of many government departments they acquire an "on the ground" knowledge of the processes, and any changes. This knowledge may be useful to assist in the application or just the latest gossip.
Obviously the more a runner knows the more valuable the service beyond simple delivery and collection.
And equally obviously the move in the past few years for government departments to have online access to rules, regulations, and application procedures has reduced the need for runners. Some departments have online direct applications so no runners needed.
The cost for a runner to hand in, and track, a planning application is about RM500.
If anyone knows of the cost for runners for other services, please post.
