Recently, many express delivery companies announced the endless Spring Festival in 2022 to provide services for the circulation of goods and other materials for the New Year——
This year's Spring Festival, the express delivery will not close!
Our reporter Wang Wenzheng, "People's Daily Overseas Edition" (Edition 04, January 06, 2022)
At the end of the New Year and New Year holidays, many express companies announced that they will not close during the Spring Festival in 2022 to meet the express delivery needs during the Spring Festival.
This is undoubtedly good news for consumers, especially the broad masses of "Chinese New Year in situ" groups.
There are also people who are curious about how the courier service will not stop during the Spring Festival. How will the relevant commitments be implemented?
Will this increase the pressure on grassroots outlets and couriers?
How to ensure that service quality does not decline and service prices are relatively stable during the Spring Festival?
In this regard, our reporter conducted a visit.
Alleviate the seasonal contradiction between supply and demand
"Before the outbreak, the winter vacation was the off-season for express delivery. During the Spring Festival, it is difficult to send and receive express delivery, and the price is expensive and the timeliness is poor." Due to heavy studies and other reasons, Huang Xiaomeng, a doctoral student in a university in Beijing, has chosen to stay in school for the New Year. .
"Last year, many express companies announced that they will not close during the Spring Festival. This has indeed improved the service experience of consumers."
Recently, many express companies have made it clear that the Spring Festival in 2022 will be “not closed” to meet the delivery needs of consumers during the holiday period.
On December 14, 2021, Debon Express took the lead in announcing the "Endless Spring Festival" to provide express delivery services for the smooth circulation of New Year goods and other materials.
Since then, Zhongtong Express, Yunda Express, JD Logistics, Shentong Express, and Extreme Rabbit Express have successively announced that 2022 will not close during the Spring Festival.
It is understood that in recent years, the rapid development of China's e-commerce and express delivery industry has driven the demand for express delivery to blow out.
According to data released by the State Post Bureau, from January to November 2021, the national express delivery business volume has exceeded 90 billion pieces, a new high; during the "Double Eleven" period of November 1-16, the express delivery business volume reached 6.8 billion pieces, year-on-year An increase of 18.2%, with an average daily collection of more than 400 million parcels.
After the outbreak of the epidemic, more residents spent the New Year on the spot in their study and work places during the Spring Festival, which further promoted the growth of express delivery demand during the Spring Festival.
Monitoring of the express big data platform of the State Post Bureau shows that during the Spring Festival last year (from February 11 to 17 last year), the postal express industry across the country collected and delivered 660 million parcels, a year-on-year increase of 260%.
According to data from JD.com, due to many college students staying in school for the winter vacation, only from January 13 to 31, 2021, online shopping orders for college students increased by 373% year-on-year.
Relevant parties predict that this momentum is expected to continue this year.
Faced with a blowout in demand, major express companies announced that they will not close during the Spring Festival, which is expected to alleviate the seasonal contradiction between supply and demand in the express industry.
Logistics industry expert Yang Daqing said in an interview with our reporter that “not closing during the Spring Festival” has become a label for most express companies to compete in service capabilities, which has promoted the improvement of industry service awareness, service capabilities and human care.
"From the perspective of service awareness, the non-closing of the Spring Festival is more for some companies to supplement rather than make money. From the perspective of service capabilities, some companies have improved diversified support by building crowdsourcing labor platforms or smart express cabinets. From human care Look, express delivery companies strengthen the family love of couriers, and also deliver warm services." Yang Daqing said.
No degradation of service quality
Although some express companies announced that "the Spring Festival will not be closed", as the Spring Festival approaches and some outlets couriers return home early, many consumers are worried about the decline in the quality of express delivery services.
“Recently, express delivery has taken longer on the road. I found that my parcel was in a certain branch, and I have been stranded for a few days, but the parcel was delayed.” Zhang, a Beijing resident who often buys fruits from Guogong online through fresh food e-commerce Lan, I feel that the quality of express delivery service has been deteriorating recently. "Communication also consumes a lot of time and cost. When receiving, there are bad results in the box, and I have to communicate with the merchant to re-send." In the interview, many consumers have some opinions about this.
The reporter learned from some outlets that shortage of manpower is the main reason why the quality of express delivery services tends to decline during the Spring Festival.
"I work hard throughout the year, and I hope to have a two-day New Year break to reunite with my family. At this time, I don't have a rest, and if the benefits cannot keep up, I have to endure complaints caused by delays, etc., it is better to quit first after the settlement." Gu Bin said.
Feng Jun, the person in charge of a franchise express outlet in Beijing, said that during the Spring Festival, the distribution of transportation forces has greater pressure on cargo volume and cost, and the delivery time to the end has been greatly extended, which is also the reason for the weakening of the timeliness of express shipments.
According to Yang Daqing's analysis, with the declining labor dividend in China and the rising cost of living in first-tier cities, meeting the labor demand of "not closing the Spring Festival" is facing certain challenges.
However, "not closing during the Spring Festival" does not mean that all staff must stay behind, otherwise it will cause a waste of resources.
Feng Jun said: “In general, the timeliness of delivery during the Spring Festival will inevitably be worse, because there is no need for everyone in the outlets to stay. First of all, during the Spring Festival, many e-commerce delivery itself will have to wait until the end of the year, from the e-commerce platform to the logistics stage. There is a time gap. Moreover, even if the courier is there, the recipient may not be there. Sometimes during the New Year, half of the parcels cannot be delivered because the recipient has also gone home for the New Year."
Some consumers also expressed concern about the price increase of express delivery.
Wang Xi, a Beijing resident who often shopped online and received and returned goods via express, said: "Last year, many companies were not closed during the Spring Festival, but the freight rate increased drastically."
Faced with the problems of tight staff at the grass-roots outlets and high operating costs during festivals, many companies have stated that they will try their best to ensure that the quality of services is not reduced to satisfy consumers.
In terms of price, some express delivery companies promised to keep the price increase within a reasonable range.
Zhongtong adjusted the guidance price and released it to the public: the increase of each order for express shipments of 1 kg and less does not exceed 1.5 yuan, the increase of the first quotation of express shipments of more than 1 kg does not exceed 1.5 yuan, and the increase of continuation quotations does not exceed 0.3 yuan.
In terms of service quality, some companies have also expressed that they will try their best to provide services that are not much different from usual.
Shentong issued an announcement stating that the whole network will start the "New Year's no closing" project, during which all transshipment centers, transportation vehicles and service outlets across the country will continue to operate to ensure normalization of the network, and deploy sufficient couriers to ensure end delivery services according to market demand ; At the same time, the marketing and customer service teams will also provide services for merchants and users 24 hours a day.
In terms of delivery scope, unless affected by the spread of the epidemic, the express delivery business in most regions will operate normally.
Jitu Express announced that during the Spring Festival, it will adhere to the service concept of "all year round", except for remote areas and areas affected by the epidemic that temporarily suspend express delivery, all localities can provide normal collection and delivery services.
The treatment of frontline practitioners must be guaranteed
During the Spring Festival in the past two years, the majority of couriers have come in the wind and the rain, giving up holiday rest, reuniting with their families, choosing to celebrate the New Year on the spot and fight continuously.
How to use a sound incentive mechanism and reasonably rising holiday income to retain couriers and improve their enthusiasm for work?
This time, many express delivery companies expressed that they will do a good job in ensuring the salary and welfare of couriers during the Spring Festival in 2022.
ZTO Express stated that it will provide complete incentive policies and welfare guarantees for front-line employees who stay behind during the Spring Festival to ensure that the courier brothers have a happy New Year and stable service quality; Jitu Express also proposed that it will provide welfare guarantees for left-behind employees during the Spring Festival.
The left-behind couriers look forward to receiving more care from enterprises, outlets and relevant departments in terms of labor rights protection and epidemic prevention.
"No one doesn't want to go home for the New Year. I chose to stay behind because I didn't want to go home, but because of a comprehensive consideration of various factors. In case of centralized isolation, home isolation, one month before and after, how long will the delay be inside and outside?" Gu Bin believes that companies should provide more rewards and help in epidemic prevention for left-behind couriers, and increase efforts in wages and subsidies to attract couriers to stay on their own initiative.
However, to increase the benefits of left-behind couriers during the Spring Festival, the pressure on the cost of outlets must also be considered.
Some people in charge of grass-roots outlets reported that it is necessary to increase or even double the salary of express delivery staff during the Spring Festival.
Since the level of distribution fees is relatively stable, this part of the expenditure is often borne by the grassroots outlets. The express delivery company should take into account the financial pressure of the latter and share it appropriately to better protect the rights and interests of the couriers.
Will "not closing the Spring Festival" in the future become the norm in the industry?
Industry insiders analyze that this depends on whether a reasonable cost-sharing mechanism can be formed to effectively reduce the pressure on front-line practitioners such as grassroots outlets and couriers due to "not closing".
Yang Daqing said that the courier company's symposium held by the State Post Bureau not long ago proposed that courier companies should prevent unfair competition and oppose behaviors that harm the interests of the industry and the interests of employees.
The increased costs of "not closing the Spring Festival" objectively exist, and a reasonable sharing mechanism needs to be established. In particular, express companies should take the long-term perspective and take the initiative to assume responsibilities instead of transmitting pressure to the grassroots to make the express industry "not closing the Spring Festival." Become a "win-win" between consumers and practitioners.
Yang Daqing said that many express companies in China are currently experiencing upgrade pains.
Regarding the increase in costs during a certain period of time, most express companies are afraid to raise prices considering the factors of stabilizing the market, but they will also limit the room for income increase of first-line practitioners.
In the future, the industry should gradually promote service refinement and quality differentiation in the long-term development, and improve the price formation mechanism. "High-quality and high-efficiency can raise prices appropriately, low-efficiency prices should be stabilized, and technology-enabled ones should be reduced, thereby changing' The low price dominates the competition pattern, forming a virtuous circle in which consumers are satisfied and practitioners benefit."