Hello, I have a parcel for you. How do you want it delivered?
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I was unaware of a new regulation on parcel delivery services until I received two separate phone calls from couriers recently. They asked if I required my parcel to be delivered to my doorstep or if depositing it in a locker at the gate of my residential complex would be permissible.
In recent years, I have seldom received phone calls like that. Instead, I usually received only text messages informing me that a parcel had been deposited in lockers and I had to retrieve it before a certain date.
The new regulation, enacted by Ministry of Transport and effective this month, requires doorstep deliveries unless a recipient gives explicit permission to use lockers. Couriers who violate the rule face a maximum fine of 30,000 yuan (US$4,167).
I asked a courier who phoned me how he felt about the new rule.
“Not feeling it much,” he told me. “The area I’m responsible for mostly involves seniors who don’t know how lockers work, so I’ve had to deliver most parcels to doors even before the new regulation. I don’t have lots of phone calls to make.”
However, many couriers around the country are unhappy about the revised rules because door deliveries take more time than locker placements, not to mention the bother of having to make all the phone calls.
According to the Economic Observer, a courier in the southern city of Guangzhou said he was the object of 11 complaints for not delivering parcel to doors and each time was fined 50 yuan.
One courier said he delivers 400-600 parcels a day and it’s impossible to deliver each one to doors or make phone calls asking each customer if they use lockers. Under such pressure, some couriers have chosen to quit and find new jobs.
A week after the regulation came into effect, most couriers had basically grasped which customers are most likely to make complaints and which aren’t, so they simply deliver parcels for chronic complainers to their doorsteps. As for the others? Same old, same old.
When a regulation is not practical, it almost certainly falls into the trap of selective application. Last year in China, millions of couriers delivered more than 132 billion parcels. That works out to a heavy daily workload that is very time sensitive.
If more customers ask for faster door-to-door service amid the limited time and resources of courier delivery services, what can be done?
Fining couriers who don’t adhere to the rules isn’t fair. Express companies should shoulder the responsibility.
Perhaps the solution is a new system that asks consumers to choose their method of delivery upon purchase. That information could then be passed on as part of the delivery process.
Express companies could also initiate bonus systems that pay couriers more when they do door-to-door deliveries.
A healthy marketplace addresses the interests of both consumers and service providers, and the express industry is no exception. We can’t expect consumers and couriers to solve the problem on their own.
Does all this point to higher fees for parcel delivery? Well, if it means better service, most consumers would probably accept a reasonable price increase — if it benefits the couriers and not their employers.
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