Delivery industry shows resilience

An express worker processes packages at a delivery station in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. [Photo by Cao Jianxiong/For China Daily]

China's parcel delivery industry handled more packages between January and November this year compared with the same period in 2021, showing the sector's remarkable resilience in the fight against COVID-19 and its contribution to boosting economic development, enhancing the flow of goods and helping people maintain their daily lives.

According to the State Post Bureau of China, about 100.2 billion parcels were collected and delivered across the country in the first 11 months, a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percent.

The volume of parcels sent and received in the same city has dropped, and so has the volume of overseas delivery, including to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, but at the same time, cross-region business has increased.

From January to November, 11.67 billion parcels were handled within the same city, a year-on-year decrease of 8.5 percent. About 1.78 billion parcels were collected and delivered to overseas destinations, a year-on-year drop of 7.5 percent. In contrast, the volume of cross-region parcels in the Chinese mainland was 86.76 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.1 percent.

In the first 11 months, the revenue of the parcel delivery sector reached 956.98 billion yuan ($137.14 billion), a year-on-year rise of 1.6 percent.

Millions of Chinese people were affected by the epidemic this year. Some were confined to their homes for weeks and relied heavily on parcel delivery services to maintain a semblance of normal life. Some were reluctant to go out shopping and, instead, chose to place their orders online and receive the parcels through reliable networks.

As of Dec 1, more than 100 billion parcels have been handled in China, evidence of the sector's resilience amid sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks, as delivery agents maintained the flow of goods to meet people's growing demand. A year ago, it took them until Dec 8 to handle the same number of parcels.

However, some consumers have had to grapple with parcel delivery delays since last month. Data from the bureau show that the sector handled 10.35 billion parcels in November, a year-on-year decrease of 8.7 percent.

Last week, residents in some places, such as Beijing, reported parcel delays due to the pressure the delivery industry was facing amid the rising demand for daily necessities and medicines and staff shortages.

To cope with the backlog in deliveries, the bureau has urged all parcel companies in Beijing to call in couriers from outside the city. It held a meeting on Wednesday, asking companies to keep services open and reopen parcel delivery stations that were temporarily shut down due to the epidemic.

The bureau has decided to monitor the performance of major parcel delivery companies and notify the public of key developments in a timely manner.