Who should be responsible for commodity delivery?

[Photo: VCG]

By Liang Tao

According to media reports, tens of thousands of packages have piled up at a YTO Express depot in Beijing. The Shanghai-based logistic company blamed the backlog on a lack of staff over the Spring Festival period.

YTO is not the only courier company to have suffered this problem. A slew of companies such as STO and Best Express also ran into the same trouble.

In a recent comment on his microblog, the CEO of China's e-commerce giant JD.com, Liu Qiangdong, said "I have noticed the recent news about a courier service lockout, which has exposed the hidden 'cancer' caused by the skyrocketing growth of the e-commerce industry over a decade."

His comment hits a raw nerve.

This has much to do with the business model of the courier companies. The express delivery market has been undergoing a fast-growing period in China thanks to the prosperity of e-commerce. In order to grab a large market share, most courier companies have blindly expanded their business by allowing anybody to use their name for franchises, if they are willing to pay.

In this way, the courier and logistic companies developed rapidly at the cost of effective supervision over their franchisees. As a result, the legal rights of their employees, the motor couriers, have been ignored and customers are no longer king.

The disgraceful behavior of a number of franchisees not only hurts the delivery industry, but also undermines the future development of the flourishing e-commerce industry as a whole.

In the process of e-commerce growth, a large number of online retailers have focused specifically on profit hunting without sparing a single thought to after-sales service.

First and foremost, online retailers should take the unshirkable responsibility to beef up supervision on the courier platform to ensure costumers get their commodities undamaged and on time, but also that employees' legal rights are well protected.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, is now reviewing a draft law on e-commerce, and it's expected to consider the express delivery industry in the process, because it is related to the stable development of e-commerce as a compulsory after-sale service item.

Moreover, governance at a higher level is sorely needed. The postal authorities, who are in charge of regulating the courier industry, should pay more attention to, and study the problem and situation in depth. They need to conduct a thorough investigation nationwide, to register the franchisees of courier companies, so that they can be punished if they break the rules and regulations.

If we don't establish a strengthened governance system or change the current business model, urgently, the express delivery companies will face bigger crises in the future.

A global summit featuring intelligent logistics was held in Hangzhou last June. Intelligent logistics is a brand new concept, which highlights the importance of big data. I think in the near future advanced technology will greatly promote the growth of express delivery industry.

Or maybe it's happening.