There is an urgent need to regenerate the express delivery industry。
In recent days, the daily economic news journalist was informed by the chongqing market prices board that six courier companies in the city, including chungqing yuan, zhongqing, zhong zhong zhong zhong, ying zhai and tianyang, were under investigation for alleged price manipulation. Meanwhile, there have been complaints of simultaneous price increases by courier companies in the hunan province, and local price bureaux are now involved in investigations。
The event of a single price increase revealed the negative effects of low-price competition in the express delivery industry in recent years: a number of courier companies are no longer able to withstand price wars and the low-level development patterns of the industry are unsustainable. “this `pricing union' can be seen as a protest and boycott by courier companies of vicious competition, but in the wrong way.” xu yong, chief advisor, china express logistics advisory network, stated。
Yesterday (13 august), in an interview with a journalist for the daily economic news, the head of the south-west round express stated that this was a spontaneous act of association and had nothing to do with the headquarters of the circular courier company. But the person in charge also stated, “the express delivery company will move from price to service competition, and the overall shuffle is already on the trend, and the concentration of the industry will eventually increase significantly, leaving four to five express delivery companies.”
The cost of receiving a change notice was not reduced
According to the chongqing market prices board, the single price increase involved six courier companies, including chongqing express limited, chongqing express limited, chongqing shin heavy express limited, chongqing sin yada express service limited, chongqing mayzaki express limited, chongqing clearing and handing (rongdar) limited, and chongqing sing chang express service limited。
According to the chongqing market prices board, the six express delivery companies mentioned above had held several joint price coordination meetings prior to the price adjustment and, as of 1 august 2014, had unified the increase in the rate of express delivery charges, with collusion and market price manipulation. On 7 august, the chongqing market prices board issued a restraining order for the six courier companies mentioned above, demanding an immediate cessation of the violations, failing which they would be subject to severe price administrative penalties。
It was also reported in the chongqing media that “the price increase scheme for this attempt was: sichuan, chongqing's first weight was $5 per kilogram, renewed by $2 per kilogram, with the exception of remote cities and hong kong's first weight being $6 and renewed by $3”. However, just a few days after the price hike, chongqing electric operators could not stand it。
However, journalists learned that chongqing's courier companies involved in the price increase did not stop the price hike. “although notice of modifications was received, in practice the costs were not reduced.” the all-round participation in the meeting on price coordination was accompanied by an announcement by the news agency, huang xiao, that the price increase for the electrician was currently at least 20 per cent and that “there is no intention of restoring the price”
Yesterday, in an interview with a journalist for daily economic news, the head of the south-west round express stated that it was a spontaneous act by the association, unrelated to the headquarters of the company, and that it was a practice that was severely stopped by the headquarters. As most of the country's large courier companies now follow the “front + union” model, using circulars as an example, there is only a power of recommendation and no decision on the endpoints and allies. The official also revealed a “public secret” and, as a rule, the head office set only one cost price and the consortium took ownership of the profits。
In fact, the round-trip south-west zone received an application from the head of the chongqing area a few days ago to ask whether it could attend a price coordination meeting, “the company did not promise them to participate, which is a principle that has always been upheld by headquarters. The above officials told the journalists。
It is noteworthy that the simultaneous price increases by courier companies did not occur only in chongqing. At the end of july, several express courier companies in hunan were also complained by consumers about the simultaneous increase in prices, which was confirmed yesterday by the daily economic news reporter from the quan market price bureau, where a director said that “the price bureau has intervened”
Increased prices against bad competition
The three-year-old yellow is deeply affected by the increasingly difficult situation of the express delivery industry. In his view, a major reason for the emergence of the chongqing “price union” was high operating costs, including rising human costs and increased storage costs。
In 2011, huang, who was also a university student, allowed the school to have no commercial opportunities around the delivery point and, after graduation, the speed of the hymn delivery became a distributor in chongqing banan district. However, three years later, he found himself making no money at all。
Huang wrote a check to the daily economic news reporter, and his company had seven couriers, each paid between $3,000 and $4,000 a month, paying $1,000 a day for storage at the chongqing distribution stop, in addition to the human cost. At the current rate of $1 per kilogram for couriers, the profit per kilogram is only a few cents。
In addition, changes in the distribution of transit station charges have exacerbated the situation of courier companies。
According to huang xiao, while in the past distribution transit stations used to charge a fixed amount as a storage fee for each point, they have recently been adjusted to a kilo-based charge. For some areas of chongqing xinpei where there is a large demand for couriers, the daily storage fees of express couriers would have been as high as tens of thousands of dollars, which would have been more expensive after the adjustment, and the express delivery company's increased costs would have resulted in the option of increasing the cost of couriers。
This time, the “price union” raised a high level of concern. According to industry sources, this incident exposed the negative effects of low-price competition in the express delivery industry in recent years: many courier companies are no longer able to withstand price wars and the low-level pattern of industry development is unsustainable。
In this regard, wong is deeply in favour. “the reason why the price hikes by courier companies are more important than responding to higher storage costs is to crowd out small firms in the industry that are maliciously price-killing, and to reduce price pressure among courier companies.” it is explained that these maliciously price-fixing small companies usually do not have a strong operational capacity and are limited in network layout and range, “while they can press prices with city express delivery unprofitable, they have to work with large companies to send them across the country”
“this `price union' can be seen as a protest and boycott by couriers of vicious competition, in the wrong way.” seo yong stated。
Shortly ago, the national post office drafted the draft expedition regulation (approval draft) (hereinafter referred to as the draft opinion) and made it publicly available to the public on 31 july. It is intended to be refined on the basis of laws and regulations such as the postal code, the measures for the management of the express market, etc., and to regulate low-price competition of interest to the outside world, the licensing of courier operations, the prohibition of user mail, the inspection of mail and the “last kilometre”。
The daily economic news reporter noted that the draft clearly states a series of acts of disruption to market order that may not be carried out by enterprises operating express delivery operations, including: collusion in manipulating the market price to the detriment of the legitimate interests of other enterprises or users operating courier operations; the fraudulent use of other business names, business signs and trademarks to disrupt the market order; the undermining of the business credibility of competing players by falsifying and spreading false facts; the provision of courier services at a lower cost to crowd out competitors; false propaganda against users that is susceptible to misunderstanding; and other acts that disrupt the order of the express market。
Responsible editor: zhang dei
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