Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 9Title: These three things are related to your life--Deputies and members talk about the healthy development of the express delivery industry

Xinhua News Agency reporters He Xinrong, Guo Jingdan, Wang Linlin

"Promote the healthy development of online shopping and express delivery." For five consecutive years, the development of the express delivery industry has been written into the government work report.

Express delivery has become one of the new "seven things to do when you open the door" for residents. Every little change in this industry is related to your life. Green packaging, terminal delivery, courier rights protection...These things related to express delivery have become topics of concern to deputies and members.

Green packaging: clarify relevant standards and give effective support

At the end of last year, the State Post Bureau and ten other departments jointly launched the "Guiding Opinions on Collaboratively Promoting Green Packaging in the Express Delivery Industry", which clearly stated: to achieve significant results in the greening, reduction and recycling of express packaging.

Although green packaging has become a consensus on development, it still requires efforts from all parties to truly implement it.

"Green packaging in the express delivery industry is a systematic project. From the use of green recycling products to the establishment of a packaging recycling system, a more complete mechanism needs to be formed from national standards, industry norms and other aspects." said Zhang Jindong, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Suning Holdings Group.

The use of green packaging will increase certain costs. For example, the cost of the new "biodegradable plastic packaging bags" is more than twice that of existing packaging bags, which is a big challenge for the fiercely competitive express delivery industry.

Ma Xulin, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the General Services Department of the State Post Bureau, believes that certain policy support can be given to e-commerce and express delivery companies that use degradable packaging materials. When the demand for environmentally friendly packaging becomes strong and forms a scale effect, production costs will be reduced, and a new situation for green express delivery will be opened.

End-to-end delivery: Improve service facilities and develop joint distribution

Statistics show that China's express delivery business volume exceeded 40 billion pieces in 2017, with an average of 29 pieces per person per year. The frequency of express delivery is increasing, and troubles are beginning to appear: when no one is at home during the daytime, the courier puts the package under the fire hydrant and leaves, resulting in no one signing for it and the express delivery being lost.

But at the same time, couriers also have a lot of complaints. "I have heard from many colleagues that it is inconvenient to enter some high-end residential areas and office buildings when delivering express delivery. When contacting the recipient, no one always answers the phone, causing a piece to be delivered several times, which increases a lot of workload." said Chai Shanshan, a member of the National People's Congress and a mail receiver and dispatcher at the Mail Processing Branch Center of Shanghai Station of the Shanghai Postal District Central Bureau of China Post Group.

Statistics show that since 2014, delivery service has become the problem with the highest proportion of consumer complaints in the postal industry. The terminal link of delivery service has become a prominent bottleneck restricting the high-quality development of the industry.

In response to this, the "Opinions on Promoting the Coordinated Development of E-commerce and Express Logistics" issued in January this year proposed: "Innovate the management methods of public service facilities, and clarify the public attributes of smart express boxes and express terminal comprehensive service places."

Many companies have seen the opportunities of express terminal service facilities. For example, Cainiao Network has deployed tens of thousands of Cainiao stations in communities and campuses in China to optimize the terminal delivery model and improve the user logistics experience. "But we feel that the number of terminal facilities, including express cabinets, is far from enough. As a basic convenience measure, we hope to promote it in more residential and office areas." Chai Shanshan said.

Ma Xulin suggested that in order to avoid waste of resources, we can develop joint distribution at the end of the city and build community distribution public service stations that integrate e-commerce, express delivery, vegetables, grains, oil, drinking water and other distribution services to avoid each doing its own thing and improve the utilization rate of public facilities.

Standardized employment: Protect the rights and interests of couriers and demand efficiency from intelligence

The direct provider of express delivery services is the courier brother who goes in the wind and rain. According to rough statistics, there are more than 3 million couriers in China to support 40 billion express parcels. This huge group has become a "familiar stranger" around us.

Although the income is acceptable, the job stability of couriers is not high because of the high labor intensity and long working hours. Statistics show that in big cities such as Shanghai, the turnover rate of couriers within 1-2 years is nearly 30%. After the Spring Festival every year, an important task of express delivery companies is to recruit workers to prevent outlets from shutting down and business explosion.

Due to the rapid development of the industry, in the employment system of the express delivery industry, some are contract workers, some are dispatched workers, and some are temporary workers. "We must standardize from the source and strengthen the training and guidance of express delivery employees and labor protection. Establish and improve trade union organizations in express delivery companies to enhance the sense of gain of employees." Yang Junri, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the China National Defense Post and Telecommunications Trade Union, said.

While protecting the legitimate rights and interests of couriers, the express delivery industry is also accelerating its transformation. From the traditional "labor-intensive" to high-tech, big data and artificial intelligence to demand efficiency.

Cainiao Network shows that in recent years, the time required to sign for 100 million parcels on "Double 11" has been shortened from 9 days in 2013 to 2.8 days in 2017. Behind the "bigger the order, the faster the speed" curve is the use of big data and smart algorithms to give each parcel the optimal path. They can even "foresee the future" and place products near consumers in advance.

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