Delivery Services Operating as Usual During Spring Festival 2018

This article originally appeared on our sister website, Urban Family Shanghai.

By Yuzhou Hu

This time every year we all start to wonder what delivery services will be affected by the upcoming Spring Festival. Can we still make orders and receive what we buy during the holidays, or will a backlog occur and take weeks for delivery? 

Well, you can rest assured that your parcels will arrive on time. According to the Express Magazine, 10 major local courier firms, including SF, ZTO, JD and Suning Express, have advised they will maintain their usual delivery services during the 2018 holiday period.

That being said, this convenience will come at a price. Companies EMS, Yunda and SF have advised that each parcel delivered will incur an additional surcharge of RMB10 between February 15 and 21.

Whether couriers could or should be granted vacation has triggered heated discussion over the past few years. After all, it's reasonable for them to take the opportunity for a reunion with their families, after a tireless year of working.

Of course, there are people who are against the idea. "There is no vacation in the service industry," argues Zhao Xiaoming, an expert on express industry. "Now that delivery service has become an indispensable part of our daily life, it would be irresponsible to take a hiatus from the business."

These views however, vary on the issue. "I'm cool with working overtime during the Spring Festival," says a courier named Zhou, who has been in this line of work for over three years. "Many of my colleagues have made up their mind to return to their hometown this year, but I'd rather stay for the subsidy. Nonetheless, it's not compulsory."

The past few years has been witness to a rapid development in the express delivery industry. The sales volume of 2017 amounted to almost RMB496 billion, with year-on-year growth of approximately 25 percent. In contrast, the compensation for delivery employees seems to remain stagnant.

This article was originally published by our sister magazine Urban Family Shanghai. For more articles like this, visit the Urban Family website, or follow the Urban Family WeChat account (ID: urbanfamilyshanghai).