The courier business is typically slow around Chinese New Year when retailers take a break and delivery guys go home. But the internet is buzzing with complaints about Yunda Express.
Photo by Huang Jiao
By BAI Fan
The courier business is typically slow around the beginning of the year. Companies take a break and delivery guys go home. Usually, after about a week's holiday, services gradually return to normal.
However, in early February, deliveries by Yunda Express led to a flurry of complaints, so much so that the moans were a trending hashtag on Weibo.
Complaints platform Heimao has been buzzing with complaints about Yunda since mid-January. Deliveries are late, drivers are delinquent and customer service never picks up.
Yunda acknowledges that some sites were indeed underprepared for a surge in business but almost all delayed packages have now been delivered, and everything is back to normal.
As 2023 began, plenty of couriers faced the same problem. Deliverymen contracted Covid-19 while others went home for the Chinese New Year. The entire industry was short-staffed.
The effectiveness of a delivery network depends heavily on its sites, which rely on human labor. Couriers vary in the way they calculate compensation for their deliverymen, and this can have a direct impact on employee turnover.
At the end of 2022, Yunda adjusted its compensation plan to include a daily quota of positive reviews from Douyin and Cainiao customers, a fine of 100 yuan for each negative review and cancellation of specific commissions. The new regime is not widely popular. In fact, the delivery guys hate it.
Among the top domestic couriers, SF Express is fast and expensive. SF is in a league of its own. STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express are much of a muchness. In 2022, all companies had to bear the cost of Covid, energy and snarl-ups in the supply chain.
Yunda fared worse than the others. The only company to cut delivery sites, Yunda closed 2,430 locations in the first six months of 2022.
Yunda made 17.6 billion deliveries in 2022, a 4 percent decrease. Net profit is expected to be under 1.5 billion yuan (US$218.7 million), down more than 10 percent. Among the other leading players, YTO and STO, expect profits to more or less double. YTO – Yunda’s closest competitor - has made significant progress, while Yunda appears to have stalled.
Yunda attempted to expand within the sector through investment in Deppon Logistics, but the agreement did not go through and JD Logistics closed a 9 billion acquisition of Deppon in July 2022.
There is speculation that STO and Yunda may be acquired by competitors soon. If that doesn't happen any time soon, Yunda is facing a bumpy road ahead while it tries to catch up with its peers.
