Thriving courier business mirrors China's development vitality

The courier industry, which integrates online and offline businesses and serves every household, is an important sector that smooths production and consumption, as well as a reflection of a country's economic development.

According to statistics released by the State Post Bureau, China's courier industry saw its delivery volume exceed 40 billion parcels this year as of May 4. The 40-billion mark was reached 128 days earlier than in 2019 and 24 days earlier than in 2022.

Photo shows an unmanned logistics vehicle in an agricultural product trade center in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province. [People's Daily Online/Luo Guoyang]

The achievement reached in only four months indicates the strong resilience of the industry's development and mirrors the vitality and energy of China.

This year, the sector took 39 days to handle 10 billion parcels and 28 days to reach the second 10-billion mark. A total of 30 billion parcels had been collected and delivered across the country in about three months, and the number hit 40 billion a month later.

The steady rise in the delivery volume demonstrates the ceaseless efforts of the Chinese courier industry to grasp new opportunities.

Express delivery enterprises have constantly developed new technologies and expanded their businesses, fostering new growth points while facilitating economic microcirculation.

Many of them have upgraded their overnight shipping services to same-day delivery, and launched intelligent courier vehicles that are able to not only deliver but also collect parcels. They have also joined hands with multiple parties to serve cross-border e-commerce, constantly improving the cross-border express network.

Employees of a postal center in Fuyang, east China's Anhui province, sort express parcels along an intelligent conveyor belt. [People's Daily Online/Wang Biao]

A series of new measures boast a smoother express service network, high-quality services and an upgraded capacity. The industry has maintained a sound momentum for operation.

The monthly growth in delivery volume manifests China's consumption turnaround. The courier industry helps improve market circulation and contributes to the gradual release of online consumer demand.

In the first quarter of this year, the online retail sales of physical goods nationwide increased by 7.3 percent year-on-year, and its share in total retail sales of consumer goods also went up by 1 percentage point. During the May Day holiday this year, nearly 1.5 billion parcels were collected and delivered across China, with a daily average increasing 1.2 times from that in 2019.

It proved that the fundamentals sustaining the continuous recovery of the Chinese consumer market remain unchanged. Chinese consumption is still expanding and seeing structural optimization.

The monthly growth in parcel volume manifests a new trend of integration and development among Chinese industries. The constant development of the express network is attributed to the thriving courier business in rural areas and the close collaboration between the courier sector and manufacturing enterprises.

Couriers of SF Express are ready to deliver parcels in Qianxi, southwest China's Guizhou province. [People's Daily Online/Fan Hui]

Thanks to the efforts made by courier companies to explore lower-tier markets, more and more industrial products are sold to rural regions, and the logistics channel for agricultural products has been significantly widened. Today, over 100 million parcels are being collected and delivered in rural areas on a daily basis, stimulating the vitality of rural consumption.

By extending courier services to the production end, the courier sector and manufacturing industries have further integrated with each other. Courier companies set up service stations directly in manufacturing factories, integrate warehousing and distribution, and offer regional supply chain services.

The integration helps manufacturers lower costs and improve efficiency, and expands new market space for courier companies.

Today, China has built a gigantic express network that comes with over 410,000 service stations that provide 700 million services on a daily basis. Over 4 million couriers are running on the streets across the country every day.

Relevant policies are implemented to promote consumption and smooth circulation, and consumer confidence is continuously increasing. The courier industry will play a bigger role in serving production, promoting consumption and ensuring the smooth flow of economic activities, and constantly promote high-quality economic development.