Express firms facing holiday labor shortage

Express services in Shanghai may have to delay deliveries by one to five days during the Spring Festival as the vast majority of local couriers leave the city for the week-long national holiday, local media reported Tuesday.

The labor shortage comes during the express delivery industry's busiest season - the week or so before the start of the Spring Festival, said Xu Yong, chief consultant with China Express and Logistics Consulting Company.

"It is common for the industry to go through a labor shortage during the Spring Festival because about 97 percent of the city's couriers are not Shanghai natives," Xu told the Global Times. "They are looking forward to returning home and spending time with their families during the traditional Chinese holiday."

Xu estimated that the average number of daily express deliveries and collections of mail and parcels will jump 50 percent over the peak period, up from about 4 million during the non-peak season.

Express delivery companies such as Shentong, YTO and Yunda may go as far as suspending service entirely at some of their outlets during the holiday, which takes place from February 9 and February 15, according to a report in the Shanghai Morning Post. Most of the couriers will leave by February 3 and return after February 15.

An express courier named Wang Guoqiang said that the Zhongtong Express Company franchise store where he has worked will shut down from February 7 to February 15 as a majority of his 30 coworkers from outside Shanghai have already gone back to their hometowns.

"I myself will leave the city on February 1 to go back to my hometown in Henan Province. I will come back around February 18," Wang told the Global Times.

The Shanghai Express Trade Association ordered all express delivery companies to remain open as usual during the holiday, though some express franchises will likely make adjustments to their operations, such as shortening their business hours, said Chen Linhua, a representative of the association.

Express companies such as China Post's Express Mail Service (EMS) and S.F. Express said that all of their stores will remain open over the holiday, but service will be delayed by about half a day for both collection and delivery, according to customer service representatives at both companies.