Hello everyone, I’m Lao Gu.
Recently, the Ministry of Transport announced the newly revised “Express Market Management Measures”, which will come into effect on March 1, 2024. It stipulates that enterprises operating express delivery services shall not confirm receipt of express items on behalf of users without their consent, nor shall they deliver express items to smart express cabinets, express service stations, and other express terminal service facilities without authorization.
Watching these various ministries and commissions constantly launching various industry management measures, I can only shake my head continuously.
You must know that the express delivery industry is one of the least regulated industries in China, and as a result, China’s express delivery industry has become the most efficient express delivery industry in the world.
The price of China’s express delivery industry is unimaginable to Europeans and Americans.
In the price war in the express delivery industry that broke out in 2021, the price of express delivery for items under 0.3KG in the Yiwu area was reduced from 1.6 yuan to 1.2 yuan.
Can you imagine? 1.2 yuan, from Yiwu to Northeast China, requires a warehouse, requires issuing orders, requires transfer, requires trucks, requires sorting, requires the final delivery person to the station, and also requires the station to organize.
From the merchant to the consumer, there are more than a dozen service personnel involved in each link of an express delivery, but it only costs 1.2 yuan.
Price is the embodiment of efficiency, and a most important feature of economic development is the continuous decline in the prices of consumer goods. Twenty years ago, it cost tens of yuan to send a package by post, and that was when the salary was a few hundred yuan.
This shows that the government’s lack of intervention in the express delivery industry over the years is absolutely correct.
Without an efficient division of labor and cooperation system, it is impossible to achieve this price.
If you want to say, the industry that China is most proud of is not mobile phones, not 5G, but express delivery. Because this industry can best represent China’s marketization level.
It is precisely because of the lack of regulation in this industry, for example, most of the couriers are self-employed, not regulated by labor laws, and the taxes in the express delivery industry are also relatively low, that China has a super-developed express delivery industry with more than 100 billion orders per year.
The development of the express delivery industry has also greatly reduced the cost for consumers. Think about it, with 130 billion orders a year, if the express delivery industry increases the price by four or five yuan per order, Chinese people will have to spend five or six hundred billion more to buy the same products.
Such a good industry, leading the world, what are you managing?
From the regulations issued by the Ministry of Transport, it seems to be for consumers, but in fact, it is a completely wrong policy based on a whim.
Because, whether the express delivery needs to be delivered to the door, consumers can choose for themselves.
As long as you say to the merchant, I want SF Express, and make up the price difference, it can be delivered to your door immediately. With such a developed express delivery market, what consumer needs cannot be met?
If you want to have everything delivered to your door, just use JD.com, JD.com’s self-operated delivery is all door-to-door, it’s just about 20% more expensive, and a lot of rich people only use JD.com.
Delivering express to stations and express cabinets is just a default choice now. Requiring door-to-door delivery has become a choice that customers need to communicate individually.
Consumers are not unable to accept it. If they cannot accept it, they will not buy it.
A person’s actions indicate their true preferences.
Since consumers are still buying online in large quantities, it shows that their true preference is to accept this express delivery method.
These ministries and commissions take some online public opinion as the basis for issuing policies. These ministries and commissions should learn some common sense of economics, that is, speech is costless, and action is a reflection of preference.
That’s right, many people online do complain about express delivery, which is normal, everyone wants it to be cheap and better. But most of these people who complain are far from the business, including housewives and even a large number of elderly people.
Their understanding of business is very low, but you should know that even eighty-year-olds are commenting online now.
They don’t understand the operating mechanism of the express delivery industry at all, and they will only say, how could it be delivered to the door before? If it can be delivered to the door, and it’s still at this price, then who doesn’t like it?
1.2 yuan, and you still want it delivered to your door? What are you thinking? How can it be this price to deliver from Yiwu to your home, and the delivery fee for ordering takeout is four or five yuan and up.
Without the price of 1.2 yuan for express delivery, how can there be so many things that can be bought online for a few yuan?
They also want to eat lobster and abalone at the price of fast food. Do you want to stipulate that fast food restaurants must supply lobster? Do you want to stipulate that lobster only sells for five yuan a catty?
But this kind of complaint is not the true preference of consumers.
If the management measures of the Ministry of Transport are really implemented, there is only one result, that is, the express delivery industry will all increase prices, from more than one yuan per order to four or five yuan per order.
As long as the leaders sitting in the office take a look at how the couriers work, you will understand that if you want to keep the current price and still deliver to the door. A courier can only earn a maximum of five or six hundred yuan a month.
In other words, this model cannot be established in the market. If it can be low-priced and the courier can deliver to the door, and this business model is established, express delivery companies would have done so long ago, and they could have killed SF Express.
Isn’t the direction of competition in any industry, cheap and good quality?
Isn’t the result of the express delivery industry’s competition over the years, getting faster and faster? Isn’t it getting cheaper and cheaper? This is the result of catering to consumer needs.
Are these results brought about by government regulations? Ten years ago, if you stipulated that express delivery must be delivered in three days, could it be delivered? No, it depends on the efficiency innovation and business model innovation of the entire industry.
Can you stipulate how much money an express delivery order must cost? No, in fact, the rapid price reduction of the express delivery industry is the emergence of stations, which reduces the cost of the last mile, so that couriers can pull a truckload of goods and directly dump them at the station.
They only get five cents for delivering an express. If you let them call each one and deliver it, and then this one is not at home, and that one says to deliver it in the afternoon, and then they have to deliver it one by one, what will be the result? 50 orders will not be completed.
Some fools say that express delivery companies are exploiting couriers, so let the express delivery companies increase their commissions? A total of 1.2 yuan, all given to the couriers, and the couriers’ daily income is only sixty yuan. Don’t the truck drivers need money? Don’t the sorting personnel need money? Don’t the express delivery companies need to pay taxes and profits? Five cents is already the largest cost expenditure in the express delivery industry.
The station is an innovative business model and a weapon to reduce the price of express delivery.
Forcibly implementing this kind of rule, if the industry does not adjust, there is only one way to increase the price. In the end, the 9.9 goods will disappear from the market. Who benefits in the end?
Consumers buy things more expensively, couriers earn less, stations close down, and merchants sell less goods. Everyone is a loser.
I think the officials of the Chinese government departments should understand a basic principle, that is, the ones who understand consumers best are never the officials sitting in the office, but the entrepreneurs who are competing in the market every day.
Any dissatisfaction of consumers is a business opportunity for them, and it is called the pain points and needs of customers.
The competition between express delivery companies is extremely fierce, and even giants like SF Express have to participate in the price war. If they don’t participate, they will die.
If there are potential consumer needs in the market that are not met, officials do not need to worry, it will definitely become the most important direction for another company to defeat its competitors.
Do you, a government department, understand the market? Do you understand consumer needs? Do you understand business?
You don’t need to care about how companies serve consumers, this is the function of entrepreneurs, not the function of government departments.
Don’t mistakenly take the untrue, or even ignorant, complaints of consumers as public opinion to cater to, and the result will only lead to policy reversals, making the policies of these ministries and commissions unpredictable.
Because consumers will use their actions to reflect their preferences, and when the price of express delivery rises by a few yuan, the prices of all products will rise, and in the end, what you get is a lot of scolding. Will the results of your management measures make consumers satisfied? Of course not.
Of course, I think this kind of policy is also an invalid policy.
E-commerce platforms only need to modify it, for example, when choosing the delivery method, indicate whether to deliver to the door, and add ten yuan for door-to-door delivery, isn’t that enough?
What’s the point of this? Do you think most consumers will choose this plus ten yuan? Originally, it was sold for 10 yuan with free shipping, and now it’s 20 yuan, how many people will choose door-to-door delivery? Once the cost is clear, they will immediately stop complaining.
Their preferences will be reflected immediately in their actions, and then they will say that the station is good because it is cheap.
Various ministries and commissions really don’t need to brush this sense of existence. As long as the enterprises are not fraudulent and do not violate the law, then how to serve consumers, you don’t have to worry about it at all. Isn’t it good to drink tea and watch short videos in the office?
The central government has repeatedly proposed not to issue contractionary policies, to be consistent with the macro policies that encourage enterprise development, and to build a good business environment, but you just like to make trouble, why bother? Is it a good business environment to stipulate the specific way for enterprises to serve consumers?
It’s just tying the hands and feet of enterprises.
If every ministry and commission pursues managing this industry and that industry every day, and puts shackles on various industries, then what economic development is there to talk about?
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