On China’s giant Singles Day internet shopping festival, the country’s delivery firms are stretched so thin that they are looking for tie-ups, listings and new investors to husband their resources.
Singles Day, which overtook the US’s Cyber Monday as the world’s biggest shopping event in 2012, generated sales of USD9.3 billion in 2014. Parcel deliveries are expected to rise 42 percent to 760 million this week, creating a logistical headache for the army of companies that will bring them to the customer’s door.
The planning began three months ago for Shanghai-based Zhongtong (ZTO) Express, one of China’s largest couriers, which saw parcel volumes jump fourfold during last year’s event. The firm, which currently employs a quarter of a million people and has 28,000 delivery vehicles, said it decided to add 40,000 temporary and permanent workers, buy an extra 7,000 vehicles and open dozens of sorting center, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
(Source: Jakarta Globe )