Reporter Han Xin
Express delivery to villages is an important way to promote consumption fairness and activate rural consumption potential.
Rural areas in my country, especially remote areas in the central and western regions, have dispersed populations, wide geographical areas, and long transportation distances. Delivery needs are low-frequency, scattered, and unstable. Mainline transportation costs and terminal collection costs are significantly higher than in cities, making it difficult for express delivery to enter villages.
In order to make up for the shortcomings in market supply and smooth the two-way circulation channels between urban and rural areas, this year the State Post Bureau and China Post Group jointly launched a special postal pilot project of "Express Delivery to Villages". How effective was the pilot? Recently, the State Post Bureau introduced relevant progress.
Complete the pilot goals set at the beginning of the year
Since the implementation of the "Express Delivery to Villages" project in 2020, the construction of my country's rural delivery logistics system has achieved remarkable results. Up to now, the State Post Bureau has worked with multiple departments to create 100 rural e-commerce express delivery collaborative development demonstration zones and cultivated 219 modern agriculture demonstration projects for express delivery services. Postal express delivery supports annual online retail sales of agricultural products exceeding 780 billion yuan.
The results have been remarkable, but challenges remain.
"In remote rural areas in the central and western regions, problems such as long delivery distances and high operating costs are more prominent, and it is unaffordable for delivery companies to build separate networks." Lin Hu, spokesperson of the State Post Bureau and director of the Market Supervision Department, said that practice has found that the universal postal service network is an effective model for realizing express delivery to villages.
In January this year, 17 central and western provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) each selected one county to launch a special pilot project of "express delivery to villages" to provide postal services based on the universal postal service network.
After sorting through the list, it is not difficult to find that many pilot counties are key counties for national rural revitalization. "The rural population in these areas is scattered and the volume of parcels is insufficient. The marginal cost of a package is ten times that of the city." Lin Hu said that express delivery companies at the township level are unwilling to invest, cannot invest, and cannot afford to invest to a certain extent. Choosing these areas can further verify the relevant work rules, business processes, and policy effects.
Since the launch of the pilot project, Postal Express has worked closely together. As of the end of August, 2,939 of the 3,960 incorporated villages in 17 pilot counties had realized "express delivery into the villages" through the postal service, completing the pilot goals set at the beginning of the year, and more and more villagers were able to receive goods quickly without leaving the village.
Not only for "receiving parcels", but also for smoothing the economic cycle
The cost and difficulty are high, so why should multiple parties work together to promote "express delivery to villages"?
"The postal service of 'Express Delivery to Villages' is not only for 'receiving parcels', but also for connecting rural areas to the modern economic system and smoothing the economic cycle." Lin Hu said, it allows specialty agricultural products and other special agricultural products to be transformed into real economic value through circulation, allowing the vast rural areas to be deeply integrated into the domestic cycle.
In Shiyanfang County, Hubei Province, 269 villages are scattered throughout the country. Before the pilot, 112 incorporated villages were unable to rely on market-based mechanisms to achieve regular and stable delivery, and another 28 village-level sites were forced to shrink and shut down due to operating difficulties. Update county and village-level logistics hardware, upgrade standardized sites to comprehensive service outlets, and explore cost-sharing models... After a period of trial operation, the operating cost of a single item entering the village has been reduced by 0.13 yuan, with an average of 10,000 items entering the village every day; by opening up the upstream channel for agricultural specialty products, the harvest volume at the village level has doubled compared with before the pilot, driving an average income increase of nearly 20,000 rural households by about 20,000 yuan.
One county, one policy, adapted to local conditions. Since the launch of the pilot work, China Post Group has arranged a cumulative investment plan of 210 million yuan, including more than 21 million yuan in special construction funds for 17 pilot counties. The automobileization rate of rural delivery has increased from 62% to 97%. At the same time, it has effectively opened up the data of express delivery companies and platforms to achieve data tracking of the entire process from express delivery to delivery.
“The gap between urban and rural areas is largely due to the gap between infrastructure and public services.” Lin Hu said that the postal network is the only physical delivery network in the country that has the ability to cover all regions “horizontally to the edge and vertically to the end”. Relying on the postal network to promote "express delivery to villages" will ensure the equal supply of basic public services in an institutionalized manner and effectively release rural consumption potential.
Build strong connectivity and create a soft environment to make coverage services more sustainable
"Although the pilot work has achieved initial results, as the pilot advances in depth, some deep-seated problems still need to be solved." Lin Hu said.
For example, in some areas, the postal service and express delivery companies remain at a shallow level of cooperation in "agents for delivery and delivery", and the in-depth cooperation in terms of co-construction of facilities, resource sharing, and line distribution is not enough; for another example, some pilot counties still have problems such as small postal processing centers, low coverage of automated sorting equipment, and insufficient delivery capacity at the township level, making it difficult to cope with the surge in the number of parcels delivered after the bailout.
More importantly, how can covert services be made more sustainable?
Lin Hu proposed that in the long run, it is necessary to prevent some express delivery companies from using postal services to blindly collect express parcels at the front end, leading to disorderly competition.
Make strong connections. Support relevant provincial (autonomous and municipal) postal branches to comprehensively improve county processing capabilities, introduce automated processing equipment suitable for joint sorting, and promote the pilot application of unmanned vehicles and drones in rural areas; at the same time, promote rural passenger vehicles to carry express mail transportation, realize the resource sharing of "passenger transport lines + postal express delivery", reduce rural terminal distribution costs, and improve service coverage.
Create an excellent soft environment. We will further promote the inclusion of the postal package of "express delivery into villages" as the focus of county economic development and rural revitalization, and provide support in terms of site use, village-level site construction, and the establishment of public welfare posts; in addition, we will standardize the operating order of the rural express delivery market and promote fair competition.
It should be noted that postal services are only a useful supplement and transitional form of "express delivery to villages". As the consumption potential of rural areas in the central and western regions continues to be released and the demand for delivery becomes stronger, more express delivery companies will sink outlets and improve services. A more complete rural delivery service network will better meet the production and living needs of rural people, effectively serve the overall revitalization of rural areas, and smooth the domestic cycle.
