Exodus of deliverymen to hit courier companies during Spring Festival

Pedestrians walk past a delivery tricycle of SF Express on the street in Huaibei city, East China's Anhui province, August 26, 2016.[Photo/IC]

With this year's "Chunyun," the name given for the travel rush around Spring Festival, starting from Jan 13, some parcel deliverymen have returned to their hometowns to celebrate China's most important family holiday.

Courier companies, including SF Express, YTO Express and TTK Express, though have claimed that delivery and pickup will be normal during the Spring Festival holiday in response to the "No rest for the whole year" policy of the State Post Bureau.

However, due to the shortage of employees, some service stations will stop parcel pickup.

A deliveryman of YTO Express Beijing said that from Jan 15 parcels sent to other provinces will not be picked up, while Jan 20 is the deadline for parcels dispatched to be collected in the same city.

An employee of TTK Express said that parcel pickup will stop one week before the Spring Festival, china.org.cn reported.

Spring Festival, which falls on Jan 28 this year, is China's most important family holiday, with hundreds of millions heading for their hometowns to reunite with relatives and friends. It is expected to leave online shopping sites short-handed due to the exodus of workers.

Domestic express delivery services are getting a business boost from the explosive growth of e-commerce.

China's burgeoning courier service sector is predicted to generate 500 billion yuan ($72 billion) in business revenue this year, said Ma Junsheng, head of State Post Bureau. More than 40 billion express parcels will be sent in 2017, he added.