The courier only earns 200 yuan by delivering 400 tickets a day, and the revenue per ticket has dropped to the lowest level in two years

Introduction: First Financial Review found that the single ticket revenue of several express delivery companies has continued to decline since the beginning of this year, and some companies even reached their lowest point since September 2021 in August.

Author | Lu Hanzhi from First Financial

The data shows that the local price war in the express delivery industry has not yet ended. On the evening of September 19th, express delivery companies such as SF Express, Shentong, Yunda, and Yuantong released their August express delivery business data. From the data, the overall business volume and revenue of each company remained stable in August, but the single ticket revenue of some companies continued to decline.

Stable industry growth

The operating data in August shows that the business volume of each express delivery company has increased. The business volume of SF Express, YTO, Shentong, and Yunda increased by 11.93%, 14.51%, 24.04%, and 9.07% year-on-year, respectively, consistent with the overall growth of the industry.

The National Postal Administration recently released data showing that the express delivery business volume completed 11.16 billion items in August, a year-on-year increase of 18.3%. The revenue from express delivery business reached 99.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. From January to August this year, the cumulative volume of express delivery business completed 81.46 billion items, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%. The cumulative revenue of express delivery business reached 748.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.7%.

As the volume of orders steadily increases, the revenue of multiple express delivery companies is declining. According to August data, the single ticket price of Shentong Express was 2.1 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.22%. Yuantong's single ticket revenue in August was 2.34 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.27%. Yunda's single ticket revenue in August was 2.17 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17.18%.

The first financial analysis found that the single ticket revenue of several express delivery companies has continued to decline since the beginning of this year, and some companies even reached their lowest point since September 2021 in August.

Taking Shentong Express as an example, from January to August this year, the single ticket revenue of Shentong Express was 2.7 yuan, 2.42 yuan, 2.41 yuan, 2.34 yuan, 2.21 yuan, 2.21 yuan, 2.15 yuan, and 2.1 yuan, respectively, showing a monthly decline trend. In addition to a year-on-year increase of 4.25% in January, the single ticket revenue of Shentong Express from February to August decreased by 6.56%, 5.86%, 8.95%, 13.33%, 11.95%, 11.16%, and 13.22% respectively.

The single ticket revenue of 2.1 yuan in August is the lowest since September 2021. In 2021, the express delivery industry engaged in low price competition. In August 2021, Shentong's single ticket revenue was only 1.95 yuan, the lowest in five years. In 2018, Shentong's monthly revenue per ticket was over 3 yuan.

Besides Shentong, Yunda's single ticket revenue is also not optimistic. Yunda's single ticket revenue from January to August 2023 was 2.75 yuan, 2.6 yuan, 2.53 yuan, 2.43 yuan, 2.44 yuan, 2.32 yuan, 2.2 yuan, and 2.17 yuan, respectively.

Regarding this, logistics and express delivery expert Zhao Xiaomin told First Financial reporters that Shentong and Yunda companies are competing for the third place in franchise express delivery by obtaining parcel volume at low prices. "Price competition is indeed very helpless. These two express delivery companies do not adopt many methods and need to comprehensively improve their competitiveness. Similar to Yuantong and Zhongtong, they are gradually reducing loss items or businesses that are not conducive to the company's future development."

Frontline employees under pressure

Frontline practitioners also have a deep understanding of the above situation. The person in charge of a branch in Beijing told First Financial, "As far as I know, the price war at the collection end has reached a point where the full cost of small items is only about 1.2 yuan. After deducting the express delivery company's waybill fees, transit costs, transportation costs, and loading and unloading costs, the highest final final delivery fee is only a few cents."

In the case of reduced delivery fees, couriers can only maintain their income through a large number of deliveries. The above person in charge stated that he has learned that the delivery fee in some cities has already dropped to 0.5 or 0.6 yuan. "Based on this price, couriers can only earn 200 yuan by delivering 400 tickets a day."

Recently, various express delivery companies have also mentioned the decline in single ticket revenue in their 2023 semi annual reports. According to the semi annual report of Yunda, the distribution revenue in the first half of 2023 was 9.91 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.69%. During the reporting period, the single ticket revenue was 2.45 yuan/ticket, a year-on-year decrease of 0.08 yuan/ticket. Yunda stated that the decrease in single ticket revenue from express delivery services is mainly due to changes in the product structure, adjustments to platform item settlement rules by the company, and market factors.

According to the semi annual report of Shentong, the single ticket revenue of Shentong express delivery services in the first half of 2023 was 2.35 yuan/ticket, a year-on-year decrease of 0.21 yuan/ticket. Shentong stated that the decrease in single ticket revenue from express delivery services is mainly due to the company's proactive adjustment and optimization of product structure in 2023, with an increase in the proportion of lightweight small items. At the same time, with the macroeconomic recovery and the restoration of smooth supply chains, the company has adjusted its settlement policies with branches based on market conditions.

According to data from the National Postal Administration, the revenue per express delivery ticket in the first half of this year was 9.31 yuan, a decrease of 4.3% from 9.73 yuan in the same period last year, and the competitive situation has strengthened.

The regulatory authorities have also taken note of the issue of low price competition and quickly introduced policies. On July 26th, the Jinhua Postal Administration and nine other departments jointly issued the "Jinhua Express Delivery Industry Compliance Guidelines" to maintain a healthy competitive order in the industry, protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, express delivery enterprises and their employees, and promote the sustained, healthy, and high-quality development of express delivery enterprises. For "orderly competition", the "Guidelines" state that express delivery enterprises should scientifically calculate their operating costs, especially when providing express delivery services to operators on e-commerce platforms, they shall not engage in any behavior of providing express delivery services at a price lower than the cost in order to exclude competitors or monopolize the market. If the above-mentioned behavior exists, the enterprise will face a fine of no more than five times the illegal gains; If the circumstances are serious, the enterprise will be ordered to suspend business for rectification or have its business license revoked.