Delivery firms take express route to riches on biggest day of the year

An express delivery firms prepars for the busiest season of the year, Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, Nov 8, 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

China's express delivery firms are preparing for the busiest season of the year.

Ever since Jack Ma, chairman of China's biggest e-commerce group Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, turned Nov 11 into an online shopping frenzy, logistics companies have cashed in.

According to estimates from the State Post Bureau, last year's Singles' Day shopping festival generated a record 586 million deliveries.

The volume of traffic is so great that express companies now rely heavily on the shopping festival to boost revenue and profits. To cope with demand, they have rolled out state-of-the-art technology to handle millions of packages.

Chen Xiangyang, executive deputy president of STO Express Co Ltd, confirmed that an automatic sorting facility with a daily capacity of 360,000 packages will be used this year. Up to 20,000 extra people have also been taken on.

"Our preparation work started in August, and we have launched an all-around management and monitoring system as well as installing updated hardware for this event," Chen said.

Shanghai Yunda Express Co Ltd has also upgraded its technology to deal with the rush.

"The majority of Yunda's clients are using a digital order with a quick response code. This is more convenient and efficient than traditional codes," Guo Pengcheng, director of Yunda's communications department, said. "It also has error-proofing functions."

Earlier this year, Yunda launched an automatic distributing service at its Shanghai center. A new logistics management system has also been put in place.

Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Co Ltd is another firm gearing up for the avalanche of parcels.

In September, it became the nation's third courier company after EMS and SF Express (Group) Co to own an aircraft to supplement its delivery fleet of vehicles.

Chairman Yu Weijiao said that the company is expecting to deliver 200 million packages during the 10 days starting from Nov 11. Maximum daily deliveries are likely to exceed 36 million.

Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba, is hoping big data can help increase the delivery efficiency of its courier partners.

The company runs a logistics platform and central data-communications network that helps coordinate deliveries with more than 3,000 logistics companies in China and abroad.

Meng Jing in Beijing contributed to this story