Text/ Li Huilin Editor / Chen Xiaoping
The fierce price war between the express delivery giants has harmed the terminal outlets.
Since the beginning of this year, the price of express delivery has continued to decline, and the single ticket revenue of the Tongda system (single ticket income is not equivalent to the unit price of express delivery, but the average value of the unit price) has collectively declined by more than 25%, approaching 2 yuan, and Shentong has the largest decline, falling by 1/3 in 7 months, from 3.3 yuan in January to 2.12 yuan.
The corresponding result of the price war is that the business volume of the giants is rising steadily, and the market share of Zhongtong has exceeded 20% for the first time. However, compared with the thriving headquarters business, there are many contradictions under the price war, and the franchise outlets and couriers at the end of the express delivery have repeatedly struck, and the user experience has plummeted.
The dispatch earns two cents and five cents per order, and the user can only pick up
Because for personal parts, the charging standard of the Tongda department has not changed, the general consumer has no feeling about this round of express price reduction, the first weight in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui and other regions basically maintains about 10 yuan, the price reduction is mainly for large single volume of e-commerce customers, and the minimum receiving price of the Tongda department has dropped to less than 2 yuan.
Express delivery is an industry that must be compared, and the profit per ticket is calculated in millimeters. Single-ticket revenue has fallen sharply, is there still profit?
Before discussing, let's take a look at how the courier fee is allocated:
The business of the express delivery company is mainly concentrated in the four links of collection, transit, delivery and information services, and the income comes from the income of the face sheet, the transfer fee and the dispatch fee, and each link adopts a different charging standard. Due to the reason of the franchise system, the settlement methods of each outlet are slightly different, such as the single ticket income of Shentong, Yuantong and Yunda, including the above three fees, and Zhongtong does not include the payment income, which is the reason why its single ticket income is lower than that of other enterprises.
Some media have dismantled the distribution of express delivery fees, assuming that users pay 10 yuan of express delivery fees, of which 3 yuan belong to outlets, 1.6 yuan to the courier, 0.6 yuan in the city distribution fee, 0.3 yuan to the distribution center freight, the headquarters received 1 yuan for the face order fee, 2 yuan for the transfer fee and 1.5 yuan for the delivery fee.
The price war reduces the receiving price of the source, and the surface sheet income, transit fee, and transportation cost are basically fixed, which will eventually reduce the remaining delivery fee accordingly. The two parts of the reduction are the sources of profit for the terminal franchise outlets and couriers.
A person in charge of the franchise outlets in Julu County, Hebei Province, told the "21CBR" reporter that the income of the franchise outlets mainly comes from the two aspects of receiving and delivering, of which the real money is the receipt, "Generally within one kilogram of express freight of 10 yuan, to the courier 3 yuan commission, the outlets to collect 7 pieces, in addition to the fixed cost handed over to the headquarters, the rest are the profits of the outlets." ”
He said that although the express delivery outlets in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places have low receiving prices, due to the development of e-commerce, the demand for express delivery is large, and they can obtain a scale effect through small profits and high sales; the township outlets with few e-commerce resources have a small amount of receipts, and the dispatch fee will become the main source of income. Most of the courier companies are paid to the first-level outlets, and then a certain proportion is distributed to the second-level outlets by the first-level network, and finally the terminal outlets are distributed to the couriers.
Under the continuous price war, the express delivery price and dispatch fee have dropped again and again, and the profit margins of grass-roots franchisees have been squeezed, and the dispatch fees of couriers can only be compressed on the back end.
Since March, express delivery franchisees in Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi and other places have issued a joint statement that they cannot operate due to the reduction of the headquarters dispatch fee, and can only stop the collection and delivery of express mail. In April this year, five express delivery franchisees in Huangchuan County, Henan Province, decided to reduce the dispatch fee of the lower township to 0.6 yuan / piece due to the reduction of the dispatch fee of the higher-level outlets, triggering a collective strike at the township agent points.
A county courier told reporters that in the first two years, the courier's single delivery fee was 1.5 yuan and 1.2 yuan, and this year many places dropped to less than 1 yuan, and some township areas even dropped to 6 mao and 4 mao, "As far as I know, the headquarters to our county agent outlets the dispatch fee is 1.2 yuan, and the outlets give the courier 7 mao." ”
The reporter saw in Tieba that many couriers complained bitterly about the drop in the dispatch fee, and a courier in a county town in Anhui Province complained on the Internet: In July this year, the delivery fee has dropped to 0.4 yuan / piece, after deducting SMS fees and telephone fees, a single can only earn 0.25 yuan.
In order to complete the business volume indicators and seize market share, the headquarters has continuously improved the task of receiving the franchised outlets, resulting in the incremental increase of grass-roots outlets and the increase in survival pressure.
The above courier told reporters that in order to save costs and time and improve the delivery volume, the courier company has set up a courier supermarket in each community in the county, and when delivering, the express delivery is directly sent to the express delivery supermarket, and then picked up by the user, and the courier only sends the courier to the street of the store.
Profits as thin as paper have fallen again and again, and grassroots outlets have been turbulent
Behind the price reduction of express delivery, in addition to the profit margin of franchisees being compressed, the profits of some express delivery companies have also declined repeatedly. For example, in the first half of 2020, Shentong's net profit fell by 91.5% year-on-year; Yunda's net profit fell by 47.47% year-on-year.
In order to alleviate the operational pressure caused by the price war, various express delivery companies have taken a variety of means to reduce costs, including the application of automation equipment, the use of electronic face sheets, the improvement of logistics efficiency, etc., superimposed in the first half of the highway toll-free policy and the decline in oil prices and other factors, the cost of express delivery companies have decreased to varying degrees, providing operating space for coping with the price war.
Taking Zhongtong as an example, in the second quarter of 2020, after deducting the impact of cross-border business, the single ticket revenue of Zhongtong Express was 1.29 yuan, down 20.9% year-on-year, and the cost of a single ticket was 0.92 yuan, down 14.0% year-on-year.
The gross profit per ticket is only 0.27 yuan, and the gross profit continues to decline because the cost decline is not as good as the decline in revenue.
Zhongtong is also a strong cost advantage in the industry, other peers have lower gross profit, in the first half of the year, Yunda single ticket revenue of 2.36 yuan, single ticket cost of 2.18 yuan, single ticket gross profit of 0.18 yuan, profit can be described as thin as paper.
It is such an amazing thin profit, but it has attracted a large number of price-sensitive merchants, forming a "price war" that must be contested in the express delivery industry.
Logistics industry expert Yang Daqing told the "21CBR" reporter that the decline in single tickets is a double-edged sword for franchise outlets, which may bring about the growth of certain business flows, and profit dilution will aggravate the "anemia" of grassroots outlets and impact the stability of service quality, "If the grassroots outlets themselves lack service competitiveness, and lack of headquarters feed or incremental business, or will accelerate the reshuffle, the current express delivery market still exists in the multi-headed competition pattern, most of the grassroots franchise outlets turbulence is difficult to avoid in the short term." ”
The mutual tilt of various express delivery companies has contributed to the prosperity of the e-commerce industry. Even if the express delivery price of a single piece is only reduced by 1 cent, for merchants who ship tens of thousands of pieces every day, the cost will be directly reduced by 1,000 yuan.
For users, they may have to bear the evil consequences of sacrificing services in order to make a profit and save costs.
Do you feel that more and more couriers are stuffed directly into the express locker without prior notice and leave in a hurry?
Title image source: CFP