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We are considering suspending delivery service for two hours from noon and reducing work hours by shortening evening delivery service, which now ends at 9 p.m., to limit the volume of packages accepte

13 Comments

A spokesperson for Yamato Transport, which is facing a labor shortage. The growth of online shopping services has led to a surge in the number of parcels. Last year, Yamato delivered a record 1.73 billion packages. (Kyodo)

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Agree with most of the above. pay them more!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

qwerty. Same can be said of a number of European countries also. postal and delivery services in Japan (and elsewhere in APAC) are a cut above. still think they should pay the delivery staff more though.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@Reckless, I gave up an online business because of the ridiculous amount of lost and damaged parcels handled by USPS. It was bonkers. I wish I could say that the experience was good, but it truly wasn't.

Takkyubin services in Japan are excellent, we are very fortunate to have such a system. The salary is good, but they work long hours, and have a stack of paperwork to do at the end of the day. I for one don't mind if they shorten the hours in the evening, hopefully it will allow these workers to go home at a decent hour.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Yamato needs to adopt the US style of delivery:

Charge an exorbitant amount

Lose 10% of packages and never find them or compensate the customer

Deliver another 10% to the wrong address

Deliver 25% of the remaining packages late

Throw a note on the ground of 20% near the delivery address that they tried to deliver, then return to the warehouse

Throw 20% somewhere on the ground near the delivery address

Deliver 15% almost on time

Don't offer free pickup service. Make the customer carry their packages to somewhere and wait in line for 2 hours

The US drivers work about 4 hours per day. Problem solved!

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Pay staff more and you will have more applicants.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yamato should invest in automated delivery options like drones or those wheeled delivery robots for close deliveries, regular or scheduled deliveries, or office deliveries. They are in the logistics business so they better step up otherwise some other competitor will take their business

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Nippori Nick

I agree!! Increase their wages.

Also companies should consider actually granting and paying holiday pay that employees are entitled too, as many companies in Japan refuse to pay employees holiday pay that they are legally entitled too under the labor law.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

M3M3M3, i guess nobody can really argue against the unfairness of free delivery against smaller companies. But removing free delivery would just about kill the online shopping market for small/cheap items. I dont mind paying 500yen delivery on a 10,000yen bag, but i wouldnt want to pay delivery for a USB cable!

What i think they should do is stop the home delivery option for anything under 2000 yen in value. Instead, make those items available from pick-up centers (either with minimal staff or using lockers like rakuten and a couple of others do). Postage for these items would be very cheap, enough that perhaps even a small retailer can absorb the cost. Is this unfair to people in rural areas? Perhaps, but so is asking Yamato to deliver a 120 yen pen out to your house in the middle of nowhere because you wanted to live in the countryside.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Want more employees? Pay them more money.

Economics 101

5 ( +5 / -0 )

M3M3M3 - I can see your point and I do agree with it up to a point BUT Yamamato signed the contract with Amazon and now, they are crying over it ? It is their responsibility to hire more drivers etc. Its got nothing to do with Amazon, it's all to do with Yamamato's business strategy.

By the way, They get paid very well - a friend's son of mine who is 25 just got a job with them and was complaining of his salary. It was 400,000 a month much more than his Dad or me get from teaching in High school.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

The problem is not the surge in volume, it's that the online retailers behind the surge are not paying enough for Yamato to be able to hire more staff.

I think competition authorities need to take a close look at 'free delivery'. Consumers love free delivery but it allows the biggest retailers to cement their position at the top through squeezing the delivery companies. It ensures that a company like Amazon will never be displaced by a competitor, because Yamato and Sagawa cannot offer such generous terms to everyone. They need most to pay full price in order to subsidise the generous terms for the few.

Ideally, retailers probably should be banned from offer free delivery. Consumers should buy the product, then be able to choose the delivery company that product will be sent with, and then pay the delivery company directly. This ensures that retailers will compete with eachother to be the best retailer (not who is the biggest and can dictate terms to the delivery companies) and delivery companies can up their game to compete directly for the customer's business and loyalty. Currently the market and the incentives are very distorted. ...Sorry, that's my rant for the day.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

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