On April 15, the State Post Bureau announced the operation of the postal industry in the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter, the express delivery business volume increased by 21.6% year-on-year, and the express delivery business revenue increased by 10.9% year-on-year. As of now, my country's express delivery business volume has exceeded 50 billion pieces this year, 18 days ahead of 2024. This means that the national average receives 35 express delivery per person, more than 5,700 express delivery per second, and 500 million express delivery per day shuttle and flow across China.

  The express delivery industry is not only a "barometer" for the prosperity of the consumer market, but also a "booster" for the high-quality development of the national economy. Liu Jiang, director of the Strategic Planning Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau, said that since the beginning of this year, the express delivery industry has continued to maintain steady development, reflecting the continued warming of my country's consumer market and the accelerated release of consumption potential. In the future, with the continued implementation of consumption-promoting policies and the gradual growth of new momentum for industry development, the express delivery industry will further play an important role in the logistics field, help smooth the economic circulation and improve the operation efficiency of the real economy, and inject stronger momentum into high-quality economic development.

  Steadily expanding business scope

  "Pack in the morning and send it at noon, and it can be delivered to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou within 48 hours." Zhou Yongqi, a coffee grower in Mangdan Village, Lujiang Town, Longyang District, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, told reporters that since the express delivery outlet was set up in the village, his coffee beans have no worries about selling them, and the sales scope has rapidly expanded to the whole country.

  Yang Hua, head of ZTO Express Baoshan outlet, told reporters that the recent shipment of coffee products is very large, especially the hanger coffee and coffee beans, with an average daily shipment volume of 7,000 pieces. At present, ZTO Express provides delivery services to nearly 100 local coffee growers and manufacturers in Baoshan through the comprehensive service chain of "local locations, regional collections, and factory collection". The number of coffee beans shipped in the first quarter exceeded 580,000 pieces.

  The express delivery industry concerns people's livelihood on one hand and drives development on the other. Rong Rong, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Postal Administration, introduced that in recent years, the pace of upward trend of agricultural products has been accelerating, and "aircraft flowers" and other methods have accelerated the outflow of "cloud products" from Yunnan, effectively promoting the flow of urban and rural resource factors and improving the convenience of rural consumption. From January to February this year, the express delivery business volume in Yunnan Province increased by 37.17% year-on-year, with nearly 16 million mail and express delivery per day, and the express delivery business revenue increased by 22.82% year-on-year, ranking among the top in the country.

  Since the beginning of this year, the express delivery industry has continued to maintain steady development, reflecting the continued warming of my country's consumer market and the accelerated release of consumption potential. Express delivery companies continue to deepen their efforts in the agricultural product market, effectively meet the delivery needs of multiple scenarios, and the scope of delivery business has steadily expanded.

  Wuxi Marathon, Shijiazhuang Marathon, Jiaxing Marathon... As the weather warms up, marathon events in many places have started to run. In response to the delivery needs of marathon players, JD Logistics, SF Express and other companies have deployed event logistics, and made every effort to ensure the smooth and orderly transportation of marathon materials through innovative warehousing models and providing personalized value-added services.

  At the Shanghai Marathon arena, contestants can hand over the clothes and running shoes used to the couriers, wash them through the "JD Service+" laundry factory before sending them home; at the Wuhan Marathon, SF Express and Jinjiang Inns launched the "Hanma Exclusive Accommodation Plan" to provide luggage "door-to-door" delivery service for runners from other places. After the contestants check in, their luggage can be sent back with one click.

  A relevant person in charge of the State Post Bureau said that since the beginning of this year, a series of policies to promote consumption have been implemented and the consumer market has generally shown a steady growth trend, and the consumption scenarios have been continuously enriched, which has driven the continuous expansion of the scale of the express delivery market. At the same time, the postal express industry continues to extend its service network, innovate service products, and improve service quality to further meet diversified consumption needs.

  More efficient delivery service

  At present, spring tea picking has ushered in its peak. In Wenxin Tea Village, Xianhe District, Xinyang City, Henan Province, SF Express Fengzhou 90 logistics drone was carried by the first batch of fresh spring tea leaves from Xinyang Maojian to soar into the air. Ten minutes later, this batch of tea successfully entered the tea farm at the foot of the mountain for frying.

  "In order to solve the transportation pain points of the fresh leaves of spring tea in the first kilometer, in addition to the air drone, SF Express R5 unmanned vehicles were also deployed on the ground, which can achieve all-weather connection of tea gardens with steep slopes above 800 meters above sea level, forming a three-dimensional transportation network of 'air express line + ground branch line'." Guo Wei, deputy general manager of SF Express Canal Henan Region, introduced that tea farmers used to transport fresh leaves down the mountain to fear traffic jams. One hour later, the fragrance of the tea leaves will be different, and the quality and taste will be much worse. Now combined transportation can compress the one-way transportation time from 90 minutes of traditional land transportation to 15 minutes, greatly improving the logistics efficiency of Xinyang's tea industry. Tea farmer Zhou Jianguo told reporters that 2,400 kilograms of fresh leaves are transported through the "drone + unmanned vehicle" intermodal transport system in a single day, saving more than 1,100 yuan in cost.

  As an important channel for the rise of agricultural products, the postal express industry plays an important role in reducing the cost of agricultural products circulation and improving the efficiency of agricultural products circulation. Postal and express delivery companies actively explore integrated development models such as "co-delivery" and "passenger, freight and mail", and improve the construction of three-level delivery logistics network nodes at county, township and village levels according to local conditions. For example, Datong County, Qinghai Province uses the surplus space of buses to hand over the parcels of postal and express delivery companies to urban and rural buses to transport them on behalf of urban and rural buses, guiding and supporting relevant e-commerce and agricultural product companies to enter transportation stations and share station resources.

  The hot tourism market has also promoted express delivery companies to continuously innovate service models to facilitate people's travel. At Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport, SF Express and Gansu Civil Aviation Logistics Co., Ltd. launched an integrated service of "baggage packaging, storage and express delivery", bringing passengers a new experience of "zero wait, full-scene" aviation delivery; in Guizhou Qiandongnan region, Shentong Express Guizhou Kaili outlets through technology empowerment and customized packaging services to ensure the safe delivery of Miao silver jewelry and Dong batik intangible cultural heritage products, and help the dissemination of national culture.

  "Thanks to the industry's active innovation of service models, deploying and applying artificial intelligence models in multiple scenarios, and applying smart devices in multiple regions, the quality and efficiency of services continue to be enhanced." Liu Jiang said.

  Continue to promote cost reduction and efficiency improvement

  The latest China Express Development Index report released in March shows that in March, the express delivery development trend index was 72.1, an increase of 5.4% year-on-year. In April, spring vegetables and spring fruits were launched in large quantities, and the enthusiasm for outings and tourism increased. It is expected that relevant delivery services will usher in new development.

  On the one hand, as the policy of exchanging the old-for-new consumer goods policy has been strengthened, digital, home appliances, kitchen and bathroom products continue to be sold. In order to better implement the service policies, postal and express delivery companies have responded positively, launched a series of exclusive delivery service plans, developed a reverse logistics network, integrating new goods delivery, dismantling old products, installation and debugging, and environmentally friendly recycling, and building an efficient and convenient integrated service system.

  On the other hand, with the continuous construction of the intelligent logistics port, the delivery service capacity has been further enhanced. Not long ago, JD Logistics was trial operation in Kashgar, Xinjiang. Relying on the layout of warehouse networks such as Kashgar, Urumqi, etc., Kashgar City and many surrounding areas will achieve the fastest same-day delivery. The overall timeliness of other regions will be accelerated by 3 days compared with the previous Urumqi direct delivery. A relevant person in charge of JD Logistics said that in the future, JD Logistics Xinjiang Warehouse Network will also introduce independently developed modern intelligent logistics software and hardware facilities and equipment to continue to build a modern supply chain system.

  As an important part of the modern circulation system, the express delivery industry is a frontier for promoting the improvement of circulation efficiency and reducing logistics costs.

  "There is still a lot of room for improvement in reducing costs and increasing efficiency in the logistics field." Liu Jiang believes that first, we must give full play to the advantages of the industry's economies of scale, improve network coverage and service convenience, reduce the industry's average operating costs through the economic effect of scale, and continue to improve cost-effectiveness; second, we must efficiently connect production and consumption, reduce circulation links, promote direct connection between production and consumption, realize agricultural and special products from the field to the dining table, and industrial products from the production line to the express sorting line, build the delivery network into a "mobile warehouse" in the manufacturing industry, and improve warehouse turnover efficiency; second, we must accelerate the upgrading of circulation methods, drive changes in the quality of the logistics flow, efficiency and power changes, promote the modernization and intelligent development of the logistics industry, focus on the development of new businesses such as zero inventory management and production line side logistics, and realize information interconnection and efficient integration of chains; finally, enrich the application scenarios of large-scale models in vertical fields, use "artificial intelligence +" to better promote the integration of digital and actual numbers, and use "digital intelligence" to better empower industrial chain integration, and enhance the value of the entire industrial chain. (Reporter Ji Leilei)

[Editor in charge: Zhou Jingjie]