Logistics services to deliver goods through Spring Festival (2)

But other companies are well placed to face the upcoming busy period.

"We don't look at this holiday as being an 'emergency'. It has become common. Employees have been preparing for this year's Spring Festival since the end of last year," said Zhang Jianhua, a senior manager at the Shanghai branch of a Shenzhen-headquartered express delivery company.

"Staff members who joined the company five or even 10 years ago have been accustomed to taking shifts during peak times," he said. The company's Shanghai team has taken steps to prevent parcel deliveries from being delayed or canceled during the holiday, Zhang noted, mainly by ensuring that enough staff members and vehicles will be available during the holiday.

China's express delivery sector was worth 48.9 billion yuan ($7.8 billion) in the first half of 2012, according to the latest data from China Express and Logistics Consulting, an independent logistics think tank.

"The number of express deliveries will increase by 50 percent or could even double during the Spring Festival holidays," said Xu Yong, principal analyst of China Express and Logistics Consulting website, an independent logistics think tank.

But Zhang did not regard the growth as "overwhelming".

"It is not as much of a burden as people may expect. Because all couriers are required to open during the holidays, the increase in the number of parcels at each company would reach at most 10 percent," he explained.

Still, Yang Yiqin, 24, a teacher at a high school in Shanghai, did not place high hopes on the quality of delivery services during the holiday.

"I have learned to lower my expectation of the couriers," she said. Yang said she bought some clothes from online vendor Taobao during the Singles' Day promotion on Nov 11 and waited for the parcel for three weeks only to find three buttons were missing.

"If I buy anything during the Spring Festival, I doubt it will arrive by the end of the holiday, if it ever arrives at all," she said.

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn

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