SHANGHAI - With Christmas upon us, Santa is bothered by a huge problem. He has no one to help him deliver the presents.

In the busiest season of the year, the courier and express delivery industry is shouting for help, and advertising urgently for staff. The recruitment drive is being conducted across the board from small private delivery firms to China's largest e-commerce website, 360buy.com.

And they are offering as much as 8,000 yuan ($1,264) a month to attract new recruits willing to deliver.

"I've been a delivery man for over 10 years and I have seen the pay rise from 1,500 yuan to 3,600 yuan, at an average increase of almost 20 percent a year," says Zhang Jieren, a 50-year-old Shanghainese who works for a local private express company.

"For us, Christmas is a small peak before the real rush on New Year's Eve and the Spring Festival. One week before the Chinese New Year is the period you earn most," he says. Couriers earn mainly by commission.

"But that time of the year is also when we desperately need more manpower, as the migrant workers who make up the bulk of regular deliveries would have all gone home by then.

"Unlike us (local Shanghainese), they work day and night without weekend breaks to earn more," says Zhang.

He said the small company he worked for was so short of manpower that his boss had to deliver Christmas packages himself.

Chen Wenkang, Zhang's boss, has operated Wenkang Express for 11 years and he confirmed that he had to deliver packages on rainy days when he's short of staff.

"It's not easy to find good delivery men as job-hopping is very common," says Chen. "They change employers just for a couple of hundred yuan more."

According to Zhang Xiaohui from the Xintiandi branch of Yunda Express, orders he received on Dec 19 were twice as many as normal. The company had to handle more than 300 packages, compared to their average of 150 to 160 daily. The branch has a stable of 18 couriers out every day.

International couriers such as FedEx and UPS also expect a busy year-end. FedEx says the company reached what is projected to be its busiest day in nearly 40 years of operation on Dec 12 when about 17 million shipments globally almost doubled its daily average volume.

But for the couriers, not even attractive remuneration can compensate for the intense pressure.

Xu Peijie, 25, quit his job four days before Christmas. The young man working in Shenzhen could not take the pressure any more.

He joined a leading domestic courier, SF Express, two years ago.

"I've been suffering from the delivery man's occupational diseases - stomachache and joint aches and pains. It is common for us to work all day long without a sip of water or a bite of bread, and no time to go to the toilet," says Xu.

"There is enormous pressure at work, and you may easily get more than 10 extra orders during that last hour before the end of the day."

SF Express has made a name with its customer service, and that means couriers are expected to smile and be polite.

The company has a policy of deducting points when customers complain.

"Everybody has 40 points at the beginning of the year, and you lose one point if they receive a complaint about you," says Xu.

"You need to apologize to every client who complains, and it doesn't matter if it's really your fault or not."

That explains why many leave their jobs within the first three years.

Xu says SF Express deals with the shortage of couriers at peak periods with temporary staff paid by the hour, at about 14 yuan per hour.

China Daily

(China Daily 12/25/2011 page2)