Five courier companies jointly adjust prices, bidding farewell to the industry's low-price "involution."

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Our reporter Wang Jingru

The express delivery industry has once again undergone price adjustments. Recently, five courier companies, including YTO Express Co., Ltd., J&T Express Global Co., Ltd., and others, jointly issued a price adjustment notice, with Guizhou becoming the first province to complete a price change after the fuel price adjustment.

From the price adjustment notices issued by each company, the direct reason for this round of price changes is the increased transportation costs caused by rising fuel prices. The notice shows that the shipping label fee in Guizhou has increased by 0.05 yuan per ticket, and the minimum courier fee has been raised to 1.2 yuan per ticket. Local courier brands are implementing the new prices simultaneously, with no room for differentiated operations.

This price increase is not an isolated event but a continuation of the industry’s price recovery trend since 2025. In July 2025, the Yiwu Postal Administration held a meeting, explicitly requiring an increase of 0.1 yuan in the minimum price per courier ticket, raising the base price to 1.2 yuan. Subsequently, Guangdong Province raised the overall minimum courier price by 0.4 yuan per ticket, with the average price exceeding 1.4 yuan. In September, five franchised courier companies in Shanghai announced a price increase for collection services, with increases ranging from 0.2 to 0.4 yuan per order.

On the policy front, the 2026 National Postal Work Conference proposed to comprehensively rectify “involution-style” competition, strengthen source governance, promote compliance improvements among courier companies, optimize algorithms, balance the interests of headquarters, franchisees, and couriers, and protect practitioners’ legal rights. It also called for “penetrative” supervision to address unreasonable management behaviors such as differential dispatching fees and “punish violations upon complaint.”

Zhang Xiaorong, director of the Deep Technology Research Institute, told Securities Daily that: “On one hand, the price rebound helps alleviate long-term profit pressures for companies and provides more stable income guarantees for outlets and couriers; on the other hand, in the context of high price sensitivity in e-commerce demand, price increases may also squeeze out some low-value orders, potentially impacting business volume. Therefore, how to balance price protection and volume stability will continue to test companies’ refined operational capabilities.”

From a longer-term perspective, the courier industry is at a critical stage of shifting from scale competition to quality competition. With AI technology accelerating its penetration, the space for efficiency improvement is continuously opening.

Take JD Logistics Co., Ltd. as an example. The company has equipped nearly 10,000 courier stations nationwide with “AI Smart Employee Assistants,” covering all frontline couriers. This system uses handheld terminals (PDA) or employee accounts to push real-time alerts for anomalies, dynamically collect data on scanning, photographing, outbound calls, and other operations. It not only provides optimization suggestions in eight key scenarios such as collection, delivery, and acceptance but also calls upon panoramic data to assist with complex issues like “lost parcel searches,” significantly improving operational efficiency.

“Courier price increases are the result of both cost-driven factors and policy guidance, reflecting the industry’s move toward high-quality development. In the short term, price hikes help restore profitability; in the medium to long term, as competitive logic reshapes, the industry will shift from price competition to capability competition. With ongoing technological empowerment and continuous improvement of industry rules, the courier sector is expected to enter a healthier, more sustainable development track,” said Yang Lei, Director of Greater China Consulting at Sullivan.

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Editor: Gao Jia