Chaos of Yunda Express: Management with Penalty; Difficulty in Implementing the New Policy; Sina Finance; Sina.com

Source: Feng Li

Author | Zheng Haoyuan, Yan Jianing | Intern

Editor in Chief | Chen Junhong

2023 Yunda Shares (002120. SZ) The public opinion is constant. After experiencing the storm of delayed delivery at the beginning of the year and the boss of the delivery point running away, its annual operating revenue was 44.98 billion yuan, down 5.17% year on year, which was the only decline in revenue among the listed express companies last year; However, its profits were in good condition, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 1.625 billion yuan, up 9.58% year on year; Non net profit deducted was 1.39 billion yuan, up 0.07% year on year.

An insider who once invested in Yunda network disclosed to NetEase Finance that Yunda mainly relies on the site franchise mode, and the management of Yunda headquarters is basically based on punishment instead of management. Face consumer complaints [Download Black Cat Complaint Client] What Yunda does is to impose fines on franchisees, but the above fines are still increased layer by layer. Some outlets restrict or impose fines on couriers through asymmetric information. "Yunda's annual revenue will reach several hundred million yuan depending on fines".

In 2024, Yunda is still in constant turmoil, and the chaos of illegal sales and returns of "express blind boxes" in Yiwu business outlets has not yet been settled. After the implementation of the new version of the Express Market Management Measures in January this year, the Black Cat complaint platform showed that there were 1158 complaints in nearly 30 days, most of which were lost, not delivered in time, not delivered to the door, or left the post station without permission. It is not difficult to see that Yunda's implementation of the new rules is not in place.

The financial report shows that the business increment of Yunda in Q1 2024 ranks the second in the "Tongda system", with a year-on-year growth of 29.14%, but its single ticket income declines significantly. The company's single ticket income in the first quarter of 2024 is 2.20 yuan, with a year-on-year decline of 15.92%.

　　 Under dispute, Yunda's net profit last year was 1.625 billion yuan

At the beginning of 2023, Yunda revealed that its operation was in chaos, and a large number of problems such as delayed package delivery, network closure, and courier phone downtime caused a large number of user complaints. At that time, many netizens "complained" on the social platform that the Yunda Express delivery they used was abnormal, and customer service could not contact them. Some netizens said that their Yunda Express arrived at the outlet for one month, but they were late to send the delivery, and the phone was also blocked, so the complaint was fruitless. Some netizens said that recently Yunda Express has lost, jammed and sent to the wrong address.

According to public reports, on January 19, 2023, Yunda went bankrupt at an express station in Xi'an, resulting in a backlog of more than half a month. On January 25, the boss of a Wuhan express station of Yunda ran away and thousands of express deliveries were scattered. On February 5, netizens reported that Yunda Express had been signed for three days without receiving the goods. In the face of the surging public opinion, on the evening of February 12, Yunda Express official micro blog released a clarification notice to deal with rumors such as "Yunda's shutdown" and "Yunda's bankruptcy", denied the information that "more than 2000 online outlets were closed", and said that due to the short-term shortage of staff after the Spring Festival, individual outlets were delayed in dispatching, and positive measures had been taken.

Then, the matter did not stop there. The follow-up media reports of Yunda Express that "only transport is difficult to reach" and the site franchisees ran away caused the backlog of express throughout 2023, covering almost the whole China.

While chaos continues to emerge, Yunda's net profit has maintained a good growth. The financial report shows that in 2023, Yunda will achieve a revenue of 44.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.17%; Its net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 9.58% year-on-year to 1.625 billion yuan; However, after deducting non net profit, it only slightly increased by 0.07% year-on-year to 1.39 billion yuan.

From the perspective of revenue structure, the revenue of its express service, material sales and other revenue all declined. Among them, the express service revenue accounting for 96.22% was 43.283 billion yuan, down 3.72% year on year; The material sales revenue accounting for 0.1% was 45.7184 million yuan, down 29.66% year on year; Other income, accounting for 3.68%, was 1.654 billion yuan, down 31.42% year on year.

It is worth noting that in 2023, Yunda's revenue has declined with the growth of business volume. During the period, Yunda completed 18.854 billion business, up 7.1% year on year. However, its express service revenue fell by 2.6% year-on-year to 44.611 billion yuan. This is mainly due to the decline of single ticket revenue. From January to December last year, the single ticket revenue of Yunda Express fell from 2.75 yuan to 2.24 yuan. In addition to the 4.96% year-on-year growth in January and 11.11% year-on-year growth in February, the single ticket revenue of Yunda Express from March to December declined from - 2.32% to - 17.34%.

At the same time, Yunda's gross profit rate and net profit rate also show an overall downward trend. In 2023, its gross profit rate will increase by 0.42 percentage points year-on-year to 9.55%, and its net profit rate will increase by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 3.67%. Previously, its gross profit margin was as high as 28% or more. In 19 years, its gross profit margin dropped by 53.07% to 13.15%, and then dropped to below 10% 20 years later; Its net interest rate also declined from 7.62% in 19 years to 3.67% in 23 years. Behind the plunge in gross and net interest rates is the precarious profitability.

In terms of the industry, Yunda has consistently ranked second in terms of revenue in the past three years, but its performance in the "Tongda system" is far inferior to that of Zhongtong and Yuantong. In 2023, although Yunda's revenue scale is above that of Zhongtong, its net profit attributable to the parent company is only 18.57%, and its gross profit margin is 20.81 percentage points lower. Since 2022, Yuantong's gross profit margin has risen significantly, surpassing that of Yunda.

From 2021 to 2022, the business volume of Yunda Express will be 18.402 billion and 17.609 billion, respectively, with market shares of 16.99% and 15.92%, firmly ranking second in the industry. However, in 2023, its express delivery business volume increased by 7.07% year on year to 18.854 billion pieces, but its market share was surpassed by Yuantong, and now it ranks third among the three supplies and one delivery.

In terms of the secondary market, as of April 30, 2024, it had disclosed its latest financial report, and the closing price of Yunda was 7.85 yuan/share. Since its official backdoor listing on January 18, 2017, its share price has reached 60.73 yuan/share at its highest. In comparison, it has dropped by 87%.

　　 Yunda's disorderly management: over 100 million yuan of annual fine for escrow

However, in 2024, the controversy surrounding Yunda Express is still growing. In April this year, the "Focus Interview" of China Central Radio and Television (CCTV) exposed the chaos of illegal sales and returns of "express blind boxes" at Yunda Yiwu Beiyuan business outlet. It is reported that some outlets privately sell the express that should have been returned to the merchants at the price of "one yuan per kilogram". Later, Yiwu Postal Administration, together with the public security department and other departments, organized an investigation overnight, and the Market Supervision Department of the State Postal Administration also interviewed Shanghai Yunda Freight Co., Ltd., the headquarters of Yunda Express.

Regarding the follow-up progress of the incident, Netease Finance has called Yiwu Postal Administration and Zhejiang Postal Administration successively, but the other party did not reply.

In this context, the first quarter report of Yunda in 2024 shows that the company achieved a revenue of 11.156 billion yuan,+6.50% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 412 million yuan,+15.02% year on year; The net profit not attributable to the parent company was 385 million yuan,+11.50% year on year. In the first quarter of 24 years, the company completed a business volume of 4.942 billion tickets,+29.14% year on year, and a single ticket income of 2.20 yuan, down 15.92% year on year.

Some analysts pointed out that the absence of Yunda at the management level was reflected behind various events. It is understood that Yunda adopts the network operation mode of "combining hub transfer center with trunk network self operation and terminal franchise". The headquarters is only responsible for express sorting and trunk transportation. Franchisees are responsible for collecting and dispatching goods. The headquarters distributes the goods to the franchisees by region, and the franchisees then divide the areas into different outlets for contracting, ultimately forming multi-level franchisees.

In terms of products, transfer fees and dispatch fees account for about 89.83% of the total revenue, that is, Yunda charges fees for selling the service of "transferring through the self operated hub transfer center, and assigning end franchisees to send parts to customers" to the franchisees. That is, the revenue volume has become its main revenue.

It is worth mentioning that in 2023, there will be some changes in the revenue structure of Yunda. Among them, the revenue from transfer fees dropped from 23.402 billion yuan to 17.218 billion yuan, and the proportion of revenue also dropped sharply from 49.34% to 38.28%; The income from distribution increased by 12.53% year-on-year to 23.188 billion yuan, accounting for an increase of 8.11 percentage points to 51.55%; The sales revenue of face orders increased by 210.46% year-on-year to 2.845 billion yuan, representing an increase of 4.39 percentage points to 6.32%.

Since the headquarters has the pricing and management power, the primary agency outlets have the subcontracting and penalty power of the network points within their jurisdiction. The increasingly fierce price war has led to the pressure on the profitability of major express companies, and this pressure will be transmitted to grass-roots outlets and express delivery staff layer by layer. With the decline of profitability, the downward transmission of "punishment instead of management" has become more and more serious.

During the visit, many bosses of Yunda express service station told Netease Finance that their love of fines and their revenue from fines have become the direct impression of Yunda brand by many franchise sites. "As long as the punishment is not death, punish the dead".

Some media reports pointed out that someone had sent Yunda Express for a month and had to pay a fine of 130000 yuan. Mr. Gao, who lives in Penglai District, Yantai, reported on the Internet that he had contracted Yunda Express Service Station for a month and worked more than 12 hours a day, but he received a fine of 130000 yuan from Yunda Company. He believed that there were many false reasons for the fine in the bill given to them by the express company.

Last August, Xiang Nan (a pseudonym), who has 10 years of experience in express delivery, spent 500000 yuan to contract a first-class branch of Yunda in the town. At first, the branch's collection target was 900 votes. Two months after taking over the task, the number of assessment tasks was significantly increased from 900 votes to 2975 votes, and the outstanding collection tasks were fined 0.5 yuan per vote.

Xiang Nan said that he once lost about 190000 yuan due to the unappealable loss of a wrong batch of cargo weight claimed by the headquarters. Xiang Nan recalled that he once received a batch of 2.2 kg of laundry detergent, but in the operation center, some of the goods weighed 3-5 kg. "The headquarters stipulates that no appeal can be filed if the weight difference is within 2 kg, and the cost difference between 3 kg and 3 kg is almost twice as large. This is the overlord clause“

Xiang Nan's impression is that her network has a good reputation in the local area. Usually, a monthly fine is only one or two thousand. Later, due to the above incident, she repeatedly contacted the headquarters to explain the situation, hoping to recalculate the weight of this batch of goods and return the wrong amount, but repeatedly frustrated. Because of this, the customer did not dare to continue to send the parts, so the outlet was unable to complete the assessment. In the same month, her outlet fined up to 40000 or 50000 yuan, accounting for about one sixth of the revenue, while the average monthly revenue of her outlet was 300000 yuan. "The headquarters is managed by punishment. One of my outlets received more than 100000 yuan by mistake. There are so many outlets in the country, and Yunda earns several hundred million yuan a year by fine."

Xiang Nan also reluctantly revealed that he had invested more than one million yuan from buying outlets to intermediate operations, including buying equipment with advance money. In the end, because Yunda did not return the wrong fees and did not deal with them, the capital chain was broken and the whole company was paralyzed.

Franchisee Zhao Qian (a pseudonym) said, "A customer who makes a phone call is a complaint form, and a fine of 100 yuan will be imposed; as long as the center has a record of sending to the outlet, whether the parts arrive or not, the outlet will lose money. Even if the parts are damaged in the center, the center does not report the problem parts in a standardized way, and we will pay for them when they arrive at the outlet.". In addition, there are various sign in rate assessments. No matter how far the outlets are from the center, the headquarters will conduct a one size fits all assessment. (The company) directly fined and deducted money under the system, and had to pay if it did not pay, so the system could not buy a single piece if it owed money. "

Li Xiao (a pseudonym), an investor in Yunda's network, also disclosed to Netease Finance that when he first took over Pan Yunda, he was fined as much as 100000 yuan, and later he became familiar with the monthly average fine of about 50000 yuan. Its investment in Yunda branch lost more than 800000 yuan in half a year, so it could only stop loss in time. "At present, the overall efficiency of the express industry is poor, and there are outlets that continue to lose money, mainly because of the industrial price war; while the express delivery fee is too low, about 1.25 yuan on the whole, plus the cost of warehouse trucks and other costs, it is difficult to support daily expenses; as well as serious staff turnover." According to him, Yunda outlets in his region have changed several bosses, each with an annual loss of 2-5 million yuan.

In addition to the conflict between the franchisee and the headquarters, the courier has also become the target of the penalty mechanism.

According to the courier from a second tier city outlet of Yunda, Netease Finance revealed that the courier's fee was only about 8-9 cents, and 4-5 cents would be paid to the post station if it was deposited. According to this calculation, even if you send four or five hundred pieces a day, your income will only be more than 200 yuan. In addition, the courier may also bear the loss arbitration, damage arbitration and other fines, which can amount to 180 yuan per piece.

Some insiders pointed out that the fines of Yunda's franchised express delivery system were increased layer by layer, and some outlets constrained or fined couriers through asymmetric information, "To be honest is to squeeze one level, and the courier does not know how much the headquarters will punish the outlets. For example, the headquarters will punish the outlets by 5 yuan, which may be 20 yuan or 50 yuan for the courier, and even 100 yuan has been fined for the courier."

It is worth noting that from 2021 to 2023, the market share of Yunda will decline, which will be 16.99%, 15.92% and 14.28% respectively. By the middle of 2022, it will have 3850 franchisees and 29844 outlets and stores (including franchisees) nationwide, which will decrease by 43 franchisees and 2430 outlets and stores in half a year compared with 2021. In 2023, the number of franchisees will increase to 4851, with more than 93000 outlets and stores.

The high-speed expansion of the franchise system gradually faces the problem of refined management. A former employee who once worked at Yunda branch disclosed that some branch had problems with salary arrears and signing labor contracts with employees instead of labor contracts. Some insiders pointed out that "the mode of franchise system requires the headquarters to protect the franchisees, so as to ensure the normal operation of dispatch and receipt in the last mile."

　　 "Tongda" industry single ticket price "diving" collectively

Compared with SF, Shentong Express 、 Yuantong Express , Zhongtong Express, Baishihuitong, Yunda Express are called "Four Links and One Reach", or "Tongda System" for short.

At present, "Tongda Department" has a hard time. From 2020 to 2022, the business volume of Tongda Department accounted for 63%, 63% and 65% of the national express business respectively. The express business volume and revenue showed an upward trend, but the profitability of "Tongda Department" was not satisfactory. In 2021, the net profits of Yunda and Zhongtong will increase by 5% and 9% respectively, and Shentong will turn from profit to loss. In addition, Tongda will be subject to frequent negative news, such as false receipt until the package is damaged or lost, and the courier will put the package at the door, post station or other storage points without contact. Yuantong was once involved in the rumor of "4.5 billion information leakage".

All of this comes from the price war launched by SF in the second half of 2019. In order to cope with the challenge of declining growth rate of commercial parts, SF started to reduce prices and launched low-end franchise business Fengwang Express. In the next year, the average unit price of the express industry was hit to 10.6 yuan, down 10.2% year on year, the largest drop in seven years. Low profit Tongda is under full pressure. At the end of 2021, the industry will enter a short recovery period after Jitu Express acquires Baishi Huitong. Until Shunfeng chose to sell Fengwang Express to Jitu and cooperate because of the sharp decline in supply chain and international business. Jitu did not raise the price after it gained a firm foothold with the low price strategy. From 2022 to the first half of 2023, the single ticket revenue of Jitu Express China business was stable at about $0.34, lower than the overall price of Tongda before, and the inner volume of the price war was opened again.

It is understood that the demand of the express industry mainly comes from e-commerce. According to the statistics of iResearch, e-commerce accounts for more than 80% of domestic express delivery. The epidemic situation further deepens the dependence of consumers on online shopping, making online penetration rate rise. The prosperity of the live broadcast industry has accelerated the growth of the express industry. The sources of e-commerce products are mainly divided into: Alibaba series, JD, Pinduoduo, Tiaoyin and Fasthand. Public data shows that in 2021, Taobao will still account for about 52% of the market share of China's retail e-commerce market, with JD and Pinduoduo accounting for 20% and 15% respectively, and the rest of the market will be occupied by e-commerce companies such as Tiaoyin and Fasthand. Among them, JD has JD Logistics, Pinduoduo has Jitu Express, and Tongda's business volume mainly depends on Ali.

In order to seize market share, trading price for volume has become the main theme of Tongda. The cost of package mail and single ticket price reduction in the price war is supported by the profits obtained in the early stage. At the same time, the storage and collection capacity of Cainiao has also reduced the cost of express delivery to some extent. Taking Yunda as an example, its single ticket cost has dropped from 2.83 yuan in 2019 to 1.97 yuan in 2021, By building a data system on the express company, Novice has brought a blessing to Tongda Express in technology, but at the same time, most of its profits have also been embezzled. With the deepening of cooperation, Tongda Express's business volume has been tied to its depth.

The industry's profitability is also directly reflected in the single ticket price of express delivery. Public data shows that the average unit price of China's express industry was 15.69 yuan in 2013, dropped to 10.55 yuan in 2020, and dropped to 9.15 yuan again in 2023, a new low. Huatai Securities The research report shows that in terms of volume and price of the industry, the volume of express delivery industry will increase by 19.4% year on year in 2023, and the average price of domestic parts will decrease by 4.5% year on year. During the period, the single ticket income of Yunda dropped the most, 17.79% to 2.24 yuan year-on-year; The single ticket revenue of Shentong decreased by 17.11% to 2.18 yuan year on year; The core single ticket revenue of Zhongtong dropped by 11.3%, or 1.6 points, of which 5 points are incremental subsidies; The single ticket revenue of Yuantong decreased by 6.71% to 2.41 yuan year on year.

It is pointed out by analysis that the unit price of express delivery has declined year after year, which has directly become one of the main reasons for the above-mentioned Yunda Express franchisees to run away and the express delivery staff to refuse to deliver the goods.

　　 "Hidden Rules" in Response to the New Rules of Express Delivery

On March 1, 2024, the newly revised Measures for the Administration of the Express Market was officially implemented, and the issue of door-to-door delivery became the focus of attention again. From March to April, it was revealed that the implementation of new express regulations was poor, and a large number of packages were still directly delivered to Cainiao Posthouse. At the same time, couriers complain bitterly, and many novice post station bosses are involved in the tide of transfer. On April 3, the relevant personnel of the State Post Office said that the express delivery to the express post station and smart express box without the consent of the user still occurred from time to time.

According to the Black Cat complaint platform, up to now, Yunda Express has 106500 complaints, including delivery loss, delayed delivery, non door-to-door delivery, and private delivery, among which 1158 complaints have been filed in the past 30 days, most of which are still the above problems. It is not difficult to see that Yunda's implementation of the new rules is not in place.

Some senior executives of express companies who did not want to be named told Netease Finance that the door-to-door problem of express delivery after the new policy was introduced may be serious in some remote areas, and "should not occur" in first tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

However, this is not the case. Take Huaye Oriental Rose Community in Tongzhou District of Beijing as an example. Two months after the implementation of the new express rules in this community, which claims to be the largest in Tongzhou District of Beijing and only 5 kilometers away from the office area of the Beijing Municipal People's Government, "express to your door" is still an empty promise. The express company sites led by Post, Shentong and Yunda will directly tell users that there is no courier here, only the driver. They are only responsible for bringing the express from the site to the community express station. The express station needs to be contacted for specific delivery.

More interestingly, if you inquire about the logistics information of the relevant express delivery, the contact information of the express delivery station will be directly left in the column of the contact information of the delivery courier.

With online shopping becoming the mainstream shopping method, the express delivery industry is growing. Express delivery has been put into the post station, which has become the most troublesome link in the process of online shopping for consumers. According to the data, among the complaints against the express companies such as Shentong Yunda, the most common problem is "putting the express into the post station without the user's consent". Because of the above problems, a large number of subsequent chaos have also been generated, such as lost express delivery, stampede damage, privacy disclosure, and even social conflicts and security risks.

On the Internet, some users said bluntly: "No door-to-door delivery, no phone notification, which is no different from the early days of reform and opening up, when users need to pick up a piece at a fixed post office." This represents almost the voice of all users.

Youyunda express staff revealed to NetEase Finance that after the implementation of the new express policy, the express industry has also found out the potential rules to deal with the new policy. At present, many novice post station bosses, in the name of express staff, cooperate with express companies such as Shentong Yunda, or express staff directly open the novice post station to contract the regional express delivery. In both ways, the post station itself goes to the transfer station or the area it belongs to to pull the express delivery. In the middle, the courier link is omitted and the delivery fee is earned. It is equivalent to that the courier station replaces the courier. In fact, there is no real courier in this area, but the post office will directly earn the labor costs of several couriers, and also earn the fees for normal post office delivery. "For users, this is no different from that before the implementation of the new express policy".