Couriers sort packages at a warehouse of YTO Express in Beijing. Photo: CFP

 

Blacklists of consumers who file malicious complaints against logistics couriers need to be launched, in a bid to support the sector's sustainable development via a credit reference system, analysts said Wednesday.

The comments followed the case of Nie Guiying, a female courier of YTO Express, who knelt down to a consumer surnamed Zhang to ask for understanding after she bought a box of mangos to compensate for the loss of one mango by the consumer based in a county of East China's Shandong Province, chinanews.com reported Tuesday. 

Zhang made complaints four times after receiving the compensation and the malicious complaints directly got Nie fined 2,000 yuan ($289) by her company.

The local police suggested couriers do not have to beg for understanding at the cost of losing dignity, and the company Nie works for should refund the money to her. 

Sun Kang, deputy director of the China Express Association, said the association is studying a blacklist system for users who behave badly, according to the website of the State Post Bureau (SPB) Wednesday. 

Sun called for resistance against malicious complaints. "The courier sector is still a labor-intensive one. It needs normalization in three aspects: employees, consumers and e-commerce platforms,"said Xu.

YTO Express said on its Weibo account Tuesday that the branch Nie belongs to has waived the fine and apologized to her.

Xu Yong, chief consultant of industry website cecss.com, told the Global Times Wednesday that a credit reference system is badly needed in the domestic courier industry to help eliminate misbehaving consumers as well as some e-commerce platforms that deliberately delay payment for courier companies.

"The courier sector is still a labor-intensive one. It needs normalization in three aspects: employees, consumers and e-commerce platforms," said Xu.

There is an unofficial blacklist of more than 2 million couriers in China, and someone whose name is on the blacklist will find it hard to obtain a job in the sector, according to Xu. But the two other groups of people aren't represented.

China's express delivery industry handled 50.5 billion parcels last year, an increase of 25.8 percent on a yearly basis, data from the SPB showed.