Yamato Transport Co., Japan’s leading door-to-door parcel delivery provider, plans to raise its base shipping fees by the end of September for the first time in 27 years, company sources said Tuesday.
The rate hike is aimed at maintaining service quality as the firm faces the issue of insufficient manpower, including van drivers, amid an increase in online shopping and struggles with growing costs for outsourcing a part of its deliveries, the sources said.
The group firm of Yamato Holdings Co. has already begun talks with major clients, including Amazon.com Inc.’s Japan unit over the envisioned fee increase, they said.
Excluding fee increases done in conjunction with consumption tax rate hikes, Yamato last raised its shipping fees in 1990, when they were hiked by 100 to 110 yen amid higher personnel costs. The company has yet to determine the size of the upcoming fee hike, according to the sources.
Currently shipping rates vary by parcel size, as well as place of dispatch and destination. For example, it costs 756 yen to send a parcel that weighs up to 2 kilograms and measures up to 60 centimeters in length, width and height within the same region.
Among other possible changes in the fees system, Yamato is considering levying surcharges on parcels processed during end-of-year and other peak periods, the sources said.
Source: Mainichi Image: Wikimedia Commons
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