Don’t worry, ecommerce vendors: China’s new real-name delivery rules are an absolute joke

Photo credit: Halfbisqued.

After last year’s deadly “parcel bomb” explosions, Chinese authorities vowed to implement new, stricter rules on China’s package delivery services. Ecommerce firms and sellers initially worried that the new rules might slow delivery times. But after March 1, the first day a new set of rules went into effect for all delivery companies, there’s a bigger concern: the rules might not be making anyone safer at all.

The law that took effect on Tuesday is meant to ensure safety by requiring all packages to be inspected and requiring senders to verify their real names. That way they can’t send dangerous things through courier services without being easily traced, and if someone does send a bomb through a courier service, it should be easy to track down all the other packages they sent.

If the first day is any indication, though, China is still a long way off from that dream. A reporter at a Sichuan paper, for example, mailed snacks to Shandong using just his last name. He wasn’t asked for any ID, and his package wasn’t even inspected. In total, the reporter checked seven different delivery services, and only one asked for ID. At his final stop, he wrote “Tomato Stew” down as the sender’s name – delivery employees didn’t bat an eye.

In short, it doesn’t sound like ecommerce deliveries are going to get slower anytime soon. The downside is that your delivery packages aren’t really any safer, either.