Japan's mail deliver ops deregulated without private players
Five companies filed applications for a license for restricted mail delivery service with the Posts Ministry on Tuesday, when the ban on private-sector entry into the mail delivery business was lifted. But no applications were filed for the nationwide mail delivery service.
The deregulation step is thus expected to do little in promoting competition.
There are three types of restricted mail delivery service: express deliveries made within three hours, deliveries with a charge of at least yen (US$8), and deliveries of items that weigh more than 4kg.
Obtaining a license for the regular mail delivery service requires operators to set up 100,000 mailboxes nationwide and meet other strict standards. So, all of the leading parcel carriers decided not to enter the business.
(Nikkei)
02-04 1150
COPYRIGHT 2003 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd
4 April 02
MAJOR COURIERS TO AVOID ORDINARY MAIL DELIVERY
By: Hitoshi Ishii
Although the nation's ordinary mail delivery market was opened to private firms on April 1 with the inauguration of Japan Post, no major private carriers have expressed willingness to enter the market.
Instead, they are out to compete with Japan Post in the parcel and business-mail delivery markets.
"We will not enter the private mail delivery market," Atsushi Yamazaki, then managing director at Yamato Transport Co., said at a press conference held to announce his appointment to the post of president last month.
The private mail delivery market had been monopolized by the Postal Services Agency, the predecessor of Japan Post until April 1.
Under new legislation, the market is now open to private firms in two categories: general postal mail operators (nationwide services) and special postal mail operators (special value-added services, such as inner-city high-speed mail delivery by motorcycle).
However, it is extremely difficult for private firms to enter the general mail delivery service market due to strict conditions placed on new entrants.
As to the special mail delivery market that is relatively easy to enter, five motorbike-messenger service operators applied for license on April 1.
Japan Post, for its part, was supposed to mount an offensive in the field of motorbike-messenger services. However, the Postal Services Agency had virtually discontinued its New Super Express Mail and New Special Express Mail services by the end of March.
The New Super Express Mail service takes orders by phone to have mail collected by motorcycle and delivered within three hours. It applies only to the 23 wards of Tokyo. The New Special Express mail covers intra-city services and inter-city services.
They were introduced in the mid-1980s to counter the sharp growth of motorbike-messenger service operators in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
However, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications recommended reviewing the services, because the volume of mail handled was "too small to cover even staff salaries."
Japan Post intends to leave only the intra-city service of the New Special Express and make it more responsive to the needs of customers.
Takashi Ohtsuki, vice president of Bike Kyubin, a Tokyo-based motorbike-messenger service firm, said his company is ready to cope with any new services that Japan Post may launch.
In a briefing session on general mail delivery service held in Nagoya, Hiroki Matsubayashi, an official of the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, called for private firms' active participation in the market.
"I hope that the market will growth through competition between Japan Post and private operators."
The ministry has been holding similar briefing sessions since late February.
However, major couriers are not forthcoming. "It is difficult for us to set up mail boxes nationwide," an official of Nippon Express Co. said, referring to one of the conditions imposed on would-be operators.
"We intend to gain the support of customers by exercising ingenuity in delivery services we have been providing," said a Yamato Transport official.
It appears that competition between the public corporation and private operators will continue outside of the ordinary mail delivery market at least for the time being.
AP-NY-04-03-03 2020EST
FDMSKYviaNewsEdge
Copyright (c) 2003 Federal Document Clearing House
