Kyoto / Bike courier gears up to deliver local mail

Bicycle courier service Losstime Co will become the nation’s first private mail delivery operator on Oct 1 in a limited area within Kyoto Prefecture.

The venture company, based in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, obtained a special mail delivery license on Aug 6 after submitting an application to the Kinki Telecommunications Bureau in July.

The company says it will deliver mail “within about three hours” from being received in central Kyoto at charges that will be decided “in consideration of Japan Post’s mail charges.”

Private companies became eligible to offer mail delivery services in April as part of the deregulation of postal service on condition they deliver the mail within three hours. Licensed operators are allowed to deliver postcards, letters, credit cards and other documents.

The entry of the bicycle mail-delivery operator in the market is likely to start wheels spinning in an area in which motorbike courier companies are already operating.

Takuya Hatta, 30, established Losstime in March last year, going the bicycle route because he says they are more maneuverable than automobiles in the relatively small city of Kyoto, which has a lot of narrow alleys.

Currently, 10 employees clad in samue, traditional Japanese blue jacket and pants, make same-day deliveries of documents by bicycle or minibike in Nakagyo Ward and neighboring cities and towns. For same-day delivery to Osaka and Kobe, Losstime staffers, aged 23 on average, use trains.

Losstime now handles about 60 deliveries a day, mainly from design companies and insurance agents. This is a marked increase on the 20 per day it handled in the first year of business.

However, Hatta is on the constant lookout for new business opportunities as his business had not yet reached the profitable line.

“I applied for the license because I thought I could expect a certain demand for business once Losstime boosts its profile because up to 300,000 items of mail a year are delivered by express within Kyoto,” Hatta said.

Losstime will accept mail in Kamigyo, Nakagyo and Shimogyo wards in Kyoto and deliver it, in the main, across the city between Kitaoji-dori avenue at the northern edge and Meishin Expressway at the southern edge.

Delivery for mail weighing up to 2 kilograms to the three wards will cost 400 yen to 500 yen. Delivery to Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, will cost 800 yen to 1,500 yen.