(Yicai) Jan. 27 -- Many express delivery firms in China are increasingly using unmanned vehicles to address labor shortages during peak periods such as the Lunar New Year holiday and Double 11, the country’s largest online shopping festival, helping them cut costs and bolster profit. 

Self-driving vans can lower delivery costs by as much as 60 percent, said Wang Yonglian, marketing director at Zelos Technology, a Suzhou-based manufacturer of autonomous delivery vehicles. They are especially helpful when human resources are stretched during Double 11, Chinese New Year, and other peak delivery periods, Wang added.

A manager of a distribution center in the Yuhang district of Hangzhou said it had 30 self-driving vehicles as of last year's Double 11, slashing the need for temporary workers by 80 percent.

ZTO Express's Panlongcheng site in Wuhan, the capital of Hueni province, uses eight autonomous vehicles to transport packages from warehouses to secondary distribution stations, according to Wu Feiyong, head of the Shanghai-based courier’s local unmanned van project. Requiring just 10 minutes to unload cargo, these vehicles reduce sorting times by three hours, he noted.

Since 2023, a distribution center in Xindu, Sichuan province, has also operated eight unmanned delivery vans and a drone for getting packages to sorting stations, collecting parcels, and offering value-added services such as intra-city deliveries, said its head Wang Li. The vehicles also help out new clients when they are less needed, including delivering boxed lunches for a food company at a monthly fee of CNY900 (USD124), Wang added.

The range of available unmanned vehicle brands has grown since 2023, and includes Rino.ai, Desay SV Automotive, and vans by Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, Wang pointed out. "We choose whichever brand offers the best product,” he said.

But challenges remain, Wu said. While the vehicles travel along preset routes, obstacles such as illegally parked vehicles can cause delays, he noted, adding that the curiosity of drivers on the roads can also lead to incidents, with repairs taking considerable time.

Signal loss near factories and faster battery drain in winter are other issues couriers have faced with unmanned delivery vans, but these problems have been resolved already, according to Zelos Technology’ Wang.

The use of self-driving vehicles in the sector is still in the exploratory phase, while the technology and legal frameworks need further alignment, said Ji Xuehong, director of North China University of Technology's research center on auto industry innovation.

Editor: Martin Kadiev