Pilot Project for Parcel Delivery to Island Areas Starting from the 21st of This Month
The delivery period for parcels in four island areas, including Jawoldo and Seungbongdo in Jawol-myeon, Ongjin-gun, Incheon Metropolitan City, will be reduced from the existing 3-4 days to 2 days.
On the 20th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that starting from the 21st, it will promote a pilot project for joint parcel delivery in island areas in cooperation with the Korea Post for two weeks. This is a follow-up measure after the public discussion held in Incheon last March to improve parcel delivery services for residents in island areas. Four courier companies, including CJ Logistics and Hanjin Express, are participating in this project.
By using the Korea Post logistics network to deliver the volume of private courier companies, the parcel delivery period for the four islands targeted by the pilot project, including Jawoldo and Seungbongdo, will be shortened by 1-2 days. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport signed a related Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Korea Post in June.
The pilot project candidate sites were selected from logistics-vulnerable areas designated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. In June, the Ministry announced logistics-vulnerable areas after obtaining opinions from local governments and related organizations. Logistics-vulnerable areas are places where it is difficult to provide daily logistics services, such as island and mountainous areas, designated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
In addition, the Ministry plans to allow one courier in island and mountainous areas to deliver parcels from multiple courier companies at once. Previously, couriers signed exclusive contracts with one courier company and could only deliver that company's parcels. The Ministry plans to prepare a 'plan to ease the exclusivity requirements for couriers' by the end of the year to relax such regulations.
Um Jeong-hee, Director of the Transportation and Logistics Office at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "This pilot project is promoted to provide prompt logistics services to island areas where parcel delivery delays are frequent and delivery is difficult," adding, "We will evaluate the business feasibility through the two-week pilot operation and further review improvements."
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