FEaTuRE Logistics
Shanghai’s Express

Delivery Network
By Richard Brubaker
ne thing that has was in fact the backbone for moving
O
always fascinated Shanghai’s express packages around.
me about Shang- The people hanging out by the turnstiles
hai is its Express were in fact collecting and distributing
Delivery Network packages and letters that were moving
(kuaidi) service which is a mainstay of through the system. As my travel time
offices and households alike and used on the metro increased, I began to see
frequently to send letters and packages that there were more actors in play. You
across town. However, little of my at- had runners who move packages from
tention was paid to it, as the people the originating office to the metro, dedi-
running the kuaidi’s seemed incredibly cated metro runners who do no more
decentralized and rarely cared to say than run packages from metro turnstiles
anything more than “sign here”. Then, to train carriages, and then persons who
after a couple of years wondering why ride the metro all day long making the
so many people seemed to hang out hand off. It is a hive of activity that was
near the turnstiles of the metro station, low cost and had the potential to move
I realized something. packages across the country!
In addition to handling millions of Over the course of a week, as part of
riders a day, the Shanghai metro system a program to shake things up and open
50 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 www.chainaonline.com
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