Read the text below.
Yamato Transport, Japan’s leading delivery service company, intends to raise its delivery prices for the first time since 1990.
The Tokyo-based door-to-door delivery service company is facing difficulty in sustaining operations due to the lack of drivers and the prevalence of online shopping. To ensure quality service, Yamato expressed its desire to impose an increase in prices across-the-board. It has been 27 years since the company imposed a price increase, which cost around ¥100. However, the raise excluded the increase in taxes on goods and services. Although the company has not set specific details on the impending fee increase, it hopes to implement the initiative before autumn.
In addition to increasing its fees, Yamato Transport plans to revamp its company culture after learning about recurrent cases of uncompensated overtime, which is often due to customers’ request for a specific delivery time. Because delivery schedules between noon and 2:00 p.m. are burdensome for most drivers, who are usually forced to skip lunch breaks during this period, the company plans to remove that time slot.
Naoki Fujiwara of Shinkin Asset Management shared that other companies might follow suit in increasing their prices.
Yamato Holdings, the parent company of Yamato Transport, experienced a 4.1% increase in its stock value after the news on Yamato Transport’s upcoming price increase. Other companies in the Japanese logistics industry such as Seino Holdings, Nippon Express, and Fukuyama Transporting, have also experienced a surge in their stock prices.