The first across-the-board Takkyubin rate rise in 27 years, and a cap on volume (2017)

The paradox of the firm that created the parcel market narrowing it

What this decision reflects is a paradox: the household delivery market Yamato itself opened up in 1976 was narrowed by Yamato itself, on the grounds that its growth had reached a limit. The logic native to Takkyubin — that density produces profitability — was broken from the underside by the shrinking of consignment sizes in the e-commerce era and by the rise in redelivery. The rate increase and the volume cap can be seen as a decision to break out of managing for volume.

That said, while the increase itself did not provoke strong resistance from shippers and became the trigger for rewriting the industry’s whole price structure, it took nearly two years before delivery earnings traced a V-shaped recovery, and along the way a separate problem — overcharging on removals — came to the surface. For the largest parcel carrier, which had pursued efficiency and growth at once, this price rise marked a turning point towards better earnings and, at the same time, an occasion that exposed the organisation’s weak footing.