The new parcel delivery service launched by Japan Post Service Co. of the Japan Post group suffered a setback in its first week of operation. The delivery of more than 340,000 parcels was delayed during the period from July 1, the first day of the new service, to July 7. The company must learn from the mishap, which was caused by poor planning and insufficient employee training.
The new delivery service started after Japan Post Service's Yu-Pack delivery services were integrated with the Pelican delivery services run by a joint venture set up in 2008 with Nippon Express Co. Japan Post Service hoped to compete with the leaders of the parcel delivery industry — Yamato Transport Co. and Sagawa Express Co. Some Japan Post Service employees opposed management's plan to carry out the integration July 1 during the busy summer gift season. Instead of heeding their opinion, management rushed through the integration to try to reduce the joint venture's deficit, which had reached ¥98 billion.
Management failed to foresee difficulties that would arise from the integration, in particular the problems arising from Yu-Pack's and Pelican's use different sorting machines. After the integration, some employees had to use machines they were not familiar with, causing slowdowns in delivery times.