Fury as delivery men filmed handling parcels in rough manners

A video launched Friday providing an appalling glance of parcels being maltreated from backstage of a Shentong (STO) Express company, has sparked a huge backlash among the country's shopaholics who are itching for their long-coveted items to be delivered to their doorsteps and anxious to know whether the bargains they vied during the "Double 11" shopping bonanza have suffered unexpected ups and downs through the logistics.

A delivery man kicks parcels out of the van at the collection center of STO Express. /Screenshot of Legal Evening News Video

In the footage shot on November 11, a staff member at a Beijing collection spot of STO Express, one of China's largest delivery companies, was seen rampantly tossing and kicking the packages out of a lorry, with his colleagues carelessly chucking the parcels into appointed areas during the hectic sorting process.

Launched high overhead into the air, the packages were captured bouncing off one another and even bumping into walls of the depot before landing heavily on the ground.

A delivery man throws a parcel during the sorting process. /Screenshot of Legal Evening News Video

 "We need to hurry up. The sorting process would take up our extra time but make us no money. We could only make money by delivering the parcels," one of the staffs told a reporter from the Legal Evening News who recorded the staggering backstage scenes of the courier company under disguise of a newcomer at the sorting hub.

Flinging the packages back and forth without paying attention as to whether they contained fragile items, some workers were even caught on the hidden camera on November 13 stealing snacks from broken parcels.

"It doesn't matter if you steal one or two fruits [from the parcels] as long as their outer packing remains intact," a courier man told the reporter, adding "fruits [parcels] are not allowed to be rejected." 

Several staff members fiddle with a gadget inside a parcel. /Screenshot of Legal Evening News Video

Besides pilfering food as a common practice, an inquisitive staff at the collections spot was also seen groping inside a broken package and joking while fiddling with an adult toy he dragged out before later packing it again into the express box.

The shocking video, which witnessed the rough manners of STO Express delivery men in treating parcels, has rocked China's internet and ignited a widespread online outrage with many expressing concerns to their packages currently under the company's logistics service.

"I had never expected that my parcels would experience so many ups and downs on their way to my home," a netizen @kanfayonghu commented on the official website of the Legal Evening News.

A delivery man bumps a parcel onto the ground. /Screenshot of Legal Evening News Video

"It seems that the delivery men are venting their angers on the parcels by deliberately throwing and dumping them," another netizen identified as @damengmengaichiyu noted on China's Twitter-like Weibo, slamming the unscrupulous demeanors of the STO staffs in sorting parcels.

According to a regulation on domestic express delivery sector unveiled by the country's Ministry of Transport in 2008, deliverymen were prohibited from ill behaviors like tossing and treading on the parcels during the sorting process.

STO Express  makes a response to the incident on Weibo. /Weibo Photo

STO Express made a response on its Weibo page on Friday, saying that it had already enforced disciplinary measures on its employees involved and suspended the manager from duties. The company would also take it as a lesson and prevent such incidents, the statement further noted.

The official statement by Beijing Municipal Postal Administration. /Screenshot of the administration's website

An investigation into the collection spot of STO Express has also been accomplished by Beijing Municipal Postal Administration, according to an announcement the postal watchdog released Saturday on its official website.

Asking the company to forge a business overhaul, the administration also urged all couriers to ensure quality of their services amid the delivery express peak season following the country's "Double 11" shopping extravaganza, which has seen some 331 million parcels handled on November 11 alone by Chinese postal and courier companies according to the State Post Bureau (SPB).