How Much Can You Earn Opening a Courier Station?
Based on the information in the article:
If you're opening a relatively large courier station where you handle deliveries yourself:
Your family supports 100,000 RMB, and combined with your savings (about 150,000 RMB for the two of you), total initial investment should not exceed 250,000 RMB. The station doesn't need fancy decoration—just a few sturdy shelves should suffice.
The biggest ongoing costs are labor and rent. You'd hire a delivery person at 4,500 RMB/month and a driver to transport packages from the distribution center to your station at 6,000 RMB/month. Station rent runs 30,000 RMB/month, plus 1,000 RMB/month for a company warehouse. You'd also need your own tricycle for last-mile deliveries.
All told, beyond the initial ~250,000 RMB franchise fee, your fixed monthly overhead comes to between 40,000 and 60,000 RMB.
Under ideal conditions—with good territory coverage and ideally an exclusive service area—net profit can reach around 50,000 RMB per month. During the pandemic, when operations were limited, profit dropped to roughly 30,000 RMB.
Currently, delivery fees earn about 1 RMB per package. A typical station handles hundreds of deliveries daily, generating a few hundred RMB in delivery income alone each day.
The biggest source of losses comes from headquarters fines. You're usually required to deliver all packages the same day. One customer complaint can result in a 100 RMB fine; if the complaint escalates to the postal authority, the fine jumps to 500 RMB—which is exactly why dissatisfied customers often file directly with the postal bureau for better leverage>State Post Bureau Courier Complaint