Staff from an express delivery firm in Lianyungang, East China's Jiangsu Province, sort parcels on Monday. Photo: CFP

The legislative body within the State Council, China's cabinet, on Monday issued draft rules to regulate domestic express deliveries, a move that analysts said will mean better protection of users' privacy and a higher quality of services.

The rules, which are open for public comment for one month, highlight the regulation of delivery-service providers and their franchise operations, according to an announcement posted on the website of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council Monday.

The rules require express-delivery companies to double-check the accuracy of customers' personal information including names, phone numbers and addresses on order forms that the users fill out.

"The new rules could be seen as a step to improve the quality of delivery services," Xu Yong, an industry analyst at cecss.com, told the Global Times Monday.

To protect customer confidentiality, delivery services must maintain a comprehensive database for all orders that must periodically be purged, according to the rules. Those who fail to do will face fines of 10,000 ($1,569.58) to 50,000 yuan.

Companies that don't provide a channel for customer complaints or fail to maintain appropriate tracking systems face maximum fines of 200,000 yuan under the proposed rules.

The rules are likely to increase delivery companies' costs, but they are vital to insuring the quality of services, Xu noted.

China's delivery-service industry has grown rapidly in recent years. Just from January to October this year, express-delivery service providers handled 15.64 billion packages, up about 47 percent year-on-year, according to a report published by the State Post Bureau (SPB), the administrator of the postal and delivery industry, on November 12.

The State Council has made several proposals to upgrade the sector, with the aim of achieving an annual shipment volume of 50 billion packages by 2020 and annual industry revenues of 800 billion yuan, according to an announcement posted on the SPB's website in October.

The nation's postal law was drawn up in the 1980s, with some subsequent modifications. The new draft rules would be the first measures specifically aimed at the express-delivery sector, Shao Zhonglin, industry analyst at Shanghai-based yongyiresearch.com, told the Global Times Monday.

"For example, the rules have specific requirements for the operations of delivery companies' franchises, which is new," Shao said.

If a certain franchise of a delivery company violates customers' rights, it will be possible for users to seek compensation from the parent company, Shao noted.

Major delivery-service providers had no immediate comment on the draft rules. A representative at Shanghai-based YTO Express (Logistics) Co, who declined to be identified, told the Global Times Monday that the company has begun to discuss the draft rules and come up with some suggested modifications. The person did not provide any details.

"Several departments such as legal affairs and strategy met together this afternoon to talk about the new rules," he said.

Another Shanghai-based delivery service provider, Yunda Express Co, declined to comment on the draft. The company is still focusing on delivering packages ordered last week on Singles' Day, the company's PR representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times Monday.

When the new rules take effect, they will be "far more binding" than regulations issued by the authorities in 2008, Shao told the Global Times Monday.

"The government has added more details about supervision and legal responsibility that will force companies to comply in the near future," he said.