Fake Delivery Sign-offs Rise; Cainiao Fines Couriers 700 Yuan; 2024 Rule Bans Unauthorized Confirmations

In the spring of 2026, consumer Chen Min received a notification from the Cainiao Guoguo app at 2:17 p. m. stating that the package had been signed for by the recipient, but the parcel had not been delivered. The courier explained by phone that he needed to mark the package as delivered before actually delivering it, otherwise the system would impose a deduction. The Black Cat Complaint platform contains numerous complaints about fake delivery confirmations. One consumer documented the process: a courier marked the package as delivered at 10:57 a. , but when the consumer arrived at the Cainiao station at 11:03 a. , they were told the package had not been delivered. Couriers commonly adopt the practice of signing off before delivering. In an academic interview, a courier said that packages must be signed off on the same day, with at most 2% allowed to be carried over to the next day. He started calling customers from 4 p. to negotiate. Another courier said he sometimes paid out of pocket to improve the delivery rate. A doctoral student from Peking University found in fieldwork that the penalty for fake delivery confirmation is 700 yuan, and lost items must be compensated at full price with a minimum fine of 300 yuan. When a customer complains about fake delivery, the station customer service first notifies the courier; if the courier explains to the customer and asks for the complaint to be withdrawn, the fine can be waived. The delivery industry conducts frequent assessments of the sign-off rate: morning shipments are evaluated multiple times at 2 p. , 5 p. , 7 p. , and the next day, with fines for non-compliance. The Cainiao system imposes penalties including a 10 yuan fine for failing to respond to a work order on time, a 50 yuan fine if the customer indicates they were not contacted during a follow-up, a 200 yuan fine for false registration, a 100 yuan fine for no result after a second visit, and a 1,000 yuan fine if a second appeal fails. An operator of a Cainiao station revealed that even with years of experience, monthly fines of at least three to five hundred yuan are unavoidable. The pressure of time and income combine: couriers deliver an average of 150 to 220 parcels per day, with each call taking about one minute, so just making calls takes over 3.3 hours. The per-parcel delivery fee is around 1 yuan in most regions, and the share of terminal delivery fees in enterprise costs has been rising. From 2021 to 2024, Shentong's share rose from 57% to 63%, YTO's from 46% to 57%, and Yunda's from 55% to 61%. However, data from the State Post Bureau shows that in the fourth quarter of 2023, among user complaints about delivery services, 'failure to deliver to the named address' and 'virtual sign-off' accounted for the largest share. One consumer had a package signed for by a Cainiao station without authorization, which led to a seller rejecting a seven-day no-reason return because the system showed a sign-off date three days earlier than the actual delivery. The revised Measures for the Administration of the Express Delivery Market, implemented in March 2024, explicitly prohibit confirming receipt of parcels without user consent, and prohibit delivering parcels to smart lockers or service stations without authorization. However, industry insiders point out that strict enforcement of the new rules would increase the cost per parcel by 2 yuan, while the per-parcel delivery fee in Yiwu is already as low as just over 2 yuan. In the elevator lobbies of office and residential buildings, couriers are anxious due to the countdown from algorithms. An office worker who frequently uses the elevator described how, when the elevator doors open, couriers push their carts to squeeze in before people inside have exited. Academic research has found that algorithmic management exacerbates couriers' work pressure, with 'late delivery' mentioned 79 times by couriers as a major source of stress. Uncivilized customer behavior, location tracking, and customer ratings further pressure couriers. In one building, a courier waited anxiously for the elevator with packages. When the doors opened, he saw an elderly man with a cane slowly coming out. He hesitated for a second and stepped back.