ID for delivery in Guangdong

Identification will be needed when customers send or receive packages in Huizhou and Zhuhai of Guangdong Province, as part of a system that local police hope will be an effective way of cracking down on drug trafficking through express delivery services.

Provided the project is successful in pilot areas, the real-name registration system is to be implemented all over the province next year according to the Guangdong Department of Public Security, making it the third province for such regulations, following Zhejiang and Yunnan, the Shenzhen-based Nandu Daily reported Wednesday.

When taking receipt of a package, the delivery man will need to ask the customer to show an ID card, and then scan the card on to an electronic device. This will transmit the information to the public security department's database. After the information is examined, it will be sent back to the device.

"The whole process lasts about three seconds," said a senior official who declined to be named, with the narcotics control bureau of the department, adding that people who have lost their ID cards or don't have any, can use other valid documentation, the Nandu Daily reported.

In regard to concerns that personal information might be leaked, the official explained that the electronic device only collects information, and doesn't display or store any collected data. The data is only accessible to the public security department.

Delivery men will also need to abide by the new rules, and those who don't follow the process will be located and punished, the official added, pointing out that annually, the delivery companies of Guangdong are responsible for making 1.5 billion deliveries each year.

Police say express delivery services are a major method by which drug traffickers deliver illegal goods nationwide.

At a press conference on narcotics control in June, Guangdong police disclosed plans to push forward the real-name registration system. The police said that it would help fight drug trafficking via express delivery.

In recent cases detected by police, a package sent from Shenzhen to Linyi, Shandong Province on August 22 was seized, containing 1.5 kilograms of amphetamines, and on August 23, a package from Huizhou to Shanghai containing 3.3 kilograms of amphetamines was located, according to the provincial public security department.

However, not everyone agrees with the rules. A resident surnamed Yao from Guangzhou said she is against the rules due to concerns over privacy and potential information leaks.

"I don't think delivery men have the right to do that, just as security guards don't have the right to check a person's bag," she told the Global Times, adding that those who trade personal information may find ways to make use of the policy.

A delivery man with the Guangzhou branch of Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Company, who refused to be named, also disapproved.

"Customers won't be willing to show their ID cards, considering most are online shopping customers," he told the Global Times, explaining that it's not the same as the situation at post offices, where customers are willing to do so.

He says he checks goods carefully on the spot before he packages them, and that this is a common requirement for delivery men.