Incheon Small Business Owners' 'Half-Price Delivery' Support to Start in October... Recruiting Participating Companies

'Company Visit Pickup Service' Expanded to All Small Business Owners Starting July

Incheon City is set to fully implement a project that supports nearly half of the courier costs for small business owners. This project is the first of its kind among local governments nationwide to strengthen the logistics competitiveness of small businesses.

The city announced on the 8th that it has secured a budget of 3 billion KRW through the first supplementary budget and is currently recruiting businesses eligible for the "Small Business Half-Price Courier Support Project." Eligible applicants are small business owners with annual sales under 5 billion KRW or fewer than 10 regular employees, located in Incheon.

The half-price courier service offers standard delivery for 1,500 KRW based on a 5kg and 100cm size limit, and same-day or fresh delivery for 2,500 KRW each, with a maximum of 120 uses per company annually. Small business owners can directly drop off parcels at subway station collection centers, where they are transported by subway and electric cargo vehicles to existing courier company collection points for final delivery.

Starting in October, the city will operate courier collection centers at 30 of the 57 stations on Incheon Subway Lines 1 and 2, with plans to expand to all stations by July next year.

The city expects that the eco-friendly collection system using subways and electric cargo vehicles will reduce carbon emissions by more than 25% compared to current levels, contributing to climate crisis response efforts.

Incheon Subway Station Half-Price Parcel Collection Center [Provided by Incheon City]

Incheon City also announced that it will expand the "On-site Pickup Service," previously limited to 1,500 companies, to cover all 370,000 small business owners in Incheon (excluding Ganghwa and Ongjin) starting this month.

This service involves designated collection companies picking up parcels from small business premises and delivering them to courier companies. Small business owners can use the service for a delivery fee of 2,500 KRW regardless of volume, and same-day delivery is available for 3,500 KRW within Incheon, Seoul, and Bucheon in Gyeonggi Province.

An Incheon City official stated, "Although the online shopping market has rapidly grown, small business owners with low sales volumes are losing competitiveness due to the expansion of large corporations into online and offline markets and the low-price competition from overseas direct purchase platforms." They added, "The half-price courier support project is an eco-friendly, subway-utilizing, customized policy for small business owners, and we will strive to ensure the project is successfully established."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.