ONLINE SHOPPERS in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, will be charged an extra fee from Sept 1, if couriers have to make a third trip to deliver a particular order. The decision made by the local legislature has sparked a heated public debate. Beijing Times commented on Monday:

In response to why Nanjing residents will be charged extra from next month, the local legislative authorities said the new regulation was issued to reduce the waste of labor and resources, saving those delivering goods the trouble of making repeated deliveries.

Such a fee makes sense to most express companies and their employees, but they have not yet been told how much they can charge. For customers, however, it is the last thing they would expect, because both they themselves and those delivering the goods can be responsible for failed deliveries.