Kuro Neko is literally translated 'black cat,' and it's the name of a transport company here in Japan. The official name is Yamato Transport, but everyone says, Kuro Neko (koo-row neck-o). They are extremely convenient and cheap if you want to send anything mid- large sized inside Japan.
For instance, lets say you live in Kyoto and want to send your bike to a hotel in Sendai, for when you arrive their for travel. This is how it will go. Kuro Neko will come to your door in a two hour window that you pick. Before 8-10am, 10-12 etc. and so on. If you keep strange hours, no problem, they are open 24-7, and if it's not busy they'll be at your place in 10 minutes or so. Then you fill out the waybill, and decide when you want it delivered. All service in next day, but if you wont be there for a week because you're going someplace else, fine. Write the date you'll be there. (Beyond one week will cost a small storage fee.) The guy will take off, and you're done. For a bicycle, anyplace in Japan, next day service, ~17.00. It's a flat rate so to speak. The weight and distance don't effect the price, but the size does, that's why the service is great for medium - large items.
This picture is of a courier in Kyoto. Recently, Kuro Neko started phasing out the use of trucks for most of their local pick ups and deliveries. In place of the trucks, there are now more foot and bike couriers outfitted accordingly to haul.
The major reason for the switch is gasoline costs, which are right around 6.80 a gallon now, but there are also congestion problems in cities, and the company found that the work of the courier can be done much faster, and at lower cost on a bike or on foot.
Two important factors making this sort of fleet cost effective and uninterruptedly mobile- One is that there is not much theft. So leaving the bike unattended isn't much of a problem because it's very unlikely a package or the bike itself will be stolen. Number two is that Japan is a smaller geographical footprint than California, and 70 percent of it is mountainous. So if you're sending something across what is considered a great distance in Japan, well, it really isn't that far. And, there just aren't that many places it can go since there are lots of people packed into relatively few areas.
3 comments:
$6.80 for gas? That's what we need here in the US....well, that plus some different leadership in Washington.
God love you Japanese! This is great. We need more demonstrations of such outward thinking. Best thing of all is the vending machine in the background selling Kirin Beer. My kind of place man!
Thanks for the info. I need to remember this when I visit Japan the next time around. I wanted to ride around in Kyoto this past summer, but I couldn't find a bike rental place. Next time, I'll just have my friend in Tokyo send me one of his bikes.
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