The last mile of a cross-border order — from the domestic warehouse or distribution point to the buyer’s hands — is postal activity under Vietnamese law when it comprises accepting, transporting and delivering postal items. The enterprise performing this leg must hold postal status matching its operating scope: a postal licence for inter-provincial and international scope, an activity notification for intra-provincial scope — and a tech shipper fleet is lawful only when operating within a subject holding that status.
What licence does a last-mile delivery company need?
Under Postal Law No. 49/2010/QH12, providing postal services is a conditional business as to status: an enterprise providing postal services in inter-provincial and international scope must be granted a postal licence by the Ministry of Information and Communications (the State management authority for posts), with conditions on financial capacity, network, personnel and business plan; an enterprise operating only within one province performs the postal activity notification procedure with the local management authority before providing services. The international leg of a cross-border order must pass through an enterprise with an international-scope licence or the Vietnamese agency partner of an international express network holding corresponding status.
The practical consequence for platforms and foreign sellers: the last-mile delivery partner is not a free service provider in the sense of choosing anyone. When signing a logistics contract, the first document to check is the partner’s valid postal licence or activity notification document, matching the geographic scope the orders will run. A partner holding only a goods transport business registration without postal status is not automatically lawful to provide e-commerce postal item delivery services — confusing a transport licence with a postal licence is the most common compliance error of newly formed delivery networks.
Is hiring tech-based shippers for delivery lawful?
Lawful when shippers operate within the right structure. A tech-based shipper — a delivery person connected via an app — in the lawful model is an employee, collaborator or delivery partner of a postal enterprise or logistics platform holding status: the licensed subject bears responsibility for the postal service, the service charter, insurance and compensation, while the shipper is the performing arm of the delivery leg. The technology app here is a coordination tool and creates no separate legal status for each shipper.
Unlawful if the model is a collection of freelancing individuals accepting and delivering items as an independent postal service outside every licensed enterprise: then actual postal service provision is occurring with no licensed subject bearing responsibility, and both the organising platform and the outsourcing chain carry handling risk. Sellers and platforms integrating third-party delivery networks should check this status chain down to the final performing shipper layer, while ensuring road safety, vehicle registration and liability insurance requirements in goods transport are complied with at the shipper layer.
Who compensates when goods are lost in the last mile?
There are two separate compensation relationships buyers often merge into one. The first, between the sender and the postal enterprise: under Postal Law No. 49/2010/QH12 and the postal service charter the enterprise publishes, the postal enterprise bears compensation liability where a postal item is lost or damaged through its fault — compensation by declared value where the sender used the declared-value service, or per the compensation level in the service charter and contract where no value was declared; this is why high-value goods should be declared and insured rather than sent on default terms.
The second relationship, between buyer and seller: in an e-commerce transaction, the seller — and the platform’s protection mechanism — is responsible to the buyer until goods are delivered successfully; goods lost in the last mile are grounds for the buyer to be refunded via the platform, and claiming against the delivery enterprise belongs to the seller or platform under their logistics contract. The buyer therefore need not claim compensation from the delivery company themselves: their channel is a refund claim within the platform system, with confirmation of non-receipt. Conversely, a professional seller needs a logistics contract with clear compensation, liability limit and claim process clauses with the last-mile partner, because that is where they recover what was refunded to buyers.
Choosing a last-mile partner for cross-border orders
Four compliance criteria when choosing: postal status of the right scope (valid licence or notification); ability to integrate with the international leg — the partner receives handovers from a licensed international express unit and can handle returned orders and specialised-inspection-held orders needing document coordination; a transparent compensation charter including the default compensation level, declared-value service and claim deadlines; and document capability — waybills, proof of delivery, tracking data — meeting the platform’s dispute resolution and insurance claim requirements.
The last mile is where the buyer’s experience is decided and where the cross-border chain’s legal risk materialises most clearly: misdelivery, lost goods, vanished cash on delivery. A cheap partner without postal status and a clear compensation charter shifts all those risks back onto the seller and the platform — the real cost of delivery must therefore be computed including expected compensation cost, not just the per-order freight rate.
Frequently asked questions
Does a company delivering cross-border orders need a postal license?
Yes, by operating scope. Providing postal services — accepting, sorting, transporting and delivering postal items — is a conditional activity under Postal Law No. 49/2010/QH12: an enterprise operating in inter-provincial and international scope must hold a postal licence granted by the State management authority for posts; an enterprise operating only intra-provincially must perform the postal activity notification with the local management authority. An ordinary goods transport business registration does not substitute postal status, and the international leg of a cross-border order must pass through an enterprise with an international-scope licence or a correspondingly qualified partner in Vietnam.
Is it legal to hire tech-based shippers for cross-border delivery?
Lawful when shippers operate within a qualified subject: as employees, collaborators or delivery partners of a licensed postal enterprise or a lawfully organised logistics platform — that subject bears responsibility for the service, the service charter and compensation. Unlawful if the model is freelancing individuals independently providing delivery services outside every licensed enterprise, because actual postal activity would have no subject bearing legal responsibility. Platforms and sellers should check this status chain down to the final shipper layer when integrating third-party delivery networks.
Who compensates for loss of goods in the last mile?
Under two separate relationships. For the buyer: the seller and the platform’s protection mechanism are responsible until delivery succeeds — goods lost in the last mile are grounds for a refund via the platform, and the buyer does not claim from the delivery company themselves. Between sender and postal enterprise: the delivery enterprise compensates under Postal Law No. 49/2010/QH12 and its published service charter — by declared value if the sender used the declared-value service, or per the charter and contract level if no value was declared; the seller then claims against the delivery partner under its own logistics contract.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council