【Shigeo’s Review】
Yamato Transport experienced a major system failure at approximately 11:40 AM on May 12, 2025 due to a core system transfer operation.
The outage affected multiple services, and at 1:10 PM the outage was reported on the official website and on X (formerly Twitter). As of 6:40 p.m., restoration efforts were still underway, with serious disruptions to delivery-related second-half services, particularly the delivery locker station pickup function.
The impact was multi-faceted, with delays in the delivery of information for customers, such as delivery schedules and absence notices. The transmission of information to delivery personnel has also been delayed, resulting in a situation where changes to delivery dates and times and processing of re-delivery requests are taking longer than expected.
In addition, the reception of calls by AI operators and the response of chatbots have also been affected, and the notification function of the “Yamato Business Members” service for corporate customers has also experienced a glitch.
There are also scattered postings on X where delivery history is displayed in error and redelivery requests cannot be made. Inquiries are accepted by phone or web form, but there are reportedly delays in responses and replies.
Such a large-scale system failure has caused tremendous confusion for Yamato Transport users and related parties.
On social networking sites, many users expressed their criticism and sympathy, saying that they could not connect to the redelivery request page, that the cardboard boxes of packages they received were often damaged, that every system migration has caused problems, and that the drivers must be having a hard time at the delivery site. In particular, the increased burden and decreased service to customers at delivery sites are serious problems, and there is growing dissatisfaction with the frequent occurrence of similar failures.
In addition, since this failure was not just a temporary trouble, but occurred during the core system transfer process, it has been pointed out that there may be fundamental problems with the system design and operation system.
There are rumors that system development and maintenance are outsourced, and transparency of responsibility and management system is required.
Logistics is an important infrastructure that can be likened to the blood of modern society.
Even for a major logistics company like Yamato Transport, a service outage due to such a system failure would have a tremendous impact on many individuals and corporate activities.
In response to this failure, Yamato Transport is strongly urged to take thorough measures to prevent recurrence and provide detailed explanations to customers. It is also imperative that support for frontline staff be strengthened.
While the updating and transfer of such mission-critical systems is inevitable in the future, it is necessary to continue efforts to reduce similar failures through more careful planning and a strengthened testing system.
Users have no choice but to keep a close eye on the situation, making use of official announcements and contact information, but since stable operation of logistics services is linked to the peace of mind of society as a whole, restoration of operations and restoration of trust are desired as soon as possible.
