Market overview
Vietnam’s freight and logistics market was worth about US$52 billion in 2025, with about US$55.5 billion projected for 2026 and a 6.6% compound annual growth rate to 2031 (Mordor Intelligence). The segment growing fastest is courier, express and parcel (CEP), at about US$1.75 billion in 2025 and about 7.2% annual growth to 2031, driven by e-commerce. The central weakness is cost: logistics costs are estimated at 16–18% of GDP, against a global average near 10%. Estimates vary by source and year, so treat the exact figure as a range. A national logistics strategy adopted in 2025 aims to reduce the ratio to 12–15% of GDP by 2035. This article covers the market structure, last-mile delivery, the main carriers, and infrastructure investment. See the logistics statistics page and the logistics overview.
Parcel volume
E-commerce is the main driver. MBS counted about 3.5 billion parcels in the first ten months of 2025, up 32% year on year, and postal and express revenue of about VND 75 trillion, up 26.9%. It forecasts about 5.1 billion parcels in 2026, up about 25%, with an average of around VND 21,200 per shipment, and revenue of about VND 108 trillion. Container port throughput reached about 25.4 million TEU in the first nine months of 2025, up 13%, with about 36.7 million TEU projected for 2026 (Maritime Administration and MBS).
Who delivers
- Independent carriers. GHN, GHTK and J&T Express are the major independent e-commerce carriers, with Ninja Van and 247 Express also active.
- Viettel Post. The leading domestic network, covering all 34 provinces with more than 2,000 post offices and automated hubs.
- Platform-owned networks. SPX (Shopee) and LEX (Lazada) prioritise affiliated couriers for marketplace orders; Tiki runs TikiNOW.
- Global integrators. DHL, FedEx and UPS serve cross-border and premium flows. FedEx moved to a direct-serve model in 2025.
A common seller strategy is to use several carriers and split parcels by route, weight and value.
Last-mile delivery
Intra-city delivery in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi is typically one to two days, with same-day delivery available in core areas. Mordor Intelligence reports the average delivery window has halved from about 48 hours to about 24 hours through automated sorters and AI routing. Quick-commerce fulfilment of 30 to 60 minutes exists for groceries and impulse purchases in dense urban zones. Tier-2 and tier-3 cities and rural areas take longer; platform and courier networks reach deep into the provinces. Per-parcel last-mile cost runs higher than in Thailand: Mordor puts Vietnam at about 28% above Thailand, and densification is the proposed fix.
Cash on delivery (COD) adds cost to last-mile: failed deliveries, cash handling and delayed remittance. COD share is declining as wallets and QR payments grow; about two-thirds of e-commerce orders are now paid cashless. See the digital payments article.
Infrastructure
Public investment in roads, ports and airports is estimated at around US$13–15 billion (Mordor and MBS), with an expressway target of more than 5,000 km, up from about 1,163 km. A planned North–South high-speed railway is costed at around US$58.7 billion and would add multimodal freight capacity in the long term. Long Thanh Airport is planned with 1.2 million tonnes of cargo capacity, easing pressure on Tan Son Nhat and Noi Bai. These figures are plans and estimates, not completed capacity.
What it means for sellers and brands
- Choose carriers by lane, not one national contract. Compare cost, speed and failure rate for your main cities.
- Local stock beats cross-border for speed. A local 3PL cuts delivery time and return cost, which affects conversion on marketplaces. See the cross-border article.
- Budget for COD and returns in your delivery cost model.
- Mind the platform. Marketplaces favour their own logistics networks in fees and delivery promises, so check how each platform treats third-party carriers.
Limits of the data
Market size figures come from research vendors (Mordor Intelligence, Expert Market Research) and brokers (MBS) and use different definitions. The logistics-cost-to-GDP ratio is estimated differently by source. Infrastructure figures are plans. The earlier version of this article quoted warehouse stock, modal shares, WMS adoption and per-delivery cost ranges without sources; those have been removed pending reliable data.
Sources
- Mordor Intelligence: Vietnam freight and logistics market, 2025
- MBS Securities: parcel and postal-express volumes, 10M 2025 and 2026 forecast
- Maritime Administration / MBS: container throughput
- World Bank and industry sources: logistics cost to GDP
- Expert Market Research; company disclosures (Viettel Post)
- Logistics statistics page