Behind the volume of express delivery business exceeding 100 billion: "two in and one out" landing effect The development blockage point needs to be dredged urgently

Reporter Chang Xiaoyu

How fast is the express delivery that exceeded 100 billion pieces of business on the 342nd day of this year? To put it simply, in just 5 minutes, there are more than one million express deliveries in circulation across the country.

In the past, the carriages and horses were very slow, and the letters were far away; now the express delivery is developed and the goods are close. In fact, express delivery is no longer simply a "porter" at the end of the industrial chain, but a "coordinator" who connects thousands of cities and industries, promotes the integration of upstream and downstream resources, and realizes the seamless docking of production, circulation and consumption.

Behind the exciting data, there is also an imbalance in development. For example, the "two in and one out" project that has been promoted at the policy level has achieved remarkable results, but there are still development blockages such as excessive cost of entering the village, insufficient adaptability to enter the factory, and "water and soil dissatisfaction" when going to the sea.

Express delivery into the village to drive industrial products to the countryside

It is difficult for township and village-level outlets to make profits

Promoting express delivery into villages is one of the major projects to smooth the urban and rural economic cycle and serve the strategy of rural revitalization, and it is also the only way to achieve the high-quality development of the express delivery industry. The "Three-year Action Plan for Express Delivery into Villages (2020-2022)" issued by the State Post Bureau clearly states that by the end of 2022, China's eligible organized villages will basically achieve "village express delivery".

In this context, various localities have made practical moves to accelerate the promotion of express delivery into the village, a series of data is the best evidence of the results - at present, the whole network has 100 million parcels sent into the countryside every day; the coverage rate of express delivery service township outlets has reached 98%, and the proportion of express delivery direct delivery to the village has exceeded half; from January to August this year, the amount of express delivery in rural areas has exceeded 28 billion pieces, an increase of more than 30% over the same period last year, driving agricultural products into the city and industrial products to the countryside for 1.4 trillion yuan.

However, when the Securities Daily reporter investigated, he found that although the current express delivery into the village has achieved remarkable results, the beautiful plan of "arriving home at one point" is still blocked by the scattered layout of some villages and the high cost of entering the village.

Yin Yiping, general manager of Fuyuan Rural Logistics Co., Ltd., Leiyang City, Hunan Province, became a member of the "express delivery into the village" team in 2015, mainly cooperating with a number of domestic express delivery companies, opening 24 township comprehensive service stations and 135 village-level express service points in the county-level cities under the jurisdiction of Hengyang City (Leiyang City) in Hunan Province.

Due to the high cost of express delivery into the village, coupled with the low-price model stirring up the sinking market, some of Yin Yiping's express delivery service stations have been in a state of loss. He calculated an account to the "Securities Daily" reporter, "At present, each express mail from the county to the township and then sinks to the village level, the express delivery headquarters (front end) to the franchisee dispatch fee is only 0.7 yuan / piece - 4 yuan / piece (less than 50 kg, the price is different for different express brands), and the company has to bear the cost of three-level transportation, sorting, delivery and other links from the city to the township to the village is 1.5 yuan / piece, in many cases it is a loss to receive orders." At the same time, the e-commerce sideline business that relies on express delivery has become one of the main sources of compensation for losses. ”

Due to the scattered layout of the village, the small amount of business and the high cost, in most cases, Yin Yiping does not provide door-to-door delivery services, and 90% of the express mail still needs to be sent by the villagers to the express delivery service station by themselves. Yin Yu, a resident of Wuli Town, Xinyang City, Henan Province, more than 700 kilometers away from Yin Yiping, told the Securities Daily reporter, "Because I work in a different place, online shopping for my parents has become a common way to fulfill filial piety, but going to the township to pick up the courier is a troublesome thing." It is expected that the courier company will open a village-level service network in the local area as soon as possible to solve the problem of 'door-to-door'. ”

Liu Jiang, deputy director of the research department of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau, told the Securities Daily reporter that there are still many difficulties and blockages in the process of landing and promoting the express delivery into the village, mainly because rural consumption is relatively scattered, the seasonal characteristics of agricultural products are obvious, and the uncertainty of demand brings greater challenges to the stable operation of the express delivery network. After the laying of the express delivery network, the operating efficiency of enterprises is not high, and many are in a state of low profit or loss, and the continuous operation pressure is greater.

In addition to the cost of entering the village, excessive competition between express delivery companies also gave Yin Yiping a headache. "Due to the competition between various express delivery brands, the end is exclusive and the system is incompatible, resulting in the staff of the express service station using multiple operating systems every day, which is cumbersome and error-prone. And once there is a big problem, how to divide the responsibility, which express headquarters is responsible and easy to blame. ”

The network coverage rate at the township level has reached more than 96%, and it is also facing the problem of difficult construction of rural express delivery service system. Fan Suzhou, executive president of Jitu Express, said at a symposium convened by relevant departments that the small number of service orders, wide geographical scope, and dispersed service groups have made it difficult for enterprises to achieve network coverage on their own. To this end, Jitu Express chooses the way of express delivery into the village according to local conditions, and cooperates with other units through postal express cooperation, fast cooperation, fast cooperation and other forms, so that express delivery services reach the countryside.

The "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of the Rural Delivery Logistics System" issued by the General Office of the State Council clearly states that by 2025, there will be outlets in townships and villages, services in villages and villages, agricultural products can be transported, and consumer goods can be imported. Express delivery into the village carries the mission of agricultural products going up and industrial products going to the countryside, Liu Jiang suggested, "In the future, we can help 'express delivery into the village' to speed up from three aspects: policy support, financial support and model innovation." ”

The market capacity reaches the order of trillion yuan

Integration is not deep into the development of "obstruction"

In the eyes of many people in the industry, entering the factory is the most urgent part of the "two in and one out". Because there are about 6.7 million manufacturing factories in China, scattered in more than 2,000 industrial belts. They are the most resilient production unit and the basic disk of China's real economy. In this context, exploring a new model of express delivery into the factory and promoting the deep integration and development of the express delivery industry and the manufacturing industry have been put on the agenda, and the solid chain and the strong chain are the main points of the topic.

Liu Jiang introduced, "Express delivery into the factory can improve circulation efficiency, promote the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing industry, improve the competitiveness of the entire industrial chain, and further support the implementation of the strategy of manufacturing power." ”

In fact, major express delivery companies are also actively formulating express delivery into the factory program. For example, in the work of express delivery into the factory, Yunda Co., Ltd. has adhered to the factory entry strategy of "warehouse integration and one-stop service" in the past two years to serve the full-link demand of the manufacturing industry. Taking a group of cooperative partners as an example, Yunda Co., Ltd. has set up a one-to-one operation team to introduce customers into the distribution center and realize the operation mode of upstairs warehousing and downstairs delivery.

However, Feng Chao, deputy secretary-general of the Big Data Branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, told the Securities Daily reporter that at present, although express delivery companies have accumulated some express delivery service cases, they have not yet formed a service model that is widely recognized by the market, and the demand for the manufacturing supply chain is quite different from the e-commerce parts that express delivery companies are good at, and there are still problems such as insignificant scale benefits, in-depth integration and development, and unsuitable service capabilities in the express delivery industry.

Liu Jiang deeply agrees with this, express delivery into the factory is in the stage of model exploration, manufacturing enterprises have a relatively stable logistics service providers, and many for self-built logistics, express delivery companies rely on delivery channels to expand supply chain business, can only meet the basic needs of some manufacturing fields, is still in the exploration stage, system integration and supply chain integration capabilities can not meet the needs of high-end manufacturing, especially in the customization and international supply chain shortcomings are obvious.

The "Opinions on Promoting the In-depth Integration and Development of the Express Delivery Industry and the Manufacturing Industry" makes it clear that by 2025, the scope of the express delivery industry service manufacturing industry will continue to expand, deeply integrated into the manufacturing fields of automobiles, consumer goods, electronic information, biomedicine, etc., and form a supply chain service capability covering the procurement, production, sales and after-sales links of the relevant manufacturing industry.

"The market space for express delivery into the factory is huge, and the market capacity is in the order of trillions of yuan." Liu Jiang believes that in the future, to solve the blockage of express delivery into the factory, we can make efforts from strategic cooperation, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring, and improving comprehensive service capabilities.

"Express delivery to the sea" active layout

The "last mile" conundrum remains to be solved

Logistics services have become the "just need" for trade increments.

On 1 January 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will enter into force. Vice Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin previously said that after the RCEP agreement comes into effect, more than 90% of the goods in the region will gradually achieve zero tariffs. RCEP will bring new trade increments to the region, and according to relevant research institutions, the cumulative increase in exports and imports will reach $857.1 billion and $983.7 billion by 2035, respectively.

After the signing of the RCEP, domestic express delivery companies have accelerated the pace of "going to sea" to prepare for the effective implementation of RCEP. For example, as of now, among the 15 RCEP member countries, Jitu Express has its own express terminal delivery network in 8 countries, including China. The scale effect of Best Group's business in Southeast Asia has emerged, and the profit margin has maintained growth. In the third quarter of this year, the number of parcels in Best International in Southeast Asia increased by 78.7% year-on-year to 37.1 million pieces, of which the single volume of Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia increased by 123%, 933.2% and 264.5% respectively year-on-year, and the gross profit margin of the business increased by 4.1 percentage points year-on-year.

Liu Jiang believes that "express delivery to the sea strongly supports China's industry and products to go global, and ensures the stability of the global supply chain industry chain." However, the Securities Daily reporter's investigation learned that in addition to the effect of serving RCEP, which has yet to be tested by time, the current express delivery to the sea is still facing the phenomenon of "water and soil dissatisfaction".

A practitioner, who did not want to be named, said, "Express delivery to the sea faces three obstacles, namely, the difficulty of overseas terminal network construction, the difficulty of localized operation and the lack of aviation trunk network." ”

Xu Zhuwei, general manager of Yiwu Branch of Yizhiyun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., told securities daily reporters, "In terms of international aviation packets, the company is more willing to cooperate with international express delivery companies such as UPS and DPD. Because we must not only ensure that the goods of foreign trade enterprise customers are transported out, but also ensure that they are delivered to the door. ”

According to Xu Zhuwei, after the goods are sent from the country to the destination airport of the European Union and other countries, it is necessary to dismantle the board and sort it to the supervision warehouse, and then go through customs clearance, tax payment, delivery and other links, although China's express delivery companies have made many beneficial attempts in the layout of the international network, but they have not yet formed a network scale, and customs clearance resources are still relatively lacking, in most cases, even if the goods arrive at the destination airport, follow-up services can not keep up, delivery needs to be transferred to other international express companies, the "last kilometer" problem needs to be solved urgently.

"At present, the shortcomings of express delivery to the sea are insufficient international air cargo capacity and customs clearance capacity." Liu Jiang believes that on the one hand, the number of all-cargo aircraft to meet intercontinental flights is insufficient, the right to sail routes is greatly restricted, the overseas epidemic has caused a sharp decrease in flights, the amount of cargo carried in the belly compartment has also been greatly reduced, and the air cargo capacity is limited; on the other hand, customs clearance resources are relatively scattered, and Chinese express delivery companies are still in their infancy when they go global, and the resources they have are relatively limited.

Feng Chao said that the epidemic has made the market re-examine the international supply chain, and ensuring the smooth flow of the international supply chain is the new mission of express delivery companies. With the official entry into force of RCEP, the integration of regional trade will inevitably give rise to regional logistics needs, such as the recent departure of the "China-Laos International Train" is a clear signal. For express delivery companies, the international logistics business will usher in a wave of growth, and there will also be more fierce market competition.

"At present, the layout of people, goods and fields at the international end will inevitably need to be reconstructed, RCEP has deepened the industrial chain value chain in the region by adopting regional cumulative rules of origin, and express delivery companies need to assess the operational effectiveness of the overall supply chain from the perspective of regional integration, and then decide on investment layout behavior, the challenge is still not small." Feng Chao said.