Seize the digital and intelligent highland The express logistics industry "competes" for the unmanned distribution market

Reporter Zhang Sun Mingshuo Zhang Jiazhen reported from Shanghai

In recent years, the annual business volume of the national express delivery industry has continued to grow at a rapid rate of 10 billion pieces per year. In 2021, the annual business volume of national express delivery will exceed 100 billion pieces.

The continuous growth of express parcels has increased the pressure on the distribution of terminal links, and improving the level of digitalization, promoting the transformation of smart logistics, and promoting the use of unmanned delivery vehicles will help alleviate the pressure of terminal distribution. The "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Large Market" also proposes to build a high-standard market infrastructure, strengthen the digital construction of logistics infrastructure, promote the construction of the national logistics hub network, promote the reduction of logistics costs and efficiency of the whole society, and improve the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network, so as to further reduce the cost of commodity circulation and achieve efficient market connection.

It is understood that Jingdong Logistics (02618. HK), Zhongtong Express (02057. HK) and YTO Express (600233.SH) and other leading express logistics companies are actively exploring the layout of the unmanned distribution market through independent research and development and cooperative research and development. At the same time, with the increase in the amount of use during the epidemic, the commercial application of unmanned delivery vehicles is also accelerating.

(The driverless express logistics vehicle "Pioneer" can complete more than 3,000 parcel delivery tasks per day.) ）

The relevant person in charge of Jingdong Logistics said in an interview with the "China Business Daily" reporter that in the past 10 years, the mainland express delivery business has increased by 30 times, and e-commerce and express logistics have profoundly changed people's lives. "However, the intensity of the work of express delivery employees, the shortage of front-line manpower, and the difficulty of road traffic safety management have always restricted the development of the industry, especially in the terminal distribution link, and the cost of the last kilometer accounts for more than 25% of the entire link." Through the empowerment of science and technology, improving the distribution efficiency of the express delivery brother is the only way for the express delivery industry to upgrade. ”

Solve the end-of-line distribution problem

The rapid development of the express delivery industry has brought about a strong demand for labor, but the phenomenon of "difficulty in recruiting workers" of express delivery companies has also become increasingly prominent.

According to data from the State Postal Administration, in 2021, the national express delivery business volume was 108.3 billion pieces, an increase of 29.9% year-on-year; in the first quarter of this year, the national express delivery business volume completed a total of 24.23 billion pieces, an increase of 10.5% year-on-year.

In terms of matching labor demand, the data released by the Ministry of Comprehensive Human Resources and Social Security shows that in 2021, couriers will rank in the top ten of the national recruitment more than the "most lacking jobs" in the country. In the third quarter of 2021, the multiple rates of Tianjin, Chongqing and Fuzhou reached 2:1, 7:1 and 3:1 respectively.

In July 2021, Li Yan, president of the 58 Tongcheng Recruitment Research Institute, publicly stated that under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the role of logistics in ensuring people's livelihood is increasing, which has promoted the rapid growth of the scale of employment in the logistics industry, resulting in the increasing difficulty of recruiting workers in the logistics industry across the country.

In the first quarter of this year, the phenomenon of recruitment difficulties continued. According to data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on April 27, couriers ranked 7th in the country for recruitment more than job hunting.

In addition, with the rising labor costs, in recent years, express delivery companies have paid more attention to cost reduction and efficiency improvement while pursuing scale effects. As the most expensive link in the entire logistics chain, terminal distribution is becoming an important point for express delivery companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Jin Renqun, vice president of Zhongtong Express, said in an interview with reporters that the entire operation process of express delivery companies is getting closer and closer to "unmanned", but the last delivery link at the end of express delivery is still completely dependent on labor. "From the perspective of reducing costs, unmanned driving, as a supporting tool for operation, is also the easiest to reflect the benefits."

Matrix Data Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Matrix Data") is a technology enterprise focusing on the research and development of new energy distribution vehicles and logistics unmanned vehicles, and terminal automated distribution services. In response to the company's launch of China's first car-level driverless express logistics vehicle, the relevant person in charge of matrix data said in an interview with reporters that in the scene from the express delivery network to the station, the biggest pain point is that the courier is difficult to recruit, and the main reason for the lack of labor supply is that the urbanization process is now nearing the end, and there is no large number of low-cost labor.

Promote the marketization of unmanned delivery vehicles

In recent years, under the background of difficult recruitment and rising labor costs, the express logistics industry has transformed from extensive development to refined management. The most obvious change is that enterprises pay more attention to achieving cost reduction and efficiency through scientific and technological investment. Among them, unmanned delivery vehicles are the scientific and technological weights for leading express logistics enterprises to solve the problem of terminal distribution.

Jingdong Logistics has an earlier layout in the field of unmanned delivery vehicles, and is currently exploring ways to promote the marketization of unmanned delivery vehicles. In 2020, JD Logistics and Xiamen Jinlong Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (600686. SH) reached a strategic partnership to build a low-speed driverless vehicle with the conditions for commercialization.

Jingdong Logistics introduced to reporters that during the epidemic in Shanghai, the intelligent express delivery vehicles put into use by Jingdong Logistics include a new batch of fifth-generation intelligent express delivery vehicles that have just been produced off the production line, which can load about 200 kilograms of goods each time, the vehicle mileage is 100 kilometers, and can achieve all-weather operation. "The intelligent express delivery truck will distribute daily necessities such as rice, flour, grain and oil and epidemic prevention materials at any time according to the amount of goods and the needs of the community."

In addition, in December 2021, ZTO Express and Matrix Data jointly launched the application scenario internal test of the unmanned express logistics vehicle "Pioneer" at the headquarters of ZTO Express. This unmanned delivery vehicle mainly solves the unmanned application scenario requirements of express delivery outlets to stations, and is still in the stage of internal testing.

In terms of YTO Express, the National Engineering Laboratory for Logistics Information Interchange and Sharing Technology and Application, which is led by the company, is committed to the innovation and practice of autonomous driving distribution at the end of logistics. Recently, the laboratory has also joined hands with the intelligent driverless express delivery car brand "Xingshen Intelligence" to urgently dispatch intelligent driverless express delivery trucks to Shanghai to carry out contactless delivery services.

"The express delivery industry has a large enough demand for the market because the basic network is large enough. In addition, because express delivery is a light throwing part, for unmanned delivery vehicles, the technical challenge is relatively small, and the express delivery industry is the focus of the company's early strategic planning. The person in charge of matrix data introduced to reporters.

Although unmanned delivery vehicles have obvious advantages over manual delivery of couriers, they have not yet entered the stage of large-scale landing. Higher costs and policy constraints are the main constraints.

"The economics in this price range are very obvious, because the cost of a courier has to be benchmarked. We can now send nearly 3,000 couriers a day with a car, and the efficiency and cost can be calculated. The relevant person in charge of the above matrix data told reporters that the cost of the company's vehicle-level driverless express logistics vehicle "Pioneer" will be controlled within 180,000 yuan.

At the policy level, limited by the fact that the right of way has not been released, the current application of unmanned delivery vehicles in the express delivery industry is mainly in closed scenes such as parks and campuses. However, the situation is expected to improve in the future.

In May 2021, the Beijing High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone issued the first batch of unmanned delivery vehicle vehicle codes in China, and three companies, JD Logistics, Meituan and Neolithic, were licensed. This also means that the situation that unmanned delivery vehicles are restricted by existing laws and regulations is being broken.

When the smart logistics revolution is underway

Unmanned delivery vehicles are the embodiment of smart logistics in the terminal distribution link, and also echo the requirements of the country in recent years to reduce circulation costs and improve efficiency put forward by the development of the modern logistics industry.

In June 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Reducing Logistics Costs, and proposed to accelerate the development of smart logistics, promote the application of emerging technologies and intelligent equipment, and provide automation and intelligence in warehousing, transportation, distribution and distribution.

The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of the Modern Circulation System" released in January this year also mentioned that it is necessary to accelerate the development of smart logistics, actively apply modern information technology and intelligent equipment, and improve the level of logistics automation, unmanned and intelligent logistics. The "14th Five-Year Plan" Modern Comprehensive Transportation System Development Plan released in the same month also clearly proposes to develop modern postal express delivery business, improve the delivery terminal service, promote unmanned vehicle and drone transportation delivery, and steadily develop contactless delivery services.

According to the "Research Report on the Terminal Unmanned Distribution Track" released by Chentao Capital, the growing business volume and order volume have made the terminal distribution industry market continue to increase, and also bring great distribution pressure to the terminal. The report points out that difficulties and pain points such as many types of delivery items, complex distribution scenarios, complex distribution routes, difficulties in delivery tools, high delivery costs, and insufficient community collection also make it possible and necessary for autonomous driving technology to land faster in the terminal distribution industry.

"Autonomous driving is an emerging industry that the government and the market have paid great attention to in recent years, and low-speed automatic driving represented by unmanned delivery vehicles as the first scene to land will help promote the formation of the entire supply chain of automatic driving, including lidar, computing power platform, etc., thereby accelerating the rapid cost reduction and landing of autonomous driving products." JD Logistics said.

For the company's intelligent unmanned delivery vehicle next upgrade focus, the relevant person in charge of Jingdong Logistics told reporters that the future is mainly around the forward design of the vehicle, mass production cost reduction, and the construction of the overall operation system after large-scale deployment, and gradually landed in the country.

In terms of the intelligent express car commissioning plan, the above-mentioned Jingdong Logistics relevant person in charge further said that the company has established a distribution network covering the whole country, with tens of thousands of business outlets, and intelligent express vehicles have great development potential. At present, from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei to Hainan Island, from first-tier cities to second- and third-tier cities, Jingdong intelligent express delivery vehicles are carrying out normalized distribution business throughout the country. "In the near future, I believe that Jingdong Logistics intelligent express delivery car will be close to everyone's side and bring everyone a more diversified receiving and sending experience."

Industrial Securities Research Report believes that the number of end couriers in large express delivery companies is 300,000 to 400,000 people, and they are more sensitive to the cost of labor changes. In the future, express delivery companies through technical means (robots, unmanned vehicles, etc.), management means (station, self-pick-up point, co-matching, etc.) gradually replace the current simple human delivery door-to-door will be the trend of the times, can follow the trend, and actively respond to the end of the change under the labor cost of express delivery companies will be able to obtain more sustainable development.

(Editor: Zhang Jiazhen Proofreader: Yan Jingning)