Logistics entering villages opens up the last mile of rural delivery
"If you want a good life, hurry onto Taobao." "When fellow townsfolk meet, go shopping on Dangdang." ... In recent years, many internet e-commerce companies have been marching into rural areas and cultivating the rural market deeply. However, at present, apart from China Post, the logistics routes and service stations of most logistics companies extend at most to the county seat, with limited reach into townships and villages. "Lame" logistics has become a "stumbling block" for e-commerce going to the countryside, and has also affected the further improvement of rural residents' quality of life.
The biggest difficulty for rural express delivery is concentrated in the route from the county distribution center to each village point. Because village points are scattered and parcel volumes are unstable, how to plan delivery routes is the biggest problem for rural "last mile" delivery.
How can rural logistics open up the "last mile"? How can large items purchased online, such as home appliances and furniture, quickly reach villages? With these questions in mind, the reporter conducted interviews.
Large logistics companies cannot reach them, while small and medium-sized logistics companies can enter villages but have no orders to dispatch
"For online shopping in Beijing, same-day delivery is no problem; but for a rural resident buying an item online, it is already very good if it arrives in three to five days." Wang Fei, who works in Beijing, often buys goods online to be sent to his rural hometown in Shandong.
According to statistics, the average time for parcels entering county-level distribution stations is about 3 days, not much different from urban logistics speed. The difference in logistics speed between urban and rural areas is reflected in the process of delivering parcels from county seats to townships. From county-level distribution stations to village-level distribution stations, before October 2015 only 50% of parcels could be delivered within two days; after October 2015, more than 95% of parcels could be delivered within two days. In rural areas where rural Taobao has been launched, 1-2 days is the common timeliness difference for urban and rural parcels.
The rural market has undoubtedly become a contested point for e-commerce companies seeking to "conquer territory." However, overall at present, the "nerve endings" of nationwide large logistics companies only extend to the county level, with few outlets in townships and villages, and prominent problems such as low logistics delivery efficiency and insufficient delivery capacity.
"Especially for some out-of-season fruits, if I want my parents to have a fresh taste, by the time they are mailed home they are already somewhat rotten." Wang Fei said that sometimes some express deliveries still have to be picked up at self-pickup points in the county.
It is introduced that compared with nationwide large logistics companies, some small and medium-sized logistics companies operating at the provincial, municipal and county levels have certain advantages in regional delivery and door-to-door village delivery. At present, online shopping has entered thousands of households, and the structural contradiction facing the logistics industry is this: as far as farmers buying industrial products and consumer goods online is concerned, large logistics companies do not lack dispatch orders, but have insufficient transport capacity; while small and medium-sized logistics companies, due to regional restrictions, face reduced dispatch orders or even no orders to dispatch, and have relatively ample transport capacity.
Can the delivery networks of nationwide and regional logistics companies be woven together to complete a supply-side structural reform of logistics transport capacity resources?
At the end of May this year, at the Third China County E-commerce Summit, Xiong Jian, head of rural logistics at Cainiao Network, said that Cainiao Network is using data systems to organize the transport capacity of express and logistics companies in various places, and to build a denser and deeper delivery network in rural areas. Through the rural last-mile logistics network, more than 30% of rural parcels can achieve same-day delivery from county seat to village, and nearly 70% of parcels can also be delivered to villages the next day. Cainiao Network has built a rural last-mile network across the country covering more than 320 counties and nearly 16,000 rural service stations.
Service demand surges, and the delivery problem for large items is especially prominent
At present, when rural consumers buy goods online, logistics timeliness is not guaranteed, service is not standardized, large items cannot be delivered to the door, and logistics costs are relatively high. Rural consumers find it difficult to enjoy the same after-sales service experience as urban residents.
"The rapid development of online shopping has sharply increased demand for last-mile services such as logistics and installation, and the delivery of medium and large items is especially prominent." Yuan Jian, general manager of Haier's RRS Express Line, said that during the "Double 11" e-commerce promotion period, logistics demand exploded, creating a situation where people "can afford to buy but cannot afford to wait."
Because the rural population is scattered and lacks cluster advantages, the cost for express delivery companies to set up outlets in towns and villages is too high. Statistics from the State Post Bureau show that in 2015 the township coverage rate of express delivery outlets was only 48%.
"The logistics coverage rate for large items such as home appliances and furniture is even lower, and most have to be picked up at stations, let alone installation and debugging." Yuan Jian believes that there is strong demand for two-way commercial flow: industrial products and consumer goods going to the countryside and agricultural products going to cities, and the rural logistics service "last mile" has broad market prospects.
"RRS Express Line can already achieve one-stop delivery and installation service." Yuan Jian said that RRS Express Line has a logistics network of 103 warehousing centers, more than 90,000 vehicles and more than 3,300 delivery routes; synchronized delivery and installation service has achieved nationwide coverage with no blind spots and can reach all 2,915 districts and counties nationwide (including townships and villages). At present, RRS Logistics has attracted e-commerce clients such as Taobao and JD.com in the e-commerce logistics field, and captured more than 60% of the online large-item market share.
Open logistics platform lets drivers with spare time become delivery personnel
Relying on Haier's after-sales outlets and the vehicle resources of sales and delivery-installation companies, the "last mile" delivery and installation service established to serve Haier's e-commerce platform as well as platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com is only version 1.0 of RRS Express Line.
"At present, there are 30 million idle transport capacity resources in society. Integrating this team well will undoubtedly fill the shortcomings of e-commerce going to the countryside." According to Yuan Jian, RRS Express Line will be built into an open driver entrepreneurship platform.
Yuan Jian calls each driver who joins the platform with a vehicle a "small micro vehicle." These small driver teams need to undergo standardized transport capacity training and installation training provided by the platform, and meet the requirements of RRS Logistics' integrated delivery and installation. "Each vehicle is in zero-distance contact with users, and is a small micro company that earns salary based on user evaluations and is responsible for its own profits and losses." This platform is similar to a truck version of "Didi Taxi." At present, 90,000 "small micro vehicles" nationwide have joined the platform to start businesses, driving the number of entrepreneurs to more than 180,000. Qu Mingkai from Qingdao is one of them. Previously, he was a truck driver waiting for work under a bridge. After training in refrigerator delivery and installation, he obtained an installation expert certificate. Through home appliance delivery and installation, Qu Mingkai's income increased considerably.
In addition to integrating existing logistics resources, e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba are also advancing a county-township two-level operating system of "county-level service center + rural service points" to carry out network layout. Taking Boxing, Shandong as an example, at present Alibaba and Boxing County have cooperated to build a county-level operating center of more than 800 sq m and a logistics distribution center of 500 sq m, and took the lead in Shandong Province in building a township-level service center. Village-level service stations reached 47, with a cumulative total of nearly 45,000 orders completed and transaction volume reaching more than 4 million yuan. Several rural Taobao service stations respectively purchased cars, pianos, home appliances and other large high-end goods on behalf of others.
Once logistics and channel construction are in place, it is also much more convenient for agricultural products to go to cities. Jia Peixiao, who sells straw and willow weaving products online in Wantou Village, Jinqiu Street, Boxing County, Shandong Province, said, "After the village got a service station, shipping efficiency improved markedly, and I no longer have to worry about having orders but being unable to send the goods."