If the selection of the global economic miracle of the past ten years again, China Express must be a topic that can not be avoided. This decade, China’s express unit volume growth year after year, from less than 10 billion pieces to exceed 100 billion pieces, ranked first in the world is still running at high speed, which is a rare miracle in the world; logistics costs accounted for the proportion of GDP continued to decline from 18% to 14.6%, releasing the vitality of the economy and the opportunity for innovation; express delivery time-consuming continued to shorten the average domestic time limit from one week to 48 hours, the global 72 hours to continue to approach. The average domestic delivery time has been shortened from one week to less than 48 hours, and the global delivery time is approaching 72 hours.
Between these ten years, China ran out of thin air a 3 million people courier team, many people enter the city’s first job is to do courier boy. A group of ordinary people in the wind and rain, to support the world’s most large and complex logistics system, behind the projection of China’s real economy and the rapid development of the digital economy. Through a small express parcel, we see China’s logistics industry has experienced a far-reaching changes, but also see the economic and social changes and the future. All this is the miracle of China’s express delivery, but also the miracle of China’s economy.
1. From bottleneck to miracle: forced by the development of the logistics of change
Ten years ago, “express warehouse explosion” was a social buzzword. If you go to the Internet archaeology, network entries will tell you: the years before and after 2012, a peak season of consumption, a large number of packages stranded courier site, consumer complaints surge. In those years, some online stores posted on the home page is not a product advertisement, but “sorry your package has been postponed” announcement.
Cross-border parcels are more headaches. Yiwu foreign trade merchant Qiu Juan, a foreign customer, to buy winter clothes for his girlfriend, the parcel sent to the time, it has been three months later, not only the weather is warming up, the customer’s girlfriend have changed. The speed is not up, the cost is not down. In China, the total cost of social logistics accounted for 18% of GDP. Cross-border, FedEx, UPS and other international logistics giants, send tens of dollars of goods, freight costs several hundred dollars. It is not that the courier industry is not working hard, but the consumption driven by e-commerce is too powerful. 2012 Double 11, e-commerce platforms generated more than 78 million packages a day.
In 2013, Jack Ma predicted that 10 years later, China’s daily express parcels will reach 300 million. The logistics industry must catch up. In May of that year, Cainiao was born. Jack Ma said: as long as the rookie diligence, hard work, will one day become better, but always to the industry, the community and the future with reverence and humility. Today, China’s express delivery of more than 100 billion pieces a year, the average daily parcel volume of more than 340 million pieces, the annual increment is equivalent to the United States a year of express delivery. The volume of express delivery has gone up, but the logistics cost has gone down and the time taken is shorter. According to the GDP calculation in 2022, it is equivalent to save more than 4 trillion yuan a year, almost the annual GDP of Shanghai. half-day delivery, same day delivery, next day delivery has also become the regular speed of express delivery.
2. Take a new road: let the “unicycle carrying elephants” become “Boeing 747 plus rocket engines”.
The explosive growth of express delivery was like transporting an elephant in a unicycle compared to the logistics system at that time, which was shaky and difficult to walk. Digitalization was the only option. Also from 2012, China has introduced a series of supportive policies, to try to take the first step in the transformation of the logistics industry to bring a spring rain, a variety of digital tools soon sprung up.
In 2014, Cainiao launched the express electronic face sheet, laid the foundation for the automated distribution of express delivery, before the parcel in the flow, and now it is the data to grab the parcel in front of the flow. Intelligent logistics systems can predict the flow of parcels in advance, vehicles, personnel deployment to achieve intelligent decision-making. Major courier companies are also scrambling to follow up, automatic assembly lines, sorting robots gradually from the concept of becoming a standard, express distribution and transit efficiency rose sharply. Now, the domestic large-scale express transit center automation rate of more than 90%, the national express automatic assembly line total length of more than 6,000 kilometers, Shentong, a company’s daily parcel handling volume is equivalent to the United States national express delivery a day.
At present, China’s postal express logistics system has formed a network of more than 430,000 outlets, average daily service 700 million people of the giant network, but also according to the number of orders flexible strain, orders more than 20 days to temporarily open a warehouse, half a month will be able to train thousands of skilled workers on the job, digitization coupled with a huge volume is like a Boeing 747 plus a rocket engine.
3. Creating new possibilities: 72 hours, the price of a cup of coffee to send goods around the world
If the express logistics network is compared to the blood system, then the flow of parcels is the red blood cells, a constant flow of oxygen molecules, feeding the economy. Ten years of energy, China’s express logistics has reached a very high efficiency and cost advantage, flow in this network of packages also let countless small and medium-sized enterprises, young people and farmers to realize their dreams.
Now, as long as three dollars, a small package can be sent across the country. Only “everyone can ship” can “everyone can sell goods”, with cheap logistics, countless young people realize the dream of e-commerce business. Last year, the national e-commerce employees grew by more than 3%, e-commerce live broadcast, short video seeding, new tracks are emerging. Digitalization has also extended the express logistics network from the city to the countryside and from China to the world. As of last year, the country has built nearly 1,000 county-level mail delivery public distribution centers, 95% of the established villages to achieve express service coverage, hidden deep in the mountains of the local specialties, riding on the courier to all parts of the country. A farmer selling handmade patties on Jitterbug had orders for 16,000 pounds at its peak, and two food factories had to produce at the same time to keep up with the demand.
Cross-border e-commerce is also getting hotter and hotter with the help of efficient and low-cost logistics network. In the AI technology, now Cainiao has cross-border logistics fees to the “fracture”, 5 U.S. dollars can be a small commodity in 10 days to many countries around the world, so that overseas consumers called incredible, Yiwu, a major men’s and women’s underwear enterprises to use this service, repeat purchase rate of overseas consumers to increase by 20%. The service has increased the repeat purchase rate of overseas consumers by 20%. With the money of a cup of coffee can goods through the world, so that any corner of the world 72 hours to receive goods, China’s logistics efficiency is still creating new possibilities, so that more dreams and the future release the light.