Domestic logistics, ten years of dramatic changes

If the selection of the past ten years of global economic miracle 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, ranking first in the world still running at high speed, which is a rare miracle in the world;

The proportion of logistics costs to GDP has continued to decline, from 18% to 14.6%, releasing the vitality of the economy and opportunities for innovation;

Express time-consuming continues to shorten, with the average domestic time limit shortened from one week to less than 48 hours, and the global 72-hour reach constantly approaching.

This decade, "a rise and two falls" between, China out of thin air to run 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, supporting 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.
Ten years ago, "express warehouse" is 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 parcels stranded express site, consumer complaints surge. In those years, some online shops posted on the home page is not a product advertisement, but "sorry your parcel has been delayed" announcement.

Cross-border parcels are more headaches. Yiwu foreign trade business 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 has changed.

The speed is not up, the cost can not be reduced. Domestically, the total cost of social logistics accounted for 18% of GDP. Cross-border, FedEx, UPS and other international logistics giants, to send tens of dollars of goods, the freight cost is several hundred dollars.

It is not that the courier industry does not work hard, but e-commerce-driven consumption 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 rise to catch up. In May of that year, Cainiao was born. Jack Ma said: as long as the rookie is diligent and hardworking, it will one day become better, but it should always have reverence and humility for the industry, society and the future.

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 cost of logistics has gone down, and it takes less time. According to the GDP in 2022, it is equivalent to a year of saving more than 4 trillion yuan, almost the annual GDP of Shanghai. half-day delivery, same day delivery, next day delivery has also become the regular speed of express delivery.

The explosive growth of express delivery compared to the logistics system at the time, it is like transporting elephants with a unicycle, shaky and difficult to walk.

Going the old way certainly does not work, digitalisation is the only option.

Also from 2012 onwards, the state has introduced a series of supportive policies, to try to take the first step in the transformation of the logistics industry to bring a burst of spring rain, a variety of digital tools soon sprung up.

In 2014, Cainiao launched the express electronic face sheet, laid the foundation of the express automated distribution, before the parcels in the flow, and now it is the data to grab the parcels 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 transfer efficiency has risen sharply. Now, the domestic large-scale express transit centre automation rate of more than 90%, the national express automatic assembly line total length of more than 6,000 kilometres, Shentong, a company's daily parcel processing volume is equivalent to the United States national express delivery a day.

At present, the whole of 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, digitalisation coupled with a huge volume of like to the Boeing 747 plus a rocket engine.