Our reporter Ji Leilei
Taking express delivery, sending parcels, online shopping for department stores, and selling agricultural specialty products, one in and one out, fully demonstrates the strong demand for online shopping and distribution and the upward trend of agricultural products in the vast rural areas.
At the 2021 express delivery “last mile” summit held recently, Chen Kai, deputy director of the State Post Bureau, said that in recent years, the construction of rural delivery logistics system has made great progress. The synergistic development effect of e-commerce is significant.
But we must also be soberly aware that there are still many difficulties and blockages in the process of express delivery into the village.
How to smooth the "last mile" of rural express delivery?
How to achieve the goal of "there are outlets in towns and villages and services in every village" and "agricultural products can be transported, and consumer goods can be imported"?
Courier service is becoming more and more perfect
At the moment, Luochuan County, Shaanxi Province ushered in the apple harvest season, and Zhongtong Express Luochuan outlets are also busy.
"Apple has now entered the peak shipping season, collecting more than 10,000 boxes a day." Jun Jun, head of ZTO Express's Luochuan branch, said that in order to meet the peak sales season, the branch has made preparations early, and more than 90 township branches have entered the village. Collect collection, set up 14 high-speed service areas to collect collection points, and build 6 small cold storages. "At peak times, the daily shipment volume exceeds 12,000 boxes, and at least 6 9.6-meter trucks are required to ship."
In the winter jujube production area in Zhanhua District, Binzhou City, Shandong Province, here, winter jujube growers are seizing the opportunity to harvest winter jujube, and over there, SF Express is helping to pack and pack them.
In view of the characteristics of winter jujube, which is crispy, thin, easy to break, and has high transportation requirements, SF Express has temporarily set up 58 collection points in the winter jujube production area this year. It will invest in relatively remote production areas and cooperate with the post stations to make a comprehensive layout of the "village". "Cun Tong", to fully cover the production area, and at the same time launch a one-stop fresh-keeping service that integrates packaging, solicitation, transfer, delivery, and after-sales.
Luochuan apples, Zhanhua winter dates, Huili pomegranates, Pujiang grapes, Zigui navel oranges... As the rural delivery and logistics system becomes more and more perfect, colorful agricultural products are constantly being delivered to consumers' tables through delivery channels.
"The'last mile' of rural express delivery is the key to linking the county's rural e-commerce system and express logistics distribution system." Chen Kai said that at present and in the future, we will further promote the construction of the rural delivery logistics system and accelerate the linking of the county's rural e-commerce system and The express logistics distribution system is an important task of the postal express industry.
In recent years, with the support of the Party Central Committee’s various policies to strengthen and benefit farmers, farmers’ income has increased considerably, and rural consumption has also maintained rapid growth.
Statistics show that from January to August this year, express delivery in rural areas exceeded 28 billion pieces, an increase of more than 30% over the same period last year, driving agricultural products to cities and industrial products to the countryside for 1.4 trillion yuan.
"Currently, the project of'express delivery into villages' is progressing smoothly." Bian Zuodong, deputy director of the Market Supervision Department of the State Post Bureau, revealed that at present, universal postal service outlets have achieved full coverage of towns and villages, and all organized villages have achieved direct mail delivery and express delivery services. The coverage of township outlets reached 98%, and the proportion of express delivery directly to the village was more than half.
Need to increase efforts to treat pain points
"Rural e-commerce and rural logistics are important means and channels for promoting agricultural products to cities and industrial products to the countryside, as well as an important starting point for achieving common prosperity." Cai Yudong, deputy director of the Department of E-commerce and Information Technology of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an analysis. From the above point of view, at present, problems such as unbalanced urban and rural development and weak rural infrastructure are still prominent.
For example, the rural online shopping flow chain is relatively long, the cost of single-piece logistics is high, the integration of rural logistics qualifications is not sufficient, the degree of data sharing is not high, and the talent, technology, and experience are still relatively lacking.
According to Wang Yuehan, deputy director of the Business Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau, the bottleneck in the development of rural logistics delivery is mainly reflected in the lack of systematic planning of the service network, the low degree of service standardization, and the relative logistics equipment technology suitable for public services and rural scenarios. Lag, the level of informatization needs to be improved, etc. In particular, a reasonable benefit distribution mechanism needs to be established. In the process of resource sharing, management costs and subject game play have been significantly enhanced. Many subjects lack experience in the establishment of equity allocation and benefit distribution mechanisms, and the mechanism settings are too simple , Unable to take into account the demands of all parties, making it difficult for shared cooperation to develop sustainably.
At present, many express delivery companies are carrying out express delivery services into villages in a co-provisioning manner, and rural delivery has already taken the form of a public express delivery service system.
However, many co-provisioning companies lack standardized guidelines for operating modes, operating procedures, safety management, and green packaging suitable for co-provisioning scenarios, resulting in a decline in service quality and an increase in customer complaints.
"The rural end, especially in the central and western regions, has small logistics scale, weak benefits and high costs." Cao Jianshen, deputy general manager of the postal business department of China Post Group Co., Ltd., said that China Post has a sound rural service network that fully covers the private express delivery system. In the marginal areas that are out of reach due to cost considerations, the postal network has a good foundation in rural areas.
Since last year, the postal industry has rapidly promoted the construction of the rural postal system, terminal distribution system, coordinated development system, and cold chain system, achieving continuous improvement in service capabilities and levels, and can basically fully undertake the "last mile" demand for rural delivery logistics.
"In the next step, we will give full play to the postal network advantages in rural areas, actively connect with private express companies, and adopt multiple modes of investment, transportation, and collection to carry out postal express cooperation, forming complementary advantages and helping express express to enter the village." Cao Jianshen said.
Expand the scope and promote the classification
The "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Rural Delivery and Logistics System" issued by the General Office of the State Council clearly stated that by 2025, there will be outlets in towns and villages, services in villages and villages, the delivery of agricultural products, the delivery of consumer goods, and the supply of rural delivery and logistics. The service quality has been significantly improved, and the convenient and beneficial delivery services are basically covered.
"Promote rural express delivery in order to effectively enhance the hematopoietic capacity of rural delivery and achieve sustainable development." Bian Zuodong believes that at this stage, rural delivery logistics must play a prominent role, and coordinated development with rural e-commerce is important It is an important way out to serve modern agriculture.
To this end, the State Post Bureau will vigorously promote the construction of 100 rural e-commerce delivery cooperative development demonstration areas and 300 express delivery service modern agricultural demonstration projects, through the selection of typical trees to create demonstrations, and form practical, replicable, and extendable development experience.
In this regard, Cai Yudong also agreed.
"It is necessary to promote the strengthening of business linkage and data connection between e-commerce and express logistics enterprises, optimize the layout of express logistics network in accordance with the allocation of service resources, and support the development of "e-commerce + warehouse + express logistics" in the production area of agricultural products." Cai Yudong said It is necessary to promote the intensive development of the terminal, strengthen the joint construction of facilities and resource sharing, encourage the convenience of commercial facilities such as village post stations, supply and marketing cooperatives, mom-and-pop stores, and convenience stores to strengthen functional integration, and carry out express delivery and delivery services.
It is worth noting that the promotion of express delivery into villages and the construction of rural delivery logistics distribution systems cannot be done step by step. It is necessary to push forward and push the stubble on the front line, but also to cross the sea and show their magical powers.
Chen Kai said that under the premise of ensuring the quality of universal postal services and special services, it is necessary to strengthen the sharing of rural postal infrastructure and service networks, and promote a common delivery model.
At the same time, the “express delivery into the village” project should be promoted in different categories. In rural areas in the east and central regions, we must vigorously develop methods such as stationing in villages and corporate cooperation; in rural areas in the west, we need to better play the role of the government to promote postal services, transportation, supply and marketing, etc. Various forms of cooperation are carried out with such resources to expand the coverage of express delivery into the village.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen technological innovation and improve the service level of rural express delivery in the "last mile".
For example, comprehensive use of terminal service modes such as direct door-to-door delivery, smart express box delivery, and express public service station delivery; explore and apply terminal micro-automatic sorting solutions to improve efficiency, save manpower, and reduce labor intensity; in mountainous areas and other areas with inconvenient transportation Actively explore the application of drones, shorten delivery time, reduce transportation costs, and use technology to help express delivery "fly" into the village.