The development trend of the express delivery industry is gradually picking up
Our reporter Ji Leilei
In the first half of this year, the domestic epidemic spread in many places, and the postal express industry was faced with an unprecedented severe situation, and its development was once hindered.
Under the guidance of the State Council's logistics guarantee mechanism, the State Post Bureau has fully launched the postal express industry guarantee work, with precise policies and measures, the industry's congestion and pain points have gradually eased, the business volume has bottomed out and the development trend has gradually recovered.
According to the "China Express Development Index Report in June 2022" recently released by the State Post Bureau, the China Express Development Index in June was 289.4, a month-on-month increase of 7.5%.
Experts said that as the dividend effect of the Baotong Baochang policy is further manifested, online consumption is gradually returning to the active range. It is expected that in the second half of the year, the development environment of the postal express industry will be increasingly optimized, and the potential space for the traditional peak season can still be expected.
At present, the average daily business volume has recovered to more than 300 million pieces, which has exceeded the level of the same period last year.
Industry Scale Accelerates Repair
Entering June, the enthusiasm of consumers to "buy, buy, buy" is most directly felt by couriers.
"With the improvement of the epidemic situation, the arrival volume of the outlets has risen rapidly, reaching 15,000 orders a day at most, an increase of 20% over the same period last year." Ge Jiasheng, head of the Shanghai Dagu Sales Department of JD Express, told reporters that in order to ensure delivery efficiency, special It is the timely delivery of fresh products such as ice cream and fruit. In addition to the nearly 70 couriers at the site, employees from third-party courier companies are also employed to help deliver the express.
The strong recovery of the postal express industry has also been confirmed by the published data.
Data from the State Post Bureau shows that in June, the express delivery development scale index was 386.5, a month-on-month increase of 12.1%.
In terms of sub-indices, the volume of express delivery business is expected to increase by 5% month-on-month, and business revenue is expected to increase by 6% month-on-month.
In general, in the first half of the year, the scale of the postal express delivery industry rebounded rapidly after a brief decline. The business volume is expected to exceed 50 billion pieces, an increase of about 3.6% year-on-year, and the business income is expected to be close to 500 billion yuan, an increase of about 2.8% year-on-year.
"This is mainly due to the overall improvement of the domestic epidemic prevention and control situation, and the release of compensatory consumption potential, which effectively drives the rapid growth of business volume." Wang Yuehan, deputy director of the third business research department of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau, analyzed that since May , "Shuangpin Online Shopping Festival", "618" and other promotional activities have been carried out successively, driving the rapid recovery of express delivery business volume, with the highest daily business volume exceeding 400 million pieces.
From a regional point of view, in the first half of the year, the postal express industry in the central region is developing well, and the growth rate of business volume is expected to exceed 11%, and the proportion in the country is expected to increase by more than 1 percentage point.
The growth rate of business volume in most provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) exceeds the national average, becoming an important force driving the growth of the industry.
Affected by the blockage of some monthly distribution networks, the service timeliness of the postal express delivery industry declined slightly in the first half of the year, but the overall service quality remained at a high level.
Wang Yuehan analyzed that in order to effectively respond to the network blockage caused by the epidemic, industry enterprises have refined and upgraded operating specifications, increased the proportion of drones, unmanned vehicles, and unmanned facilities, and comprehensively used special personnel to station, contactless connection, etc. way to ensure the smooth flow of services.
At the same time, express delivery companies actively promote service stratification and product classification to meet the individual needs of consumers.
For example, for the delivery of agricultural products, express companies have customized delivery services such as direct delivery from the origin, cold fresh delivery, and dedicated line transportation. Through customized packaging, three-dimensional transportation, priority transit, marketing empowerment, feature code traceability, etc., to meet the needs of different groups of services. need.
Continued enhancement of basic capabilities
At 10:00 p.m. on July 2, a China Post Airlines Boeing B737 all-cargo plane loaded with Wushan crispy plums took off from Chongqing Wushan Airport to Nanjing.
This is the first cargo charter flight route opened by Wushan Airport, and it is also the first all-cargo transport flight route in Chongqing specially launched for the export of high-quality fruits in the origin.
At the end of June every year, Wushan crispy plums will usher in the peak sales season.
In order to break through the bottleneck of tight transportation capacity during the peak season of Wushan crispy plum delivery, this year, the Wushan County Government and postal enterprises jointly promote rural revitalization, creating a "Wushan crispy plum + aviation" model to further speed up the transportation and marketing of crispy baggage.
"After the direct flight is realized, the goods will arrive at the Nanjing Distribution Center at least 3 hours earlier than taking off from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, which also means that more cities will realize 'order online today, delivery to door tomorrow', which greatly guarantees Wushan The quality of crispy plums." Hu Shaobo, deputy general manager of the Chongqing Branch of China Post Group Co., Ltd., introduced that the crispy plum charter flight will fly for the entire crispy plum season according to a daily flight plan, and it is expected to fly 15 flights.
From Hainan lychees, Yantai cherries, Guangxi lychees, Dalian cherries to Wushan crisp plums, this year, China Post has opened 5 summer "high-speed fresh" special flights.
And this is just a microcosm of how the express delivery industry has stimulated the vitality of agriculture and rural areas and helped rural revitalization under the vigorous promotion of the "express delivery into the village" project.
"Thanks to the continuous improvement of the comprehensive transportation system by express companies, the network connectivity has been enhanced, and the convenience and efficiency of agricultural product delivery services have been significantly improved." Wang Yuehan told reporters that in terms of air transportation, the industry's own airlines have increased the purchase of large cargo aircraft. In terms of road transportation, we will actively expand direct land transportation lines in Haikou and other places, and strengthen point-to-point trunk line transportation channels.
The "Ancient Tea-Horse Road" in the air, the cherry and lychee air line, and the three-dimensional transportation channel for pine mushrooms and other agricultural product delivery channels have been continuously optimized and improved. The coordinated development of express delivery and modern agriculture is upgrading from a single delivery service to a full-chain and intelligent direction.
In the first half of the year, express delivery companies continued to increase the construction of hub nodes.
For example, deploy and deploy smart technology and e-commerce logistics industrial parks in Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places; activate distribution and warehousing centers in Guangzhou, Dongguan and other places to promote transshipment facilities from a single functional body to a collection of warehousing sorting and cold chain supply The upgrading of comprehensive industrial facilities that integrate functions such as chain and industrial incubation.
At present, there are over 10,000 distribution centers of various types.
"The extensive coverage of the postal express network has effectively ensured that the industry can efficiently respond to the impact of emergencies on network blockages during the epidemic, and complete network repairs in a short period of time to ensure smooth transportation." Wang Yuehan said.
Development environment needs to be improved
With the joint efforts of all parties, the process of resumption of work and production in the postal express industry has been significantly accelerated. Up to now, more than 300,000 passes have been processed nationwide. Except for some outlets in individual sealed-off areas, all distribution centers at or above the county level have been closed. seal up.
At present, the industry's average daily collection volume has recovered to more than 300 million pieces, exceeding the level of the same period last year.
It is worth noting that while the industry is recovering rapidly, there are still some pain points to be solved.
Wang Yuehan said frankly that although the network coverage and basic capabilities of the postal express delivery industry have been greatly improved, in the face of the risk of network disconnection and chain disconnection caused by emergencies, especially after the closure of international and key core hub cities, a short period of time is required. The experience and ability to restore network connectivity and enhance network resilience are relatively insufficient.
In addition, the operating capacity of grassroots outlets also needs to be improved.
In the first half of the year, postal express companies, especially grassroots outlets, faced multiple pressures such as rising costs and shortage of personnel, narrowing profit margins, and some outlets suffered serious losses.
"Improving the development environment of outlets and improving the profitability of the terminal are important aspects to ensure the stable operation of the industry in the second half of the year." Wang Yuehan said that in order to further strengthen the weak link and strengthen the foundation, on the one hand, it is necessary to promote the construction process of postal express hubs at different levels and strengthen regional international hubs. The core role in the continent, and strive to create an open, shared, safe and reliable international delivery service system.
On the other hand, local governments need to give key support to the postal express industry in terms of land use and resources, increase the construction of public sorting centers and terminal collection and investment facilities, promote the effective play of the strategic and basic role of the industry, and build new development in services. Provide more assistance in the construction of the national unified large market.
For enterprises, it is also necessary to improve service quality, promote the cost division, service stratification, and product classification of express delivery business, and promote the diversified, systematic, precise and comprehensive development of express delivery services.
At the same time, corporate headquarters should increase support for grassroots outlets, and promote the stable, standardized, and high-quality development of outlets through technology, management, and information empowerment, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of employees.
Industry experts said that in the second half of the year, with the further effect of the Baotong Baochang policy, online consumption has gradually returned to the active range, the development environment of the postal express industry is increasingly optimized, and the potential space for the traditional peak season is still expected. The improvement of capacity will promote the postal express industry to play a greater role in smoothing the economic cycle and supporting the real economy.