At 3 o'clock in the morning, Master Yu, a truck driver who lives in the southern suburbs of Beijing, walked out of his house and drove a van to the Xinfadi Fruit Wholesale Market to start his day of taking orders and hauling goods.
"During the Spring Festival this year, market bosses are also rushing to place orders. This month, I have received more than 20 reservation orders for morning shipment, and I will set out to load the goods in the early morning." Master Yu said that he recently received The orders are mainly for rice, flour, oil and fresh fruits and vegetables. “Especially with the arrival of spring, the orders are obviously increasing day by day.”
As a traditional peak season for consumption, every Spring Festival not only has the Spring Festival travel season known as "the largest migration of mankind", but also has huge freight demand.
Among them, road freight with wide coverage and high flexibility plays an important role.
Analysis by the National Highway Traffic Survey Team of the Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport shows that during the Spring Festival this year, truck traffic on trunk roads increased by 20.3% year-on-year compared with the 2023 Spring Festival holiday, and truck traffic increased significantly compared with the same period in 2023.
Among them, truck traffic on major transportation corridors such as Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao, Lianhuo, and Shanghai-Kunming increased by more than 30% year-on-year, higher than the national average.
According to Lalamove’s big data statistics, starting from February 16 (the seventh day of the first lunar month), the freight order volume displayed on the freight platform returned to a high level. During this period, the overall freight order volume on the platform increased by 13% year-on-year, and freight volume recovered rapidly. , indicating that the economy is operating rapidly.
New Year goods volume increased significantly
Red, milky strawberries, plump and plump Chilean cherries, huge long-handled dry durians... these fresh fruits that are loved by consumers have been frequent visitors in Master Yu's carriage recently.
He transported goods to major supermarkets in Beijing one trip after another, enriching citizens' food baskets bit by bit and satisfying people's holiday taste buds.
According to monitoring and summary data from the Office of the State Council Logistics Guaranteeing and Guaranteeing Leading Group, from January 29 to February 4, a total of 42.716 million trucks were used on national highways; from February 5 to February 11, a total of 42.716 million trucks were used on national highways. 15.843 million vehicles passed through.
In Master Yu’s view, becoming a truck driver and a member of the army that ensures supplies during the Spring Festival brings both hardships and joys.
He said that although he braved the severe cold and woke up early every day, the turnover brought by the increase in orders in January, coupled with the subsidies given by the platform during the New Year Shopping Festival, he made nearly twice as much as usual, and his heart felt warmer.
It is understood that in order to ensure transportation capacity during the Spring Festival, Lalamove has held the "New Year Cargo Festival" for eight consecutive years.
From January 5 to February 2 this year, Lalamove launched the "2024 New Year Shopping Festival", offering tens of millions of subsidy benefits and peak service fees to platform drivers, encouraging platform drivers to "take more orders to ensure supply and demand."
The person in charge of operations of Lalamove said that more than 10 million users have placed orders for cars in this event, and the average daily order volume of Lalamove platform drivers has increased by 49% year-on-year, providing important transportation capacity guarantees on both sides of supply and demand.
As the domestic economy continues to improve, and driven by the demand for stocking during the Spring Festival, fresh fruits and vegetables have become more important goods in the freight market.
"In response, we will launch cold transport business in 2023, which will greatly increase the transportation capacity of fresh fruits and vegetables." The person in charge said that this category of goods will increasingly become a "frequent customer" in Lalamove carriages.
He also predicted that in the spring and summer of the Year of the Dragon, the transportation demand for this category will rise further.
"Tourism fever + cultural and creative popularity" cultivate more new demands
From the cold winter to the New Year, Harbin has become popular and has driven many tourism and cultural creative industry chains.
From Ice City Four Seasons AR refrigerator magnets to ice and snow series themed scarves, from Heilongjiang-themed paper lanterns to the frozen pears that make southern tourists feel novel...a variety of tourism products have become the highlight of the streets of Harbin, and they have also greatly boosted freight demand.
The local operations manager of Lalamove said that during the “2024 New Year Cargo Festival”, the volume of local freight orders in Harbin increased by 113% year-on-year.
Among them, in addition to the commonly seen decoration and building materials, grain, oil and food, and logistics and express delivery, small commodities related to tourism and cultural creativity have become newly popular categories.
In Sanya, which is 3,400 kilometers away from Harbin, the combination of "tourism + cultural creativity" is also very popular.
At the main venue of the previously opened 2024 Sanya New Year Goods Festival, the dazzling array of products and festive and lively New Year atmosphere attracted many local citizens and foreign tourists.
Data from the Lalamove platform shows that since November 2023, Sanya City’s average monthly completed orders have increased by 80% year-on-year.
Ms. Sun, the stall owner, is one of the beneficiaries of this New Year Festival.
She told reporters that she originally had a formal job, but after seeing many tourists coming to Sanya to celebrate the Spring Festival in recent years, she decided to work part-time selling New Year flowers.
"Daffodils, which symbolize good fortune, beauty and longevity, and peach blossoms, which symbolize wealth and treasure... These are common decorative plants during the Spring Festival. They not only add to the festive atmosphere, but are often given beautiful meanings." Ms. Sun He said that he has been using Lalamove to purchase and sell goods, and the phalaenopsis prepared this year were of different shapes and sold out quickly.
She said that without a convenient car-using platform, she might not be able to do such a part-time job, nor would she be able to participate in the 2024 Sanya New Year Goods Festival.
“I don’t have a truck or driver at home, and it’s hard to find a vehicle suitable for transporting flowers and potted plants outside.”
Changes in road freight demand can often reflect new consumption trends.
From the perspective of waybill volume, fresh fruits and vegetables, moving items, grain, oil and food, logistics and express delivery, and small commodities rank in the top five. Among them, fresh fruits and vegetables and grain, oil and food have increased the most compared to the previous year.
It is worth noting that the order volume of fresh fruits and vegetables after the new year has increased by 23% compared with the same period in 2023.
At the same time, statistics show that during the Spring Festival, the busiest transportation routes between cities in the province are more concentrated in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces.
The intra-provincial transportation volume between Xi'an and Xianyang in Shaanxi and Wuxi and Suzhou in Jiangsu is relatively large.
In terms of inter-provincial transportation, transportation is more frequent in the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Among them, Shanghai and Suzhou, Langfang and Beijing, Jiaxing and Shanghai rank in the top three.
"We are continuously observing and allocating the transportation capacity not only in tourist cities but also across the country. Even if the Cargo Festival is about to end, the platform will have dedicated personnel on duty during the Spring Festival to ensure logistics support on both sides of supply and demand." Lalamove The head of operations said so.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Xu Yajie Source: China Youth Daily