In recent years, China's logistics and road transportation industry has shown a situation of "more vehicles but less cargo." How to solve the troubles of growth and the confusion of transformation is a common issue faced by the industry. Gao'an City, Jiangxi Province has a large transportation capacity and a large number of practitioners. The logistics and road transportation industry is its pillar industry. Facing challenges, Gao'an City actively guides affiliated enterprises to transform into physical logistics enterprises. On the one hand, it looks for better sources of goods externally. On the other hand, it introduces new driving forces internally and explores a path of higher-quality development.
Gao'an City, Jiangxi Province is one of the four major automobile transportation counties and cities in the country. It is known as "the capital of logistics and road transportation in China." It has more than 5,000 logistics and road transportation companies, 150,000 trucks in stock, a transportation capacity of 3.13 million tons, and an annual business volume of 120 billion yuan in the logistics and road transportation industry. There are 200,000 practitioners.
In recent years, the development of the logistics and road transportation industry has faced many changes. On the one hand, the homogenized competition in the national freight transportation industry is serious, and problems such as a single industrial structure and a low level of industry management have become increasingly prominent. On the other hand, due to the squeeze of large logistics enterprise platforms, small and medium-sized enterprises have less and less living space due to their lack of modern logistics management concepts, technical development levels, and product marketing capabilities. Facing multiple difficulties, how can the traditional "capital of logistics and road transportation" transform and upgrade and find a way out?
Transform to physical logistics.
"I spent more than 400,000 yuan on this Jiefang brand tractor. I made a down payment of 100,000 yuan and took out a loan of more than 300,000 yuan from the company." Chen Qizuo is a post-80s driver. Recently, he bought a new car on loan, and the affiliated company handled the relevant procedures for him.
In order to pay off the loan early, as soon as Chen Qizuo got the car, he couldn't wait to look for sources of goods. Ask acquaintances, make calls, and check the Internet. As long as it is calculated that there is money to be made, he will take on the job. Chen Qizuo said, "The market is not very good now. If we individual transporters don't work hard, we won't be able to pay off the loan on time."
In recent years, affected by factors such as shrinking demand, unbalanced supply, and weakened expectations, both the long-distance trunk line transportation market and the short-distance engineering transportation market have shown a downward trend.
Zhou Peng, the person in charge of Taoyuan Logistics, said, "Drivers having vehicles but no cargo makes it impossible for them to pay off loans on time. Affiliated companies have difficulties in operation and even face the risk of a broken capital chain. Our company has almost closed down twice."
Along with industry changes, the traditional affiliated model is unsustainable, and it is extremely urgent to explore a path of transformation and upgrading. In order to guide the healthy and orderly development of the automobile transportation industry, Gao'an City visits enterprises and drivers, goes deep into the front line to collect problems, find out the crux of the problem, and find a way out for industrial transformation, upgrading, and development.
In the view of local functional departments and logistics enterprises, transportation capacity is a prominent advantage of logistics and road transportation in Gao'an City. Grasping the key point of sources of goods and realizing the transformation from pure affiliated enterprises to physical logistics enterprises is the key for logistics and road transportation in Gao'an City to seek a breakthrough.
The transformation of automobile transportation enterprises to physical logistics requires solving the problem of sources of goods for drivers while accepting their affiliation. Gao'an City provides financing support through the "financial park credit link" to enterprises that have successfully transformed. It also gives a one-time reward of 100,000 yuan to enterprises that have obtained national 4A-level and 5A-level logistics qualifications, encouraging automobile transportation enterprises to accelerate transformation.
Jiangxi Yuewu Star Transportation Co., Ltd. has been established for more than 15 years and is affiliated with more than 800 vehicles. Before the transformation, 70% of the drivers could not pay off the loans on time. The amount of arrears reached a maximum of more than 60 million yuan. The company was once in a difficult situation.
With the help of favorable policies, Jiangxi Yuewu Star successfully transformed. According to Wu Jianjun, the person in charge of the company, after the transformation, they obtained 4 million yuan in financing support through the "financial park credit link" and formed a professional transportation team with more than 100 tractors. As business volume continues to increase, many drivers join the team with their vehicles, realizing that there is freight transportation and money to be made every day.
Since joining Jiangxi Yuewu Star Transportation Co., Ltd., driver Jin Xiaorong's transportation route is fixed, and he no longer has to run around looking for sources of goods. Not long ago, he drove a truck full of mushrooms from Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province and set off for Guangzhou City. After a 10-hour drive, the goods were safely delivered to the destination. After a short rest, he transported fruits from Guangzhou City to Nanchang City. This round trip took 2 days and he earned more than 2,000 yuan.
Chen Chuanqi, member of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Management Committee of the Freight Automobile Industry Base in Gao'an City, introduced that Taoyuan Logistics is a relatively successful case of transforming from pure affiliation to physical logistics. It obtained qualifications such as a national 4A-level logistics company earlier. At present, based on local sources of goods, it looks at sources of goods outside Jiangxi Province and even abroad.
Zhou Peng believes that only when the source of goods is stable and the value of goods is relatively high can it be called a good source of goods. He aims his cooperation at large and powerful enterprises and locks the category of sources of goods in products in the field of new energy. Thanks to the reputation accumulated by the enterprise over more than 10 years, they have successively successfully bid for logistics transportation projects of enterprises such as China Copper, China Aluminum, and Yuze New Energy. In 2023, the company's logistics business revenue reached 112 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.5%.
Hu Yanyun, secretary of the Party Committee of the Management Committee of the Freight Automobile Industry Base in Gao'an City, said that in the past, the main businesses of affiliated companies were handling certificates, loans, and insurance. After transforming to physical logistics, automobile transportation companies undertake specific freight transportation business. The core businesses become source of goods platforms, settlements, and the automotive aftermarket.
At present, more than 100 enterprises in Gao'an City have successfully transformed into physical logistics. The number of logistics enterprises above 4A level accounts for 40% of that in Jiangxi Province. While vigorously guiding local enterprises to transform to physical logistics, it has also introduced leading domestic enterprises such as SF Express, Yimidida, Zhongtong, Best Express, and Kuayue to settle down. The "catfish effect" is exerted to activate the market and force more local enterprises to transform and upgrade.
At the same time, Gao'an City has also started the construction of a warehousing and logistics industrial park covering an area of 1,600 mu. It actively promotes traditional automobile transportation enterprises to use their own transportation capacity advantages to expand businesses such as smart logistics, park warehousing, urban distribution, and less-than-truckload express delivery. Projects such as the smart logistics highway port invested by Guangyunxing (Jiangxi) Company and Zhengguangtong Technology Company with 1 billion yuan each are also about to be signed and settled in the Gao'an Warehousing and Logistics Industrial Park.