For China's logistics industry, 2018 has a different significance: this is a year of cost reduction and efficiency increase, technological innovation, and butterfly breakthroughs, a year of continuous expansion of the traditional logistics industry to logistics finance, supply chain finance and other fields, and a year of continuous integration of technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and informatization with logistics.
China has become the world's largest logistics market, and the growth rate of China's logistics industry in 2018 is basically the same as the growth rate of China's GDP. According to the statistics of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, the total logistics of the whole society in January ~ September 2018 reached 204.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%, while China's GDP increased by 6.5% in the same period。
From the perspective of the whole year, the growth rate of China's total social logistics can be maintained at more than 6.5% in 2018. Driven by the development dividend of e-commerce, China's express delivery has officially entered a new era of 1 billion parcels in 1 day, and the efficiency of logistics enterprises has been significantly improved。
Double 11's logistics order volume exceeded the 1 billion mark on the same day, opening a new era of global logistics. Logistics enterprises always regard improving logistics timeliness as the most important competitive advantage. Although the order volume of more than 1 billion parcels is a great test of logistics and distribution quality and timeliness, compared with the "burst" news that came out from time to time during the "Double 11" period in previous years, "minute-level delivery" has gradually become the norm, and same-day delivery services have covered more countries and regions。
In the past 2018, national policies continued to guide the development of the logistics industry, and logistics regulations continued to improve. It clarifies the overall goals for the development of the aviation logistics industry in the two stages of the "13th Five-Year Plan" and 2025, and specifically expounds the policies and measures to promote the development of the air logistics industry from nine aspects. At the same time, in order to improve the development environment of vehicle-free carriers, the Ministry of Transport also issued a notice on further promoting the pilot work of vehicle-free carriers; In order to continue to promote the healthy development of the express delivery industry, China's first administrative law specifically for the express delivery industry In order to further promote logistics cost reduction and efficiency, the state has also introduced a series of tax reduction policies。
In order to meet the needs of mid-to-high-end express delivery services and accelerate the expansion of overseas markets, logistics enterprises are increasingly recognizing their own airlines as a key factor in improving efficiency and enhancing competitiveness. Many logistics enterprises have their own aviation aircraft; This means that drone logistics distribution has entered the stage of legal operation. If there is no own airline, cargo charter or sparing no effort to seek air capacity cooperation becomes the choice of other logistics companies。
Of course, enhancing the competitiveness of logistics enterprises is inseparable from technological upgrading. The first is to build a big data platform. The super big data joint venture will build an open and win-win platform and promote the establishment of an efficient and collaborative modern supply chain system. Ecosystem-based supply chain cooperation is a development trend in the future. For traditional manufacturing, trading and logistics companies, this alliance can be seen as a differentiating breakthrough in the digital supply chain. Second, the Internet of Things has become an industry consensus. This means that millions of cameras in various logistics stations across the country will be upgraded from simple monitoring and backtracking facilities to intelligent perception devices, opening the "logistics sky eye" and realizing intelligent management of the station. The Internet of Things is no less than an energy revolution from coal to electricity, and only by embracing the Internet of Things can we use technology to drive logistics costs and increase efficiency. Third, UAV logistics applications have achieved a number of breakthroughs. It marks another step towards the civilian and commercialization of the UAV。
In 2019, the new trend of smart logistics technology upgrade, looking forward to 2019, smart logistics technology has once again become the main theme. From the perspective of market size and national policy guidance, there will not be much change in 2019, but due to the overall economic situation and the relatively conservative capital market, hard work and technological upgrading will become the only choice for logistics enterprises to stand out. So, what are the new trends in smart logistics technology upgrading in 2019?？
First, intelligent warehousing will continue to explode. The emerging logistics technology represented by intelligent warehousing has become one of the key technical equipment of China's intelligent manufacturing. Intelligent logistics equipment such as high-speed sorters, multi-layer shuttles, and high-density storage shuttle boards have realized accurate, flexible and efficient material distribution and unmanned intelligent warehousing. The explosive growth of orders brought about by the "big promotion" no longer triggers the "warehouse explosion effect" of warehousing, and the role of intelligent logistics behind it is obvious. Promote the upgrading of logistics equipment, warehousing is currently the largest demand and is expected to be the earliest to fully apply intelligent equipment。
Second, the commercial use of autonomous driving technology is coming, and the terminal distribution link may take the lead in achieving scale. From the latest logistics technology released by major enterprises in 2018, they have launched products based on autonomous driving technology, including driverless heavy trucks, unmanned delivery vehicles, takeaway robots, etc. Among them, the practical application of unmanned delivery vehicles and takeaway robots that focus on serving the "last mile" is relatively simple. With the blessing of high-definition maps, lidar, and 5G technology, its commercialization in the logistics field may be smoother in 2019。 Third, artificial intelligence image recognition technology will accelerate the introduction of logistics system. The massive growth of express parcels has put forward higher requirements for public safety and customs supervision. If the package is all checked manually, it is not feasible in terms of cost and efficiency. Using the latest artificial intelligence image recognition technology, preliminary screening and identification of all package X-ray or CT images will become a feasible solution. The large-scale introduction of image recognition technology into the logistics system is the development direction of industry technology worthy of our expectations。 · Fourth, drones have become a key breakthrough in smart logistics. For a long time, from regional tonnage transportation, the construction of regional air transportation networks to the normal use of terminal drone distribution, the application of drones in the logistics industry is very popular. This marks the transformation of the logistics industry from labor-intensive to technology-intensive. At present, the regulatory authorities intend to give logistics enterprises more space for drone pilots, but the fundamental purpose is to require a unified platform to achieve controllability and management. At the same time, the issuance of commercial licenses is more cautious. Its application in remote mountainous areas may mature within 2 years, while its application in urban areas still has a long way to go. Especially if large cargo drones of more than tonnage are put into commercial operation, airworthiness certification work should be carried out in accordance with relevant laws and regulations。
Although the foreseeable challenges in 2019 are more severe, the total logistics market is huge, and China's position as a logistics center has been continuously consolidated. The topic in front of logistics enterprises is actually very simple: in this era of great changes in intelligent technology, whether it can keep up with the pace of the times and use intelligent technology to upgrade traditional businesses as soon as possible, thereby greatly reducing costs and improving efficiency？