Three important aspects of China's urban logistics development to create a new era of urban logistics

1. The general background of urban logistics development and reform in the new era

In recent years, China's economic development has entered a new era. The background of China's urban logistics development in the new era has undergone tremendous changes. I personally believe that the focus is reflected in the following three aspects.

First, the economic and social environment changes faced by urban logistics. The report of the 19th CPC National Congress announced that China's economy and society have entered a new era. The main feature of the new era is that the main contradictions in society have undergone major changes. In the past, our society was faced with the contradiction between the people's growing material and cultural needs and the backward social production. In the new era, we have shifted from seeking food and clothing to seeking environmental protection, from seeking survival to seeking ecology, and from the stage of high-speed growth to the stage of high-quality development. The main contradiction has changed to the contradiction between the people's growing needs for a better life and the unbalanced and inadequate development.

With the changes in the main economic and social contradictions in the new era, the economic and social environment facing China's urban logistics will inevitably undergo major changes under the background of the new era. From reducing costs and increasing efficiency to improving quality and efficiency, from extensive development to high-quality development, from seeking quantity growth to developing green logistics, it reflects that the development of urban logistics has higher and higher requirements for the quality of logistics services, faster and faster requirements for logistics timeliness, and higher and higher requirements for the sharing and utilization of logistics resources. The emergence of the "lazy economy" phenomenon has created more and more demands on the last mile of urban logistics distribution. The economic and social environment facing the development of urban logistics has undergone major changes.

Second, the economic and social infrastructure of the new era has undergone major changes. The first is that the Internet has become social infrastructure. The Internet used to be a technical means of information interconnection. With the integration of business flow and information flow, the Internet has developed into a sales Internet, bringing about e-commerce changes in the commercial circulation industry; with the rapid development of e-commerce and the application of Internet of Things technology, the Internet has been pushed from the sky network to the ground network, and information flow, business flow and logistics have begun to merge. The Internet and logistics have become infrastructure.

The Internet has become an infrastructure, which has overturned the traditional concept that infrastructure is all hardware. It has produced a transformation of intelligent infrastructure that integrates virtual and real, and has promoted the reconstruction of the economy and society on the new infrastructure. For example, the reconstruction of retail on the new infrastructure has promoted the development of new retail; the reconstruction of manufacturing on the new infrastructure has promoted the development of new manufacturing characterized by industrial Internet and intelligent manufacturing; the reconstruction of logistics on the new infrastructure has promoted the development of new logistics.

New logistics is interconnected logistics, and the logistics network is also an interconnected economic and social infrastructure network. The development of new logistics has made the logistics industry a basic, strategic, and leading industry that supports the development of the national economy, an indispensable force in promoting high-quality economic development, and an infrastructure for economic and social development. This important conceptual change is also a new environment for the development of urban logistics. The changes in infrastructure that integrates soft and hard will inevitably bring disruptive changes to the development of urban logistics.

Third, the logistics technology of the new era presents a systematic change. With the application of new technologies such as the Internet, mobile Internet, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence in the logistics industry, machine intelligence has been rapidly developed. The perception system of machine intelligence far exceeds human perception in many aspects and can perceive information thousands of kilometers away; the information transmission system of machine intelligence can be spread throughout the whole society with the help of Internet and Internet of Things technology; the automated execution capability of machine intelligence also far exceeds the scope of human capabilities in many aspects; machine intelligence is group intelligence, the whole system is interconnected, and it integrates the "logistics brain" of big data, cloud computing, and machine learning, and its computing and storage capabilities also exceed those of humans. We call the technical system formed by the integration of big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, blockchain, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence and other technologies a cyber-physical system (CPS). The cyber-physical system is an intelligent system that interconnects the material world and integrates the virtual and the real. The changes in this technical system will have a great impact on the development of urban logistics and is comprehensively promoting the development and innovation of China's urban logistics.

Under the background of urban logistics development in the new era, the development and reform of urban logistics in China are mainly reflected in the main aspects of standardization, intelligence, sharing, and greening. Standardization promotes the high-quality development of urban logistics, making urban logistics distribution services "warm"; greening promotes the green development of urban logistics, making urban logistics distribution "colorful"; intelligence makes the logistics system awaken to life, making urban logistics distribution services "alive"; shared logistics improves the resource utilization rate of urban logistics, and promotes the comprehensive innovation and development of urban logistics under the constraints of limited resource bottlenecks.

2. Development Path and Trend of Urban Logistics Standardization in China

Logistics standardization is a large system. The common characteristics of logistics operations can be summarized in five words, which are called the "five-word formula" of logistics, namely: division, combination, movement, transportation, and storage. The most attractive thing about modern logistics is how to divide, how to merge, and how to move, followed by traditional transportation and storage. In order to better divide, better combine, and better move, we first need to standardize and standardize the "objects" of logistics operations, which is the starting point of the operation of the logistics system. Starting from this point, starting with the standardization of the "objects" of logistics is the main path for the Ministry of Commerce to promote the standardization of trade logistics. Among them, pallets are the most important operating units, transportation units, and storage units in the logistics system. Starting with standard pallets, developing unitized logistics, and driving the coordination and standardization of the size modulus of upstream and downstream technical equipment, logistics facilities, and freight equipment in logistics is the main path for the Ministry of Commerce to promote the standardization of trade logistics, and it is also an important measure to promote the standardization of urban logistics and improve the efficiency of urban logistics distribution.

In recent years, under the comprehensive promotion of the Ministry of Commerce and other departments, not only has the proportion of standard pallets increased significantly across the country, but the upstream and downstream logistics system standards of many commercial logistics companies have begun to connect and unify, which has also led to the improvement of product packaging modules of some manufacturing companies to adapt to the transportation, storage and handling of logistics pallets. The development of commercial logistics standardization has promoted the connection and coordination between the industry standards of postal departments and pallet standards; promoted the revision of the national standards for the internal and external dimensions of transport vehicles; promoted the coordination and unification of the standard dimensions of China's land transport containers and pallet transportation standards; promoted the development of unitized logistics and logistics standardization of the railway system; and so on.

Specifically, the development of commercial logistics standardization in recent years has the following characteristics:

First, from the perspective of standardization of "objects": pallet standardization has been deeply rooted in people's hearts. The Ministry of Commerce and 10 departments have jointly issued the document "Promoting Standard Pallets to Develop Unitized Logistics". Various logistics policy documents issued by various national departments have also put forward relevant requirements for pallet standards and unitized logistics development. Driven by national policies, the majority of logistics companies have realized the importance of pallet standardization and have begun to spontaneously promote pallet standardization.

The tremendous progress in promoting pallet standardization has brought huge development opportunities to pallet rental companies. The total number of standard pallets used for rental by China Merchants Loscam has exceeded 10 million pieces. Small and medium-sized pallet rental companies in various regions have also been established to provide standard pallet rental services based in the local market.

In addition, standardized logistics turnover boxes (baskets) and other unitized carriers have also achieved great development in the market. Wholesale and retail companies in various places of fresh fruits and vegetables have greatly improved logistics efficiency and reduced the loss of fresh fruits and vegetables by leasing logistics turnover baskets; many manufacturing companies use recycled and shared standardized turnover boxes, which not only improves logistics and supply chain efficiency, but also reduces logistics costs.

Second, from the perspective of "flow" standardization: pallet transportation has been recognized by many companies. The circulation and sharing of standard pallets has promoted pallet-based ordering, pallet-based delivery, and free inspection of goods during delivery, which has promoted the smooth interconnection and seamless connection of logistics processes. The use of logistics units as traceability units has also promoted the interconnection of logistics information and promoted the development of smart logistics .

Third, from the perspective of "chain" standardization: "chain" standardization is the core content of supply chain system construction. In the past two years, the Ministry of Commerce has vigorously promoted the unification and standardization of logistics coding through pilot demonstrations of supply chain system construction. By adopting the GS1 coding standard and assigning codes to logistics standard units, it is equivalent to setting up a unified ID card for logistics units, thereby unifying the item coding of each link in logistics and solving the "million-code galloping" phenomenon of inconsistent item coding in the past. On the basis of unified coding, based on standard logistics units, logistics units become logistics information units, measurement units, ordering units, and operation units, thus realizing the integration and efficient collaboration of the four flows of the upstream and downstream of the supply chain.

In general, the importance of standardization in the field of urban distribution has been recognized by enterprises, and great progress has been made under the promotion of the state. However, we must recognize the complexity of China's urban logistics distribution system, and there are still many problems in the development of logistics standardization. Especially in the field of traditional commercial logistics and distribution, the current orders for goods delivery are chaotic, and it is necessary to promote the standardization and electronicization of logistics documents as soon as possible, promote the standardization of urban logistics documents throughout the entire chain, and promote the data circulation and system docking of logistics and supply chain information systems, so as to lay the foundation for the establishment of a smart and efficient collaborative digital supply chain.

The main body of logistics standardization is the enterprise. The key to promoting the development of logistics standardization is the enterprise, the application is the enterprise, the innovation is the enterprise, and the benefit is still the enterprise. In the field of urban logistics, enterprises have already seen a wave of innovation in promoting logistics standardization, and many innovative models based on logistics standardization have emerged, such as fixed-point flight transportation, small container freight, and full pallet inspection-free delivery.

3. Trends in the development and transformation of smart urban logistics in China

From the perspectives of smart logistics thinking system, information transmission system, and execution system, the development and transformation of urban smart logistics has the following trends:

First, the city's smart logistics information transmission system is currently in the Internet + direction, and is developing towards the Internet + Internet of Things. Cities are the fastest-growing field of "Internet +", with complete infrastructure and convenient information connectivity, laying a good foundation for the development of urban logistics and distribution. In the field of urban logistics and distribution, e-commerce and express logistics were the first to apply Internet of Things technology to track and trace express parcels, and then extended to the transparent management of the entire system logistics, realizing full-link information interoperability. In the field of traditional urban distribution, the online and offline information connection starts with the information interoperability of vehicle and cargo matching, and gradually develops towards the deep connection direction of interconnection with warehousing systems, store systems, and brand vendors. Focusing on the consumption scenarios of to B and to C, logistics is the fulfillment channel for online transactions. The coordination and synergy between B2B distribution and B/C2C distribution are gradually strengthened, jointly promoting rapid response to consumer orders.

Second, the smart thinking system of urban logistics (logistics brain) is in the digital stage and is developing towards program control (software-defined logistics). At present, e-commerce logistics and express delivery companies are developing the fastest in digitalization. By directly connecting to the big data of e-commerce platforms, they vigorously promote the standardized electronic waybills of logistics distribution, realize one-order-to-the-end, realize the digitalization of the entire logistics distribution chain, and accumulate a huge amount of smart logistics data resources, which has the conditions for the development of smart city distribution;

In the field of traditional store-oriented urban distribution, advanced commercial circulation enterprises and logistics companies have basically achieved digital development; in the field of traditional urban distribution third-party logistics, many innovative companies and innovative models have emerged in recent years; such as Manbang Group's vehicle-cargo matching, Yunniao Distribution's intelligent shared distribution, Weige City Distribution's Sky Dome system, etc., are also promoting the innovative development of smart urban distribution.

Third, the smart execution system of urban logistics is in the stage of mechanization and automation, and is developing towards unmanned and flexible automation. The automation of e-commerce logistics systems is developing fastest, and advanced logistics distribution centers have initially achieved flexible automation and unmanned operations; large logistics centers of advanced large chain retail companies have also achieved automation; traditional logistics distribution companies are currently not developing fast, and most of them are in the stage of mechanization development. Many logistics operations are still in the original manual handling stage, and the development is very unbalanced.

In fact, logistics mechanization and automation technology appeared decades ago, and was mainly used in the field of advanced manufacturing logistics. In recent years, the development of logistics automation in the field of urban distribution has been closely related to the development of e-commerce. At present, logistics automation technology is different from traditional logistics automation. Now e-commerce and logistics field logistics automation technology equipment can be networked and interconnected.

The urban distribution reform driven by smart logistics is mainly reflected in shared logistics, logistics first, and instant delivery. The details are as follows:

First, smart logistics promotes the development of shared logistics. Shared logistics in urban distribution mainly refers to the comprehensive sharing of logistics resources across industries, enterprises, competitors and regions, thereby improving the efficiency of the logistics system, reducing logistics costs and promoting the transformation of the logistics system. The logistics resources that can be shared mainly include logistics information resources, logistics technology and equipment resources, storage facility resources, terminal distribution resources, logistics human resources, etc.

Smart logistics makes the information of logistics resources more transparent, allows idle logistics resources to be shared and utilized, and promotes the innovation of many shared logistics models. For example, urban logistics joint distribution is an innovative model for sharing logistics distribution resources, shared cloud warehouse is an innovative model for urban distribution companies to share storage facilities, smart express cabinets are an innovative model for sharing urban terminal distribution facilities, logistics crowdsourcing is an innovative model for sharing logistics human resources, and the circulation and sharing of pallets and turnover boxes is an innovative model for upstream and downstream distribution companies to share logistics unitized vehicles, etc.

2. Smart logistics promotes logistics first. In recent years, almost all e-commerce logistics systems have been doing forward warehouses. The principle is to use big data analysis and prediction to establish digital routing and digital warehouse division, and to pre-place goods in the warehouse closest to the customer in advance, so as to achieve rapid response of logistics distribution and greatly improve logistics efficiency. The forward warehouse brings a lot of changes. It needs accurate sales forecasts, and requires the manufacturer's inventory, supplier's inventory, dealer's inventory, and merchant's inventory to realize data warehouse division and distributed linkage control. Distributed inventory management and control has very high requirements for big data prediction and analysis, and optimization and operational calculations are also very complex.

3. Smart logistics promotes the transformation of instant logistics. Instant logistics is the most traditional point-to-point logistics service. Why is instant logistics developing so fast in urban logistics distribution? Mainly because with the development of smart logistics technology, the intelligent scheduling of the instant logistics system has been realized, allowing the instant logistics scheduling system to face huge orders, numerous riders, complex routes, and precise requirements of instant delivery. It can respond intelligently in real time, locate the nearest rider, optimize the optimal route, and calculate the most accurate delivery time to meet customers' instant delivery needs. In addition, instant logistics can connect upstream from the end of the store to optimize the supply chain of store circulation services; connect with new retail to extend new retail logistics distribution services to the end of consumers; establish links between stores to realize the transfer of goods between stores and promote changes in the logistics supply chain system.

IV. Trends in the green development of urban logistics in China

Green development is a way of economic growth and social development with low-carbon, high-efficiency and sustainable development as its goal. China's rapid economic development over the past few decades has attracted worldwide attention, but it has also brought about serious environmental pollution problems. It is imperative to transform the economic development model, save resources and protect the environment, and achieve green and sustainable development. Cities are the areas with the most complex logistics operations, the most crowded roads, and the most concentrated populations. They have the highest requirements for the green development of logistics. At the same time, due to the fragmentation of demand at the end of urban logistics, the packages delivered to the end of logistics are the most scattered. Faced with small, scattered and chaotic logistics demands, it is difficult to achieve intensive logistics distribution, making it difficult for delivery vehicles in cities to be fully loaded, and vehicles are very serious about empty driving. It is most necessary to promote green development. In addition, most of the orders for e-commerce logistics distribution are also concentrated in urban areas, and most of the packaging waste of e-commerce logistics packages is also generated in urban areas. How to reduce the packaging waste of e-commerce logistics is also an important issue facing the green development of urban logistics.

At present, the green development of China's urban logistics is mainly reflected in the following areas:

The first is the green certification of logistics and warehousing facilities. The China Association of Warehousing and Distribution has been promoting the implementation of green logistics. In terms of the green development of urban distribution and warehousing facilities, the China Association of Warehousing and Distribution has promoted the certification of green warehouses by formulating green warehouse standards, and has used standardization as a starting point to promote the implementation of green warehousing facility solutions. On May 1, 2017, the Ministry of Commerce issued the standard "Green Warehouse Requirements and Evaluation" and officially implemented it. Over the past year, with the active support of enterprises, dozens of warehouses of advanced enterprises such as JD.com, Suning, Yupei, Sinotrans, Yuzhen Warehousing, Wanwei Warehousing, and Wandong Warehousing have passed the evaluation and certification of green warehouses and obtained the star certification certificate of China's green warehouses. It is understood that the common characteristics of these warehouses are reasonable site selection, scientific planning, moderately advanced design, high land utilization rate, and obvious measures in energy saving, water saving, and material saving, which can effectively save resources, reduce energy consumption, reduce pollution emissions, and improve logistics efficiency.

Second, the application of green technology equipment in urban logistics. In the field of urban distribution, the most important green logistics equipment is new energy vehicles. In recent years, under the guidance of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Transport and other departments, many cities have introduced measures such as giving priority to new energy vehicles entering the city, promoting the rapid development of new energy vehicles in the field of urban distribution.

In terms of the application of other green logistics technology and equipment, the China Association of Warehousing and Distribution has actively promoted the connection between the "Green Procurement Guide" issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other ministries and commissions and the "Recommended Catalog of China's Green Logistics Technology and Equipment", and has issued two batches of the "Recommended Catalog of China's Green Logistics Technology and Equipment". By connecting with the "Recommended Catalog of China's Green Logistics Technology and Equipment", we will encourage enterprises to actively purchase and apply green logistics technology and equipment, so that the greening of logistics technology and equipment can be implemented.

The third is the green development of logistics packaging for urban distribution. The volume of express parcels from China's e-commerce companies is very large, exceeding 50 billion pieces, which has become a serious social problem. The promotion of green packaging is urgent and has attracted the attention of the whole society.

At present, the basic principles for promoting green packaging have formed a social consensus, namely: first, implement packaging reduction. If it is reduced, there will be no consumption and no packaging waste will be generated, which is the greenest. Secondly, for the parts that cannot be reduced, priority should be given to promoting the recycling of packaging materials. Many urban distribution companies are actively exploring measures to recycle packaging materials, such as JD.com, Suning, Cainiao and other companies. However, the number of recycled packaging is very small at present, and the recycling system for packaging materials in the whole society has not yet been formed. The recycling cost of packaging materials is high, and recycling is inconvenient, making it difficult to promote it comprehensively. The third is that packaging materials that cannot be recycled should be recycled. That is, packaging waste can be recycled and reused. In terms of packaging recycling, China is at the forefront of the world, with a large army of garbage recycling in cities. Various types of waste such as cartons have been recycled and reused through widespread garbage collection and classification.

V. Conclusion

In short, China's urban distribution market has huge demand and broad space for growth and development. In the context of the new era, China's urban distribution field is developing in the direction of standardization, intelligence and greening, and many innovative models have emerged, some unicorn companies have appeared, and they have begun to attract the attention of the capital market. However, many innovative and exploratory urban distribution companies are still small in scale, and there are no leading large companies. Most companies are in the process of innovation and exploration, facing huge growth space and good development opportunities.