With the improvement of China’s urbanization level and upgrading of household consumption, the scale of commercial logistics growing rapidly, the potential of demands getting greater, service ability rising sharply, a trend of internationalization taking on, the industry transformation and upgrading being quickened up, the system of commercial logistics have been perfected gradually. In the past year, the Ministry of Commerce worked with relevant departments to strengthen the overall design and macro-direction on commercial logistics work in accordance with the requirements of the Seminar on Logistics Work in Some Cities held by the State Council and the spirit of the Mid- and Long-Term Planning on Logistics Development. With the joint efforts of the commerce authorities nationwide in a down-to-earth manner, phased achievements have been made in commercial logistics work.
I. Strengthening planing and guidance. The Implementation Opinions on Promoting Commercial Logistics Development was issued to put forth concrete tasks in six aspects of socialization, professionalization, standardization, informatization, systematization and internationalization so as to guide the local governments to conduct work. The national commercial logistics experience exchange meeting was held to conclude experience and discuss the work deployment; and the mid-term evaluation on the Specific Planning on Commercial Logistics Development was conducted to make studies and solve problems so as to supervise the work progress.
II. Highlighting the standardization of commercial logistics. The Ministry of Commerce established a work mechanism to promote the standardization of commercial logistics with the Standardization Administration of China, with a view to making it clear that efforts could be made to start from the pallet standardization and combine the planning guidance with the pilot promotion so as to lead the standardization work of the whole logistics system. The Opinions on Accelerating Commercial Logistics Standardization Work and Specific Planning on Commercial Logistics Standardization were jointly printed and distributed by the two departments to confirm the first batch of 40 key enterprises (platforms); the first batch of logistics standardization pilot cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were confirmed by the Ministry of Commerce, together with the Ministry of Finance and the Standardization Administration of China, and the Development Guidance on Recycled Use of Standard Pallets was printed and distributed to encourage subjects like the pallets rent and operation enterprises, commercial circulation enterprises, the third-party logistics enterprises, FMCG manufacturers and pallets manufacturers to play a part in popularizing the standardization of pallets and their recycled use. The local governments have positively responded and carried out the work creatively.
III. Focusing on common delivery among cities. Efforts were made to serve people’s livelihood, promote consumption, increase the efficiency and reduce the cost, advance common delivery pilots among cities and guide and supervise the work. The pilot cities have gradually established a three-level delivery network including logistics park distribution centers, common delivery centers, and end delivery stations. A batch of information service platforms for common delivery such as logistics in Tangshan and Taiyuan Express sprang up, and a model of common delivery relying on logistics parks (for example, the Zhengzhou Changtong Logistics), professional markets (for example, the Shijiazhuang Shuangge Group Cold Chain Distribution Center), commercial and trade chain enterprises (for example, the Jingdong Tangjiu Marketplace jointly established by Taiyuan Tangjiu Supermarket and Jingdong Group), a model of “order online and pick up in shop” relying on community stores, property companies and universities and colleges and an end model of common delivery by automated pick-up machines (for example, the Yungui in Nanjing) were also explored and popularized. Cities like Nanjing and Tangshan have listed their pilot work as part of the local governments’ “do practical things for the people” projects, and a logistics distribution system for the pilot cities has been established gradually with more scientific logistics layout, a coverage rate of common delivery being over 50% and the logistics cost of pilot enterprises reducing by more than five percentage points. Pilots of common delivery at the provincial level have been conducted voluntarily with unprecedentedly high enthusiasm, realizing the expected results of “spreading to other regions”, and becoming a new highlight of domestic trade and a real work focus.
IV. Implementing relevant policies on logistics. The Ministry of Commerce supported the Ministry of Transport to release the Notice on Strengthening Urban Distribution Transport and Vehicle Traffic Management to help solve problems concerning delivery vehicles’ inbound, stop, and loading and unloading. The Ministry of Commerce also joined efforts with the National Development and Reform Commission to issue the Three Year Action Plan for Logistics Development and the Opinions on China’s Logistics Credit System Construction, promoted the implementation of the Mid- and Long-Term Planning on Logistics Development, solved the problems of bad credit in the logistics industry and optimized the development environment of the logistics industry.
