Part Two of the Series on Cost Reduction, Quality Improvement, and Efficiency Gains: Embracing New Logistics Models Through Digitalization

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The “Action Plan for Effectively Reducing Society-Wide Logistics Costs” proposes advancing the digital and intelligent transformation of logistics. It calls for enhancing the digitalization of both physical logistics infrastructure and logistics operations, while encouraging the development of new logistics models that integrate with platform economies, low‑altitude economies, autonomous driving, and other emerging sectors.

“The innovative smart logistics model” has been featured as a key case study in the first batch of exemplary practices for reducing costs, improving quality, and boosting efficiency in the transportation and logistics sectors, demonstrating that the application of smart logistics innovations has already yielded tangible results in enhancing logistics performance while cutting costs.
The smart platform gives rise to a variety of services. ”

“Before online freight platforms emerged, information asymmetry often made it difficult to find suitable loads, leaving us with no choice but to drive empty on the return trip,” said Master Wang, who has been in the road‑freight business in Jinan for many years, in an interview with a reporter from Modern Logistics News. “Once we deliver the cargo to its destination, the ideal scenario is, of course, to secure a load on the return leg as well—only then can our earnings increase and the operating costs associated with empty‑haul trips be reduced.”
As a quintessential example of the platform economy in the road freight sector, online freight platforms have transformed China’s long‑standing road transport market. The “small, scattered, and disorganized” nature of these entities plays a positive role in integrating resources and leveraging digital and intelligent technologies to reduce overall logistics costs.
China Storage Smart Logistics Technology Co., Ltd. with The inclusion of “Innovative New Models for Network Freight Transportation” underscores that the exploration of new, internet‑based approaches to transport and logistics has yielded tangible results and is now contributing to the development of the real economy. In an interview with a reporter from Modern Logistics News, Shen Anfeng, President of Sinotrans Zhiyun, stated: “Sinotrans Zhiyun has integrated a suite of cutting-edge technologies to innovatively establish three major digital platforms—the Intelligent Capacity Trading Platform, the Network Freight Platform, and the Digital Supply Chain Platform—thereby effectively driving a dual‑pronged improvement in both overall logistics efficiency and the quality of industry growth.”
The intelligent freight‑capacity trading platform leverages an advanced mathematical algorithm for smart matching to achieve precise alignment between cargo and transport capacity, helping shippers save time and reduce costs while eliminating intermediaries and boosting drivers’ earnings.
“Now I no longer have to worry about returning empty, nor do I have to agonize over whether to wait or not when there’s no suitable cargo. It’s faster to find loads, the rates are reasonable, and my income has increased significantly,” said Driver Wang after joining the Sinotrans Zhiyun platform.
Relying on “The Three Major Digital Platforms”: Zhongchu Zhiyun aggregates over… vehicles. 302 Ten thousand vehicles, ships 3 Ten thousand ships, opened up 5.6 Tens of thousands of city-level routes, creating nationwide coverage. 31 A provincial-level administrative region’s freight‑transport service platform, “Yunli Network.” Transportation modes have expanded from single‑mode road transport to multimodal intermodal transport.
Currently, AI Technology has become a key driver of innovation and transformation in the supply chain, advancing… AI Innovative applications across all logistics scenarios are effectively driving substantial improvements in both customer experience and operational efficiency. Zhongchu Zhiyun is transitioning from a trunk‑line road‑transport service provider to a comprehensive logistics solutions provider. AI The application of technology has become a strategic entry point for the logistics industry to cultivate new‑type productive forces, breaking down barriers to the flow of innovation inputs.
In recent years, Zhongchu Zhiyun has actively promoted the research and application of artificial intelligence in online freight transportation and smart supply chains, developing intelligent matching models, intelligent network‑routing algorithms, and AI‑powered customer service systems to enhance logistics operational efficiency and performance. Following a year of upgrades, the transaction success rate of its intelligent matching system has improved by… 10% , the adoption rate of smart multimodal transport solutions has increased. 9%。
Shen Anfeng stated that, in addition to continuing to refine its intelligent matching model, intelligent network‑routing model, and intelligent customer‑service system, Zhongchu Zhiyun will also prioritize optimizing cargo tracking and monitoring, risk management and forecasting, as well as data‑driven strategy formulation. The company will persistently explore and create new sources of value growth across key areas such as supply-chain security, flexibility, ecosystem collaboration, and cost efficiency.

Autonomous driving is leading trunk-line transportation.

Scheduling delivery times, stepping out on time, and receiving packages delivered by autonomous courier vehicles right at the dormitory entrance—this convenient model has already become a reality on many university campuses. Early explorations of autonomous driving in the logistics sector have begun with parcel sorting and last-mile delivery. Recently, KPMG China released its report, “China’s Leading Automotive Technology Enterprises.” 50 The report notes that a major recent trend in China’s automotive technology is the rising penetration of vehicle intelligence, with the commercialization of autonomous driving beginning to yield tangible results.
The pilot project for automated highway freight transport from Tianjin Port to Majuqiao Logistics Park is the country’s first commercial trial of vehicle‑road cooperative automated driving on intercity trunk‑line highways. The project is geared toward trunk‑line logistics transportation, and… On the route “Tianjin Port–Beijing–Tianjin–Tangshan Expressway–Ma Juqiao Logistics Park in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area,” truck platooning with cross‑regional autonomous driving has been successfully demonstrated, paving the way for a “smart freight corridor.” + The “autonomous‑driving capacity” business model gives rise to a new logistics paradigm integrated with autonomous driving, thereby enhancing the safety, efficiency, and cost‑effectiveness of long‑haul highway transportation.

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“In the realm of autonomous driving applications, we’ve observed particularly vigorous activity among companies in the freight‑logistics sector, especially in trunk‑line logistics. Autonomous trucks can cut labor costs, boost efficiency, and reduce accidents caused by factors such as driver fatigue in long‑haul transportation. Trunk‑line logistics is poised to become a ‘breakout’ use case for autonomous driving,” said Xu Kanling, KPMG’s China Automotive Industry Audit Managing Partner.
To facilitate the implementation of the project, China Merchants Group has taken the lead in establishing “Smart Highway and Vehicle‑Road Collaboration Chain‑Leader System”: In Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and other provinces and municipalities, departments of industry and information technology, transportation, and related agencies have collaborated to establish an integrated “government‑industry‑university‑research‑application” industrial ecosystem. They have formulated unified cross‑regional policies, standards, and regulations, accelerating the commercial deployment of autonomous trucks and platooning‑enabled logistics vehicles on highways, reducing the costs of testing autonomous driving in highway scenarios, and paving the way for the Beijing–Tianjin–Tangshan Expressway to become the nation’s first inter‑provincial smart connected‑vehicle test corridor.
The Beijing–Tianjin–Tanggu Expressway’s autonomous truck platooning initiative replaces fuel‑powered trucks with electric, self‑driving trucks. By offering diversified vehicle‑infrastructure cooperative services to these autonomous truck platoons, it establishes a business model centered on information service fees, tolls for autonomous trucks, and reservation‑based access fees. This model can reduce transportation costs by cutting driver wages and fuel expenses. Once deployed at scale, it is expected to lower operating costs by approximately… 15% , reducing labor costs for trunk-line transportation by approximately 50%。
Through R&D and demonstration investments, it has spurred the development of vehicle–infrastructure cooperation, autonomous driving, smart highways, and new‑energy vehicles, thereby establishing a robust and comprehensive autonomous‑driving industry chain. It has also pioneered new pathways for reducing costs, enhancing quality, and improving efficiency in transportation and logistics, providing an excellent platform for local economies to foster emerging industries.

The low-altitude economy is opening up new frontiers.

This year, the low-altitude economy was included in the Government Work Report for the first time. 2024 The year has also been dubbed the inaugural year of low-altitude economic development, with numerous localities establishing low-altitude economy industry funds totaling nearly RMB 100 billion. The Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform in All Respects and Advancing Chinese‑style Modernization lays out a systematic framework for “improving the institutional mechanisms that promote high‑quality economic development,” explicitly calling for “deepening reform of the integrated transportation system” and “developing general aviation and the low‑altitude economy.”
At present, China has nearly 30 Several provinces have included the development of the low-altitude economy in their local government work reports or introduced relevant policies, vying for a foothold on this “new track” of the drone industry.
According to statistics from the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau, 2023 This year, Shenzhen has launched new drone delivery routes. 77 items, with a total of routes opened 156 Article, the total flight hours of cargo drones have exceeded 60 Ten thousand flights. By 2025 In [year], Shenzhen plans to implement a grid-based deployment. 600 More than a number of low-altitude aircraft takeoff and landing platforms have been opened. 220 More than X drone routes have been launched within the city, and the number of enterprises on the blockchain has surpassed Y. 1700 Home, with output value exceeding 1000 The hundred-million-yuan threshold.

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Suzhou City is focusing on the industrial ecosystem, support systems, and application scenarios to foster clusters of the low‑altitude economy, advance the expanded use of drones in the low‑altitude domain, and promote deep integration between the transportation sector and primary, secondary, and tertiary industries—including industry, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, construction, power, and healthcare—thereby leveraging the diversified development of the low‑altitude economy to reduce costs and boost efficiency across the real economy.
According to available data, Suzhou has already signed agreements for low-altitude economy projects. 251 including sectors such as low-altitude manufacturing, low-altitude infrastructure, and low-altitude applications, and has signed agreements with industry funds related to the low-altitude economy, such as the Suzhou Oriental Low-Altitude Industry Investment Fund. 16 units, with a total scale exceeding 200 One hundred million yuan.
According to CCID Consulting 4 The “China Low-Altitude Economy Development Research Report” released in [month] ( 2024 )》 shows, 2023 In [year], the scale of China’s civilian drone industry reached [value]. 1174.3 hundred million yuan, up year-on-year 32%。2023 In [year], the scale of China’s low-altitude economy reached [amount]. 5059.5 hundred million yuan, with a growth rate of 33.8% Among them, low-altitude aircraft manufacturing and low-altitude operation services contribute the most, accounting for nearly 55% , the contributions generated by economic activities such as supply chain management, production services, consumption, and transportation approach 40%。
In applications such as express delivery, instant last-mile delivery, rural logistics, inter-island logistics, and cross-river logistics, drone-based mail delivery pilots (Jingang… —Shuangshan Island), enabling faster delivery of express parcels and mail to the island, promoting green logistics, and significantly improving delivery speed. 87% , reduced logistics costs 20% ; Establishing a drone delivery route (SF Express Wujiang Sorting Center – Soochow University Future Campus), reducing delivery time 77% , adhering to market orientation, we are expanding low-altitude logistics into everyday life scenarios.
“The low-altitude economy is a future‑oriented industry with tremendous potential, and drones will play an increasingly vital role in business operations, public services, and the promotion of industrial collaboration and economic development.” During this year’s local Two Sessions, Huang Wei, a member of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and General Manager of Chongqing Airport Group, told a reporter from Modern Logistics News that, according to estimates, for operational flight ranges… 500~800 km of the branch market, payload 2t Within this range, cargo drone delivery offers distinct advantages over ground transportation in terms of timeliness and cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the deployment and maintenance costs of a regional cargo‑drone network are significantly lower than those of road and rail systems operating on the same routes.
The “Action Plan for Effectively Reducing Society-Wide Logistics Costs” proposes fostering leading modern logistics enterprises and specialized, niche, and innovative firms, while launching initiatives to cultivate such industry leaders and fully leverage the role of private‑sector logistics companies in driving integrated innovation across supply and industrial chains. Meanwhile, Suzhou has established a Standardization Alliance for the Low-Altitude Economy, bringing together several pioneering low‑altitude economic industrial parks, innovation demonstration institutions, and leading enterprises in the sector, thereby building Suzhou’s competitive advantages in areas such as ecosystem development and value‑chain strengthening, standardization research, technological innovation, and talent cultivation.
Through By leveraging both “external attraction” and “internal cultivation,” we are establishing a nurturing system for leading enterprises and ecosystem‑driven “chain‑leader” firms, strengthening the full industrial and supply chain framework of the low‑altitude economy, and creating the conditions necessary to accelerate the development of industrial clusters.