[Special Report] Where exactly lies the breakthrough for the high-quality development of multimodal transport? This new approach deserves close attention.

“The single‑document system” and the “single‑container system” are defining hallmarks and intrinsic features of the modern multimodal transport system, and they also represent an inevitable choice and an effective pathway for advancing the high‑quality development of multimodal transport.

To accelerate the deep integration and coordinated development of various modes of transport and to usher in a new phase of high-quality multimodal transport, this year… In August, the Ministry of Transport, in collaboration with multiple departments, issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the ‘Single‑Document’ and ‘Single‑Container’ Systems for Multimodal Transport” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”). The document focuses on soft constraints—such as standards and regulations—that have hindered the development of multimodal transport in China, and seeks to coordinate the efforts of all stakeholders to deepen the integration of various modes of transport, thereby better supporting the country’s drive to become a transportation powerhouse.

▍ Top-level strengthening and promotion Defining the Essential Requirements of Multimodal Transport Services  

The development of multimodal transport originated in container shipping. It is based on standardized transport units, leveraging the comparative advantages of various modes of transport to achieve seamless intermodal connectivity, efficient cargo flow, and rapid transshipment. This approach aims to enhance the organizational efficiency of intermodal operations, minimize transit delays, and realize cost reductions and productivity gains in management and operations.

China’s national standard “Terminology for Multimodal Transport of Goods” defines multimodal transport. The “single‑document system” is defined as a regime in which, throughout the entire multimodal transport process, all cargo transportation is handled solely on the basis of a single multimodal transport bill of lading. In Europe and North America, multimodal transport is defined as a mode of cargo transportation in which the entire journey is carried by a single, unchanging transport unit or road vehicle—such as a container or a semi‑trailer—and is executed through seamless, continuous intermodal transfers involving two or more modes of transport, without any handling of the cargo itself during mode changes.

As the above concepts illustrate, modern intermodal transport relies on standardized transport units such as containers to load cargo. The intermodal transport operator issues an intermodal bill of lading to the cargo‑owning enterprise or shipper and uses this document to facilitate the swift exchange of transport‑organization instructions and management‑coordination information across different modes of transport. By coordinating each link in the transportation chain and employing standardized transport units as the common object of carriage, it achieves efficient door‑to‑door movement of goods. When transferring cargo between different transport modes, efforts are made to minimize repeated handling, loading, unloading, and containerizing operations, thereby enhancing operational efficiency, reducing management and operating costs, and preventing incidents such as cargo safety risks and damage or discrepancies. For shippers or consignors, this truly enables the seamless movement of their goods. “One consignment, one invoice, one insurance policy, one settlement, and door-to-door delivery in a single container” can significantly enhance the operational efficiency and service quality of multimodal transport, comprehensively boosting its market competitiveness and improving the customer experience.

China attaches great importance to the innovative development of multimodal transport, In 2013, the Ministry of Transport issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of the Logistics Industry,” which for the first time explicitly called for actively advancing multimodal transport, accelerating the development of multimodal transport operators, and promoting seamless cargo‑transport integration and a single‑document system, thereby signaling the launch of innovative multimodal‑transport models based on the “single‑document” approach. In 2016, the Ministry of Transport, together with 17 other departments, jointly released the “Notice on Further Encouraging Multimodal Transport,” advocating that enterprises adopt service practices featuring end-to-end “one‑time entrustment,” a single transport document covering the entire journey, and consolidated settlement, thus further expanding both the scope and substance of the “single‑document” system. In December 2021, the General Office of the State Council formally promulgated the “Work Plan for Promoting Multimodal Transport and Optimizing the Transport Structure (2021–2025),” emphasizing the need to align transport‑service regulations, explore the use of container‑based multimodal transport bills of lading, and advance the digitalization of various documents. It also calls for exploring the property‑rights‑based application of international railway‑intermodal transport bills of lading and multimodal transport documents, steadily broadening their deployment in Belt and Road‑related transport and trade, thereby providing clear guidance for China’s efforts in the new era to strengthen soft‑power infrastructure—such as comprehensive transport systems and multimodal‑transport regulatory frameworks—and laying a solid policy and institutional foundation for accelerating the adoption of multimodal‑transport “single‑document” and “single‑container” systems.

▍ Multimodal transport development has entered a phase of deepening. The challenge cannot be ignored.

Since the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan, the Ministry of Transport has coordinated with various stakeholders to vigorously promote innovative development in multimodal transport, resulting in a substantial increase in both the market size and service quality of this sector. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China’s container intermodal rail–sea transport volume recorded an average annual growth rate of 26.9%, maintaining a robust pace of expansion.

In 2021, the national port container intermodal transport volume exceeded 7.5 million TEUs; in 2022, it reached 8.747 million TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 16%, and 2.5 times the level of 2017. The share of such intermodal transport in total port container throughput rose from 1.47% to 3.2%. Meanwhile, China–Europe Railway Express has experienced rapid growth: over the past decade since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, it has cumulatively operated 77,000 services, transporting 7.31 million TEUs with a cargo value exceeding US$340 billion, connecting 217 cities across 25 European countries. It has become a key force in deepening international cooperation under the Belt and Road framework, facilitating global trade, mitigating external shocks such as the COVID‑19 pandemic, and ensuring the security and stability of industrial and supply chains.

Meanwhile, the multimodal transport demonstration projects have been steadily advanced; to date, nationwide initiatives have been launched. A total of 116 national multimodal transport demonstration projects have been launched across four batches. Provinces and municipalities including Shandong, Liaoning, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guangdong, Henan, and Shanxi have actively guided and supported enterprises in piloting the “single‑document” system for multimodal transport, continuously innovating service models and management approaches, accelerating the integration and optimization of market resources across all links of intermodal logistics, and striving to enhance the organizational efficiency and service quality of multimodal transport. Cities such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, and Yiwu, leveraging the development of China–Europe Railway Express aggregation hubs and related platforms, have proactively explored new international land‑transport trade rules based on railway waybills and multimodal transport bills of lading, while also pioneering supply‑chain finance and other services. These efforts have yielded valuable experience and delivered significant economic and social benefits.

On the other hand, multimodal transport in China has entered a critical phase of development and reform, currently undergoing structural adjustment, a shift in modes, and innovative operational models. The existing legal and regulatory framework, policy standards, management mechanisms, and operating practices still impose numerous constraints on the further advancement of multimodal transport. The underlying issues in the development of the “single‑document system” and the “single‑container system” are prominently manifested in the following aspects.

First, the level of containerization and standardization in transportation remains low. At the heart of building a modern multimodal transport system is the standardization of cargo‑carrying units, which facilitates their efficient movement and rapid transshipment across different modes of transport. Over the course of independent development, China’s various transport modes have gradually established their own systems for providing transport equipment; however, the overall containerization rate remains modest, and the general application of containers exhibits… Characterized by “high in coastal areas, low in inland regions” and “strong in foreign trade, weak in domestic trade.” In China, railway container transport has long accounted for only 3% to 5% of the national total, while containers make up roughly 21% of port throughput. The widespread adoption of standardized container types suitable for domestic freight remains slow, making it difficult to achieve seamless intermodal “one‑container‑to‑destination” transport.

Second, the challenges of information interconnectivity and data sharing remain fundamentally unresolved. The essence of multimodal transport development lies in achieving seamless interconnection and extensive sharing of upstream and downstream information across the transportation and logistics chains, thereby integrating operational and transport networks through an information chain and fostering coordinated collaboration among all stakeholders. For a long time, information systems among various modes—rail, air, and water—have operated relatively independently, and effective mechanisms for data exchange and sharing, as well as sufficient incentives for their adoption, have been lacking among market participants. Moreover, China’s regulatory frameworks governing digital exchange, data security, and big‑data product trading remain incomplete, objectively hindering information flow and data transactions among market players and making it difficult to meet the demands of multimodal transport. The development of the “single‑document” model calls for information interconnectivity, transparent management, and seamless integration between online and offline operations.

Third, the development of relevant laws and regulations lags behind. At present, at the national level, there is still a lack of legislative support for integrated transport and multimodal transport. Existing laws and regulations, such as the Maritime Law and the Contract Law, are inadequate to meet the demands of market development in areas like sea–rail, road–rail, land–air, and cross-border international intermodal transport. Moreover, there is no unified set of requirements covering key aspects such as business‑specific scenarios, the delineation of responsibilities among stakeholders, compensation provisions, financial and insurance arrangements, cargo stowage and securing, goods delivery, and safety management. As a result, end-to-end multimodal transport faces numerous safety concerns and potential risks, thereby hindering the growth and expansion of the multimodal transport market.

Fourth, there is a lack of multimodal transport operators who assume full‑chain responsibility. Multimodal transport operators are the key players in the multimodal transport market; they issue multimodal bills of lading to shippers or consignors and bear primary liability for end‑to‑end service performance and risk compensation. In China, many enterprises engaged in transportation and third‑party logistics tend to specialize in a single mode—road, rail, sea, or air—resulting in an absence of cross‑modal operators capable of managing the entire transport chain across multiple modes. Consequently, it is difficult to provide customers with efficient, safe, and convenient end‑to‑end multimodal transport services, thereby constraining the development of multimodal transport. Development of the “single‑document system” and the “single‑container system.”

▍ Accelerate model innovation Explore the critical path

“The single‑document system” and the “single‑container system” are defining hallmarks and intrinsic features of the modern multimodal transport system, and they also represent an inevitable choice and an effective pathway for advancing the high‑quality development of multimodal transport.

The “Opinions” jointly formulated and issued by the Ministry of Transport and several other departments have set the direction for the innovative development of multimodal transport in the period ahead and laid out a systematic plan. They explicitly propose to, through… With sustained efforts over the past three to five years, the regulatory framework for multimodal transport—featuring single‑document and single‑container systems—has been further refined; information and data are being increasingly opened up and shared; and leading, backbone enterprises continue to grow stronger, thereby further driving quality improvement, efficiency gains, and upgrading in the transport and logistics sectors.

To achieve a system in which the shipper entrusts the service once, settles the charges once, insures the goods once, and the multimodal transport operator assumes full responsibility throughout the entire journey. The “single‑bill” service model and the “one‑container‑to‑destination” model—characterized by no container returns, no container openings, and end‑to‑end container use—underpin the vision of seamless logistics. To realize this vision, it is essential to uphold close collaboration between a proactive government and an efficient market, fully harness the initiative, innovation, and agency of market entities, continuously improve the institutional framework, and invigorate market dynamism. Going forward, priority should be given to advancing the following initiatives.

First, we will vigorously enhance the level of containerization in China’s transportation sector. “The container has changed the world” remains as relevant as ever. We must focus on elevating the level of container utilization across China’s road, rail, and port‑waterway sectors, accelerate the formulation of policies that encourage and support the development of container transport, and guide the market to vigorously advance container leasing, circular sharing, platform‑based management, and intelligent tracking. At the same time, we should expedite the establishment and refinement of a nationwide, shared, and interoperable container service center, thereby comprehensively enhancing both the efficiency and the governance of container operations. On the other hand, it is imperative to promptly develop standards and service frameworks for domestic‑trade containers—suitable for circulation and reuse across various modes of transport—and to ensure their seamless integration and effective coordination with the existing system governing international‑trade containers.

Second, we will center on document digitization to drive the digital transformation and information interconnectivity of the transportation chain. At present, China’s logistics industry is at a golden juncture for digital upgrading and smart‑technology empowerment. It is imperative to leverage our strengths in the internet, the Internet of Things, mobile communications, big data, and artificial intelligence, accelerate the digital transformation of all links and elements across the transport and logistics sectors, and shift offline services to online and cloud‑based platforms. This is essential for achieving the digitalization of multimodal transport and… The major foundational project of the “single‑document system” requires sustained, long‑term efforts and persistent dedication. It is essential to encourage and support railways, ports, shipping companies, freight forwarders, and other stakeholders to strengthen alliance‑based cooperation, using equity capital as a binding link to jointly establish big‑data platform enterprises. These entities should accelerate the integration of their respective information systems and the opening up of data, aligning business chains with value chains and leveraging value chains to seamlessly connect data networks. Furthermore, supply‑chain leading enterprises and key logistics players should be encouraged to take the lead in accelerating the integrated application of technologies such as blockchain and cybersecurity within the multimodal transport sector, promoting paperless and digital documentation, interconnecting all links and participants across the transport chain, and achieving interoperability and information sharing.

Third, we will accelerate the development of multimodal transport operators capable of coordinating across different modes of transport. The Opinions emphasize advancing the transformation of railway, waterway, aviation, and large road‑transport enterprises into multimodal transport operators, thereby enhancing their end-to-end organizational and service capabilities. Both domestic and international experience demonstrate that it is essential to fully leverage the leading roles of dominant enterprises in each transport sector, capitalizing on their strong financial resources, well‑developed networks, sophisticated freight‑organization systems, and robust safety‑management and risk‑resilience capacities, to support cross‑modal operations and the restructuring of transport chains. Efforts should focus on building core competencies in freight‑organization, route‑optimization, end-to-end control, risk identification, and insurance‑claim settlement, so as to swiftly cultivate enterprises’ competitive edge. Large industry leaders in railways, ports, shipping, and air‑cargo logistics are encouraged to forge strategic partnerships, pursue cross‑sector investments, and undertake mergers and reorganizations, continuously expanding their service portfolios and business boundaries to take the lead in scaling up and strengthening their positions. Furthermore, platform‑based and network‑oriented enterprises—such as online freight‑forwarding and major freight‑logistics providers—are urged to capitalize on their lightweight asset structures, advanced technologies, and strong management capabilities, intensifying efforts to match supply with demand, optimize vehicle‑freight pairings, streamline processes, and strengthen operational oversight, thereby steadily enhancing the market competitiveness of multimodal transport.

Fourth, leverage the property‑right‑based documentation of international multimodal transport as a lever to reshape the new rules of international trade. At present, cities such as Chongqing, Chengdu, and Zhengzhou are piloting initiatives based on the China–Europe Railway Express. The dual‑regulation model of “railway waybills plus multimodal transport bills of lading” provides services such as letter‑of‑credit issuance, cargo delivery, payment settlement, and supply‑chain finance in international trade. The Yiwu–Xinjiang–Europe Railway platform company has entered into cooperation agreements with banks, financing guarantee institutions, and insurance companies, endowing railway waybills with the status of a document of title and, under controllable risk conditions, offering corporate clients bank credit lines and other financing services. These measures have laid a solid practical foundation for advancing the titling of documents of title in international multimodal transport centered on the China–Europe Railway Express. Going forward, we should proactively align with China’s broader strategy of opening up and the needs of Belt and Road cooperation, fully leveraging the strengths of our vast domestic market. Building on the existing international maritime trade framework, we should work to establish a set of rules and standards for international land‑based intermodal transport—primarily featuring the China–Europe Railway Express, as well as international land‑air and road‑rail intermodal services—accelerate the titling process for bills of lading, and continuously expand the scope of “single‑document” multimodal transport services, thereby injecting new momentum into Belt and Road cooperation in the new era.