Analysis: With road freight rates remaining depressed, online freight platforms have found themselves at the center of controversy. Whose fault is it that rates are so low?

Recently, a special symposium titled “New Generation, New Drivers: Leveraging the Platform Economy to Ensure Stable Employment for Truck Drivers,” hosted by the Road Freight Branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, was held in Nanjing. During the event, industry experts, representatives of truck drivers, and delegates from online freight platforms such as Yunmanman and Sinotrans Zhiyun engaged in discussions on issues including price pressures in the road freight market, the relationship between online freight platforms and truck drivers, the current employment situation of truck drivers, and measures to safeguard their rights and interests.

01   Truck drivers speak candidly: With intensifying market competition and heightened price transparency, the outlook is a mixed bag.

Data show that China currently has more than 17 million truck drivers. It is precisely the tireless, hard‑working efforts of these millions of drivers that ensure the nation’s economic lifelines flow steadily and swiftly.

At the symposium, Chen Guoqing, a truck driver with more than a decade of experience in the road freight industry, drew on his own firsthand account to paint a picture of how the sector has evolved in recent years. The change. “The emergence of online freight platforms has brought together a larger pool of cargo, making information more transparent. Truck drivers across the country now compete for loads on these platforms, and freight rates have become more visible, resulting in lower profit margins compared to the past.” Chen Guoqing said that more than a decade ago, when he first entered the industry, the entry barrier was relatively high. Back then, transactions were predominantly offline: there were few trucks but plenty of cargo, and shippers had to go to logistics parks to find vehicles, resulting in low efficiency in matching supply with demand. Drivers enjoyed strong bargaining power, and overall competition was far less intense than it is today. However, with the rapid development of the internet, the freight market has gradually shifted from offline to online, with a flood of cargo listings converging on digital freight platforms, and competition among truck drivers has become increasingly fierce.

Chen Guoqing believes that the digital transformation of the road freight market enables shippers to find carriers more quickly, eliminates the need for drivers to idle at logistics parks, and even increases the frequency of cargo pickups. However, every situation has its bright side as well as its dark side. Although Chen Guoqing’s truck has been taking on more orders, his income has not increased; instead, it has declined year after year. He attributes this trend to the growing transparency of pricing.

Meanwhile, Chen Guoqing has observed that in recent years, the barriers to entry in the road freight industry have fallen, attracting an ever-growing number of participants. Every year, he travels to Yuncheng, Shanxi, to haul apples. In the early days, during the local apple‑harvest season, his truck could make multiple round trips between Nanjing and Yuncheng; today, however, he can manage only a single trip. He Xianfei, a truck driver from Henan, shares the same experience. He believes that many drivers, in order to secure high‑priced return loads, deliberately compete for “return‑trip orders”—orders that often pay less than the cost of hauling the cargo. This kind of cutthroat competition drives down freight rates across the market.

02 Focus on Low Pricing: With freight rates in the road‑haul market trending downward, how can the industry break the impasse?

According to statistical data, as of the first half of this year, there were 2,268 online freight‑transport enterprises nationwide, aggregating 4.623 million drivers—more than one quarter of all commercial truck drivers in the country. Surveys indicate that over 50% of truck drivers use online freight platforms to source loads. In practice, this has strengthened the ties between truck drivers and these digital platforms.

Liu Yongxing, representative of the online freight platform and chairman of the Yunmanman Freight Logistics Union, stated that Yunmanman, as an online freight platform, has been consistently striving to enhance the standardization of its services and, on that basis, provides robust service guarantees for truck drivers.
Liu Yongxing cited as an example that the Yunmanman platform has invested substantial manpower and resources to address the issues faced by truck drivers at trading hubs. In July alone this year, the Yunmanman platform helped drivers recover 21.8 million yuan in unpaid freight charges. Throughout this process, the platform employed a wide range of measures, including partnering with courts and law firms and advancing funds to assist drivers in collecting their dues. Meanwhile, the Yunmanman platform is working with courts in Nanjing, Guizhou, and other regions to explore more effective ways of addressing these issues. In addition, to tackle concerns such as the accuracy of freight‑source information and shippers’ malicious order cancellations, the platform employs a tiered approach to assess risks. For low‑risk listings, it issues alerts to both truck drivers and shippers; for high‑risk cases, it requires shippers to specify clear details—such as the duration of vehicle detention and compensation terms—to mitigate potential risks, thereby continuously enhancing the accuracy and transparency of freight‑source data. According to Liu Yongxing, Yunmanman is steadily building a comprehensive freight‑transport ecosystem and has introduced a “Five‑Star Shipper” label, giving priority recommendations to shippers with fewer complaints, fewer negative reviews, and guaranteed security deposits for their cargo. Regarding the issue of low pricing, Liu Yongxing stated that since October last year, the Yunmanman platform has launched a dedicated freight‑rate management initiative. The platform provides guidance to shippers on setting their rates through proactive reminders—for example, when freight costs rise, it advises shippers to set reasonable prices; and when cargo rates are excessively low, it prompts shippers to increase their bids to facilitate quicker transactions. “From the perspective of platform responsibility, we will continue to refine our service measures and raise our service standards,” said Liu Yongxing.

03 Experts and scholars suggest that to address the current slump in the road freight market, a comprehensive package of measures must be implemented to enhance the industry’s governance capacity.

In response to the current downturn in the road freight market, experts at the symposium offered a range of recommendations—drawing on their respective areas of expertise—on fostering the healthy development of the road freight industry, safeguarding drivers’ rights and interests, and addressing the persistent issue of low pricing.
Zhou Zhicheng, Secretary-General of the Road Freight Branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, stated that online freight platforms are an important channel for stabilizing drivers’ employment and safeguarding the rights and interests of truck drivers. The sustainable development of the platform economy requires the establishment of a large-scale, consolidated market structure in which the government regulates platforms, and platforms manage (and serve) drivers. At present, there are indeed certain conflicts between online freight platforms and drivers, but these tensions are not irreconcilable; they can be mediated and harmonized, turning a dilemma into a win-win situation. We are confident that, with coordinated efforts from the government, industry associations, trade unions, platforms, drivers, shippers, and other stakeholders, this issue will soon be resolved.

Gu Dasong, an associate professor at Southeast University and executive director of the Research Center for Transport Law and Development, believes that, To reverse the current slump in road freight market prices, it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive survey of the entire road freight industry without delay and to enhance the market information disclosure mechanism. Real-time disclosure of market freight volumes, transport vehicles, and capacity, coupled with the establishment of a dynamic market‑access regulation mechanism based on an industry credit system, ensures that data plays a pivotal role in regulating the road freight market.

Zhao Mingfei, an associate professor at the China Institute of Industrial Relations and deputy director of the Research Institute of Labor Relations and Trade Unions, stated that truck drivers are the primary channel for employment in the logistics sector. To safeguard the labor rights and interests of truck drivers, The role of trade unions should be fully leveraged, with a multi‑pronged approach to recruit truck drivers into union membership, and collective bargaining should be regarded as a key mechanism for improving working conditions for workers in new forms of employment. …exploring the establishment of a tripartite consultation mechanism comprising industry trade unions, platform enterprises or federations, and government agencies such as transportation administration, market regulation authorities, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the courts. Dr. Chen Song of the Institute of Public Policy and Government Regulation at Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics stated that the freight‑transport sector is characterized by a wide range of industries, diverse types of goods, and numerous service scenarios; accordingly, governance of online freight‑transport platforms is considerably more challenging than that of online passenger‑transport platforms.

At this stage, In the absence of extensive research on standards and regulations pertaining to new business forms across various sectors, advancing the formulation of relevant policies and laws requires a thorough integration of the distinctive features of these emerging formats, models, and technologies. This entails in-depth analysis of regulatory priorities, governing bodies, and enforcement mechanisms, followed by the promulgation of corresponding rules and provisions to ensure effective implementation and practical applicability.