What is the traditional storage and transportation industry?

Traditionally, transportation is the foundation of national economic development. With the rapid development of society, economy and technology, the continuous improvement of various infrastructures, the trend of global economic integration and the increasing degree of market competition, people's understanding of this traditional view has changed. In recent years, logistics management and logistics technology have been widely recognized, applied and developed in industrialized countries. People have realized that the comprehensive logistics system, including transportation, including product production, circulation and consumption, has become an important foundation for the sustainable development of the national economy. With the wide application of modern science and technology, management and information technology in logistics system, logistics industry has become one of the basic industries to adapt to the development of market economy.

The management system in China logistics field is born out of the traditional planned economy system. Great changes have taken place since the reform and opening up. The traditional fixed circulation mode of first-,second-and third-level wholesale and retail has been broken, the circulation structure has been greatly adjusted, and the logistics industry has a certain scale.

From a macro point of view, due to the unsatisfactory management system, logistics has not been an independent industry in China's economic field for a long time, but only a combination and cooperation of several industries, mainly including transportation, post and telecommunications, commercial materials, foreign trade and so on. With the gradual establishment of the market economy system, it is possible for the above industries to become an independent industry through asset alliance on the premise of the division of labor between government and enterprises. However, due to the lag of management system reform, the situation of division of departments and separation of government from enterprises still exists. At present, railways, highways and aviation in the transportation industry still belong to different management departments, which increases the resistance of "smooth flow of goods" to a certain extent.

With the establishment of market economy, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and the awareness of time, efficiency and quality of enterprises and consumers is constantly strengthened. They all attach great importance to the fast and low consumption of commodity flow energy, so the integrated "logistics service" that requires fast, direct, punctual and convenient transportation, warehousing, customs declaration, loading and unloading, distribution and processing is becoming the main direction of commodity circulation market development, and at the same time, the third-party logistics service industry is booming.

According to statistics, EU 15 domestic transport enterprises transport goods1200 million tons every year, equivalent to 40 tons per capita. Experts estimate that "contract logistics" service, which provides transportation, warehousing and high-value services for specific companies according to contracts, will become the fastest-growing area of logistics industry in Europe, and the annual demand will increase at twice the rate. Since the reform and opening up, China's economy has achieved sustained, rapid and healthy development. At the same time, the socialization of production requires higher and higher logistics, and the traditional storage and transportation service model can not meet the requirements of integrated logistics development.

With the gradual establishment of the socialist market economic system, this model has changed, and the boundary between the two has been gradually broken. All aspects of economic activities, such as production and consumption, and the circulation that closely links them together, will be integrated by "logistics" to form a new industry that is market-oriented, aims at meeting customer requirements, and optimizes the total benefits of the system to meet the needs of modern social and economic development.

2. The booming third-party logistics

As a sunrise industry, the logistics industry is attracting more and more attention. Not only have a large number of small and medium-sized logistics companies providing third-party logistics services emerged, but some large state-owned transportation institutions have also changed their service direction from simple transportation services to integrated logistics services. The third-party logistics service not only brings business opportunities to enterprises, but also brings great challenges to enterprise management and customer service quality: how to ensure on-time delivery rate? How to feed back logistics information to customers? How to complete inventory allocation? ..... For the third-party logistics service providers and warehousing logistics centers, if they can't provide services for the whole process of logistics management, it is impossible to win the logistics business of any big customers.

The pursuit of logistics enterprises

Logistics industry is a third party between suppliers and buyers, and it regards service as the source of third party profits. "Logistics" is one of the basic functions of enterprises, connecting production and marketing; Raw materials are made into products through production and then sent to consumers through marketing. But the whole process emphasizes fluency and integration to achieve the overall goal. For a long time, there has been a trend in the industrial field. In order to play the role of external resources, it is necessary to integrate third-party activities with the internal business processes of the company, and use third-party logistics enterprises as a way to manage supply chain members. More and more enterprises concentrate on developing their own advantages and outsource some work. This phenomenon has promoted the rapid development of third-party traffic.

Since the reform and opening up, China's logistics industry has also developed like other sectors of the national economy, mainly in the following aspects: reforming the circulation management system and circulation organization form, and gradually forming an operating mechanism based on market regulation; Investment in transportation, communication and other logistics infrastructure was strengthened, and the level of logistics technology and equipment was improved. Transportation, information and communication, warehousing, packaging, distribution and other logistics-related industries have developed rapidly.

The quality of logistics is mainly measured by logistics time, logistics cost and logistics efficiency. Affected by many factors, the overall level of logistics quality in China is low. In addition, the established social logistics system and enterprise logistics system can not be effectively combined and coordinated because of different management purposes and means, which also has a negative impact on logistics rationalization. At present, many large enterprises in the storage and transportation industry in China have great storage and transportation capacity, but they can only get some low-level storage and transportation business, and it is difficult to undertake all-round logistics services. On the other hand, the third-party logistics service industry at home and abroad is booming, and the quality of service provided by storage and transportation enterprises is increasingly demanding.

3. Existing gaps

In order to understand the development status of traditional storage and transportation industry in China and the general situation of foreign-funded logistics companies, the author has done some research in some state-owned and foreign-funded logistics companies for a period of time, and after making a detailed comparison and analysis of the management and operation of the two types of companies, he thinks that many aspects reflect the shortcomings of domestic logistics companies in China and should learn from foreign counterparts.

First of all, in terms of infrastructure construction, foreign companies will generally make great efforts to do a good job in infrastructure construction before formal business is launched. For example, DANZAS—AEI, a foreign logistics enterprise stationed in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, uses advanced warehouse entry and exit operation tools such as high-rise shelves and 3COM's high-quality products and services as monitoring facilities, which first gives customers a sense of peace of mind and is conducive to winning customers, especially those with high added value of products. However, during the investigation, what I saw in a state-owned warehouse was a relatively backward facility. In the absence of high-rise shelves and a large number of goods in storage, goods are stored in two or three pallets, not to mention what kind of specific damage this stacking will cause to the goods. Just seeing this kind of stacking makes people feel insecure. Thankfully, this state-owned warehouse began to build its own high-rise shelves shortly before the end of the investigation.

Secondly, high-quality infrastructure construction requires high-quality operators, and only high-quality operators can operate advanced equipment to minimize cargo damage. In addition, many logistics companies are now involved in the supply chain of high value-added goods, and the requirements for foreign languages have also increased accordingly. For logistics companies, the foreign language level of managers and operators directly affects the company's ability to undertake high value-added goods, which is the weakness of state-owned logistics companies.

Third, in the construction and application of information systems, both state-owned enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises attach great importance to enterprise information systems. Take DANZAS—AEl as an example. Every branch company in the world has several terminals connected to the mainframe of the headquarters, and almost all data processing can be carried out through the network. Its customers can check the status of the goods at any time, and even pinpoint where the goods are in the warehouse. At the request of customers, the exchange center can also be based on personal requirements. Therefore, customers can control inventory and distribute goods very accurately; The company's internal communication system is perfect, and GPS system is also applied to cargo tracking.

Surprisingly, however, the terminal of DANZAS—AEI is not an advanced device, but an old M terminal that can't even display pictures. The actual operation emphasizes stability, not one-sided promotion. In contrast, due to the late popularization of computers in China, the computer configuration is relatively high. However, due to the limitations of technology, funds and network conditions, the application of the network has not yet reached its due level, and most of them are still in the stage of stand-alone operation.

The development of third-party logistics needs to be strengthened in infrastructure, personnel quality and information system. Nowadays, logistics technology based on e-commerce is in the ascendant. High-quality infrastructure, high-quality talents and highly reliable and efficient information systems are the most direct manifestations of enterprise competitiveness. The reform of traditional storage and transportation enterprises in China will surely promote the development of third-party logistics in China.

Excerpt from Tianya forum