What changes have modern logistics brought to the traditional international freight forwarding industry?

China is in a good period of developing modern logistics, people's ideas are changing, and technical facilities are becoming more and more complete. Speeding up the establishment of modern logistics system, strengthening the theoretical research and practical exploration of modern logistics, improving the comprehensive service ability of society, and building a logistics link with smooth, convenient, timely, economical and reasonable goods circulation and customer satisfaction are our important tasks and work objectives. To achieve this goal, we must: 1, regard modern logistics as an important industry and a new growth point of national economic development; 2. Eliminate the influence of the old system and get out of the shackles of self-service; 3. Logistics enterprises should change their logistics concepts, improve their logistics service level and establish a customer-centered marketing concept; 4. Improve the use efficiency of logistics resources through the integration of traditional logistics enterprises; 5. Using foreign capital to graft and transform traditional logistics enterprises and reorganize logistics resources is an important means to develop logistics market; 6, pay attention to step by step, to prevent rushing headlong into action; 7. Pay attention to the cultivation of logistics talents.

As we all know, the traditional logistics industry includes international freight forwarding, warehousing, highway, railway, sea transportation, air transportation and so on. The author now works for Sinotrans Group, the largest international freight forwarding (logistics) enterprise in China. In 2005, China ranked 46th among the 500 large enterprise groups announced by the National Bureau of Statistics, with total assets reaching 35 billion yuan in 2005. The author analyzes the freight forwarding industry and discusses the transformation of this logistics.

With the in-depth development of market economy, China's freight forwarding industry has achieved a historic leap across industries, regions and borders. The international freight forwarding industry has many economic components, such as state-owned, collective, Sino-foreign joint ventures and foreign-funded enterprises, and has different operating scales. Under the fierce market competition, the service content of freight forwarding industry has been expanding, and the mode of transportation has also developed from sea transportation to multimodal transportation by sea, land, air and a combination of various modes of transportation. International freight forwarding has become an important force in China's foreign trade transportation system. As far as the current business environment is concerned, with the warming of the logistics industry, the establishment of the non-vessel carrier system and the gradual opening of the freight forwarding industry, China's freight forwarding industry is moving towards differentiation, which will not only challenge the living space of the freight forwarding industry, but also bring serious impact to China's freight forwarding management system. The emergence of third-party logistics will weaken the living space of freight forwarding enterprises. The main difference between traditional freight enterprises and third-party logistics enterprises lies in the integration of their functions and the strategic partnership with customers. Traditional freight forwarders have simple functions and ordinary business relations with customers. Therefore, the system integration ability based on information application is poor, and it can only meet the customer's needs partially and at a low level, and the market space is relatively small. As a substitute for freight forwarding business, the third-party logistics business is characterized by project operation and comprehensive logistics services based on contract nature, and has strong business integration and system integration capabilities, which enables it to effectively meet customer needs, ensure efficient operation of customer logistics systems, and continuously optimize supply chain management. Therefore, third-party logistics enterprises are not so much professional logistics companies as full-time logistics departments with professional advantages and management experience, so they have strong vitality in the market. At present, domestic freight forwarding enterprises have three fatal weaknesses: lack of network, weak service substitutability and backward marketing methods, so we must find countermeasures and transformation. As a professional service of international trade service, freight forwarding plays an irreplaceable role in solving employment, attracting foreign investment, invigorating the market and promoting the rapid development of China's foreign trade. Just as department stores have not disappeared after the development of large supermarkets and shopping malls, no matter how severe the situation is and how fierce the competition is, there is still room and market for freight forwarding industry. However, in the face of the aggressive and grim situation, freight forwarding enterprises must solve the problems in development with innovative ideas.

As early as 1999, Sinotrans Group clearly pointed out in the strategic development outline that in the future development, Sinotrans should take logistics as the core, so that Sinotrans can change from providing traditional storage and transportation business to providing modern logistics business. 200 1 the board of directors of sinotrans group passed the resolution of sinotrans group to adopt overseas listing measures. Thus, it is imperative for Sinotrans Group to upgrade from a traditional transportation and warehousing enterprise to a modern logistics enterprise. The author thinks that in the transformation of traditional freight forwarding enterprises in China, the key factors are institutional innovation and strategic innovation. These two points are indispensable. Sinotrans Group did it. After Sinotrans was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2003, its business organization structure consisted of five business divisions and seven regional subsidiaries. In particular, Sinotrans Air Transport Development Co., Ltd. is a reference blueprint for Sinotrans's listing to a certain extent. Its main business is air freight forwarding and international express delivery. Although the freight volume accounts for a small proportion in the whole Sinotrans Group, its development speed and profitability should not be underestimated. Only the international express delivery business has maintained an annual growth rate of more than 30%. At the same time, Sinotrans Air Transport is also a pilot of cooperation between Sinotrans Group and multinational logistics giants. Another professional subsidiary in the Sinotrans system is Sinotrans International Transportation Agency Co., Ltd., which has super strength in project logistics and exhibition logistics. China is the first company to participate in international multimodal transport, and it is also one of the largest multimodal transport carriers in China market at present. In the whole regional subsidiary system of Sinotrans, seven companies are the "overlords" of the local freight market, although they have different scales. Among them, Sinotrans East China Co., Ltd., which is composed of four regional companies in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Hubei, is the mainstay of the whole Sinotrans business system. Sinotrans chose this region with the most developed business to implement business integration, which undoubtedly found a "signboard" model for its cross-regional logistics operation.

Since I became the general manager of a subsidiary of Sinotrans at the end of 1998, I have made a useful attempt to transform traditional logistics into modern logistics according to the development strategy of Sinotrans Group. When I first arrived in this company, the situation of the company was not ideal in all aspects, the business volume showed a sharp downward trend, the capital operation was difficult, and the business backbone was lost in large numbers, so the company was in a very difficult situation. At that time, it was unrealistic to propose the transformation to modern logistics. Therefore, the author adopts a phased, step-by-step and step-by-step approach to implement the measures of "rectification, adjustment, consolidation and development", so that enterprises can get rid of the predicament first and then adjust and consolidate. During this period, the traditional operation process of freight forwarding business has been redesigned, and some advanced operation modes abroad have been absorbed, and the personnel involved in business activities have been subdivided, and the business service chain of sales, document operation, booking, customs declaration, inspection and tracking services has been established, and a relatively independent and cooperative mode has been implemented at each business connection point, ensuring the normal circulation of each ticketing business. After laying a solid foundation, we developed a number of large-scale logistics projects using the resources of Sinotrans. Choosing the transportation route from the factory to the foreign construction site, looking for suppliers (that is, land and sea carriers) and calculating the operating cost have designed the best logistics scheme for merchants in all directions, and initially formed the operation mode of modern logistics.

The experience of working in Sinotrans tells the author that if the traditional logistics industry in China wants to keep up with the development of modern international logistics industry, it must determine the transformation goal and strategy as soon as possible. It is gratifying that Sinotrans, the largest traditional logistics enterprise in China, has made adjustments in this respect. Its strategic orientation is to turn Sinotrans into a competitive international modern integrated logistics group.

The traditional logistics industry in China is experiencing a severe pain. Under the huge market pressure, all traditional logistics industries should regard the change of business format as a panacea to bring back the dead. This change first means that the logistics industry in China re-examines the market demand and redefines and constructs its own operation on this basis, which is a re-expansion of the traditional logistics industry based on its own experience, rather than starting a new stove. Because the traditional logistics industry itself is the eye and an important part of modern logistics, and the development of modern logistics industry has brought huge development space to China's logistics industry. With the development of the two, the integration of the two will be an inevitable choice. Accelerating the transformation of China's traditional logistics industry to modern logistics is of great significance for optimizing resource allocation, improving the quality of economic operation, promoting enterprise reform and development, and promoting the two fundamental changes of China's economic system and economic growth mode. In the 2 1 century, modern logistics industry will become an important industry and a new economic growth point in China's economic development. China's logistics enterprises must seize the favorable opportunity of establishing high-quality service facilities and providing high-quality modern logistics services, organically connect the scattered links to form a joint force, and gradually establish a professional, socialized and modern logistics service network system.