The express delivery industry in the United States has advanced by leaps and bounds along with the industrial revolution. Since its development, its standardization and intensification have been relatively high; China's express delivery industry has created remarkable results by leveraging the rapid development of the Chinese economy, the upgrading of its consumption structure, and the popularization of Internet technology Achievements.
History, finding opportunities in similar soils
In the overall environment of logistics development, is Sino-US logistics comparable? What are the differences? What enlightenment has the history of American logistics given us?
Yin Junping, a partner at Zhongding Venture Capital, once described the importance of international benchmarking research: "In the logistics industry, international benchmarking research has a great value in guiding logistics investment. After the research is clear, we can roughly see the trend of China."
The development of the logistics industry in China and the United States has very similar soil, and the market scale is very large. The development stage of China's traditional logistics is very close to that of the United States in the early 1990s.
Since 1980, the three major driving forces have ushered in the historical opportunities for rapid development of the US logistics industry: one is the policy reform of the US cargo easing, the second is the innovation of new logistics technologies, and the third is the change in corporate management concepts. Therefore, multiple service forms such as multimodal transport, air express, and lean logistics began to appear at this time.
By 1990, the huge scale effect of the logistics industry began to appear. After 10 years of development, leading companies in various sub-sectors have emerged and continue to widen the gap with competitors. A considerable number of logistics companies conducted IPOs in the 1990s. From 1990 to 2000, there were about 60 companies that successfully IPO, and the final work was the listing of giant UPS. After that, an average of 6 to 7 companies are listed each year.
Based on this trend, Yin Junping also believes that a large number of listed companies will emerge in the logistics field in China in the future.
Zhongding Venture Capital analyzed the differences between Sino-US logistics through data analysis. In 2017, the overall size of China's logistics market was US$1.86 trillion (approximately 12.1 trillion yuan), which was slightly higher than that of the United States. The transportation markets of the two countries were basically the same, at around US$1 trillion. The volume of freight transported by road transport in China is more than double that of the United States, reaching 36.8 billion, accounting for 78% of the total transport volume. Relatively speaking, the development of various types of transportation in the United States is relatively balanced, which also makes the development of multimodal transportation in the United States to a relatively rapid extent.
Comparison of Chinese logistics and American logistics, what are the differences in development
Experience, feel the difference between China and America in the sight of reality
In 2017 and 2018, Zhongding Venture Capital twice organized its express logistics company representatives, Zhongding LP and industry professionals, to the US and US benchmarking companies in the field of express delivery FedEx, the Amazon warehouse with the world's leading automation and management level ( Amazon Warehouse), leading third-party logistics XPO, car-free carrier CH. Robinson, the largest truck leasing and logistics service provider Ryder, the largest multimodal transport company JBHunt, and warehouse intelligent platform Sensor Think and other exchanges.
After the first "American Things Popular", Zhong Ding Venture Capital concluded: The development process of the US logistics industry has a very strong reference value for the Chinese logistics industry. Taking advantage of the rapid development of China's economy, the upgrading of consumption structure, and the high penetration of Internet technology, although China's modern logistics development is relatively short and extensive, it is rich in form and active in the market. It is in the incubation period of integration and reform, and there are many places for China and US logistics to learn from each other.
In the second "American Things Popular", Zhong Ding Venture Capital's understanding seems to be more profound: logistics is originally a service industry, developed for changes in business needs. Although the development of Sino-US logistics has different backgrounds and different environments, it has formed today. The respective industry patterns, but at the same time also have commonalities in the differences. In the global environment of digital development, both Sino-US Logistics are facing demands for cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and transformation and upgrading. During this process, Zhong Ding will continue to open up its mind, enhance exchanges and research, and help China's logistics development.
Yang Jianwen, assistant to the general manager of the visitor Anji Logistics, put forward such a view that the different attributes of the subject lead to different logistics forms. The United States is a consumer entity. China is transitioning from a production entity to a balanced production and consumption. The Chinese logistics industry has dual attributes. In response, Yang Juan, Vice President of Supply Chain, Zhuozhi also resonates. The US consumer market has gone through the stage of branding and personalization, and China seems to have just entered this stage. Accordingly, logistics is more efficient, more precise, and of high quality and Expectation of fragmented distribution, changes in the distribution of consumer goods distribution will inevitably affect the rhythm and path of transportation of industrial raw materials.
New business flow will create new logistics. Song Qing, managing director of the China National Transfer Fund, believes that the difference between China and the United States lies in the diametrically opposite supply situation. Supply in the US market is in short supply, while in China, supply exceeds demand. However, from the development of the US market, it is foreseeable that the standardization, chaining, and scale of terminal retailers will inevitably place higher and higher requirements on the standardization of logistics and service quality. China's logistics will eventually be transformed and upgraded from "price-driven" to "price, service-driven".
Thinking, continuously creating value in groping
The essence of logistics companies can be bigger-whether the value created by economies of scale and network benefits can be greater than the cost increase caused by complex management. But they also suffer from growing troubles, such as rising middle-tier management expenses, scaled-up costs, corruption issues, internal fighting consumption, and the loss of people to take away customers.
He Chuan, vice president of Zhongding Venture Capital, concluded after the second US epidemic that the essence of whether logistics companies can grow larger is whether the value created by economies of scale and network efficiency can outweigh the cost increase caused by complex management. Therefore, he believes that there are 4 steps for logistics companies to continue to achieve growth:
1. Choose the target industry and entry point
All excellent enterprises can gradually clear their position in the course of historical evolution, and unremittingly enhance their core competitiveness, and finally form their own barriers. For example, as China’s exports to the United States increase, the transportation demand from the west coast of the United States to the east coast and the central region is increasing, and because of the long transportation distance, rail transportation is the most suitable. J.B.H unt seized this historical opportunity to take the lead in developing the multimodal transport business in cooperation with the railway company. Because it developed early, it acquired the station resources close to the railway in advance, and the first-mover advantage is obvious.
2. Give full play to economies of scale
On the basis of identifying the runway and understanding the changing trends of the industry, fully expanding the scale effect is the key to winning for excellent logistics companies. For example, Ryder, the largest truck leasing company in the United States, can enjoy economies of scale throughout its entire lease life cycle-trucks are cheap to purchase, and they can also require OEMs to customize models.
3. Give full play to network efficiency
First of all, we must choose the sub-sectors with network effects as much as possible, and secondly focus on vertical industries or regions as much as possible to form local network effects. For example, Ryder built 800 repair stations, 600 of which can be fueled. Barriers are provided throughout the country to provide services for long-distance drivers traveling throughout the country.
4. Improve efficiency and cure large enterprise diseases
First, entrepreneurs and teams themselves need to grow, and awareness and management need to be upgraded. Second, business model innovation, IT system transformation process, and organizational model innovation can be used to reduce management internal consumption and improve operational efficiency. For example, Landstar’s agent model is too complicated for scattered small and medium-sized customers. You can use agents to help you sell. You can use powerful intelligent IT systems to implement infrastructure empowerment, give full play to the “entrepreneurship” of agents, and achieve fission. development of.
Comparison of Chinese logistics and American logistics, what are the differences in development
In the future, rely on what forms barriers
The executives of different enterprises have different experiences on how to build a moat for their future development. Some people think that we must pay more attention to the core business, some people think that the power of team culture is crucial, and some people think that always grasping the needs of customers is the key... Of course, the information technology represented by Internet technology is one of the barriers agreed by the industry. "In the future, who can build the soul with technology, deeply cooperate with the idle resources of the society, and provide customers with one-stop service, who will have more opportunities." This is Yin Junping's point of view.
Controlling core assets and transforming into a starter is a barrier. Suzhou Fund Partner Liu Yusha learned from the history of the business evolution of different types of logistics companies in the United States, and found that the control of a certain resource (concession qualification, capacity, railway, route...) is transformed into a barrier of first movers. The strategic turning point in the development of leading enterprises.
Guided by culture and implemented by operations are barriers. Dan Dandan, the founder and CEO of Fuyou Truck, said that the development process of logistics is very different, but the essence of it is that the delivery of the work is completed safely and efficiently in a hundred years. Logistics is not only a golden decade, but also an ever-present industry. Wan Ziyou, founder and CEO of Chen Ziwu, believes that in the US logistics industry, the business model can succeed regardless of whether it is a light asset model or a heavy asset model. The key is team operation, standardization, systemization, and data. In addition to operational efficiency, transportation safety is also critical.
Enlarging the resource effect and enhancing customer stickiness are barriers. Yang Jianwen, assistant general manager of Anji Logistics, believes that the company's core capabilities are more important than the model. Whether it is Ryder's large fleet, JBHunt's railway relationship, Matson relies on the clipper service of its own terminal, or Yusen relies on the parent company Japan Mail. The shipping base is built around core capabilities. At the same time, asset-heavy companies also deploy asset-light businesses to enhance their comprehensive service capabilities to customers. While American customers have more mature logistics needs and more rational suppliers, large companies choose asset-heavy companies as long-term guarantees and asset-light companies to meet short-term needs.
Focusing on user needs, improving comprehensive service capabilities is a barrier. Chen Yu, Managing Director of Guochuang Kaiyuan Parent Fund, said that the rapid development and integration of the Internet and logistics coincided with each other, resulting in a double disruption in technology disruption and a new generation of excellent managers. In the future, China will have a higher concentration and higher market value. A logistics enterprise that extends rapidly from vertical to comprehensive logistics. Facing the competition from cross-border competitors and China’s bubble capital, if traditional giants fail to focus on user needs in a timely manner and build one-stop logistics service capabilities as soon as possible (form a competitive product matrix), they may lose the user’s Dominance. Reprinted articles do not represent the views of this site.
