For a country with a vast territory, the problems that twenty trucks could solve seemed insignificant. However, if these trucks were put to good use, they could play a significant role.
Each truck was given the responsibility to achieve rapid turnover between the six major storage bases and the provincial capitals within the coverage area.
This was a battle of trunk transportation. Taobao's own fleet was responsible for the 24-hour trunk transportation, while the rest of the secondary transportation and terminal distribution were distributed to the postal systems of each province. In other words, although Shenzhen's shipments accounted for half of the total volume of pre-sales, leaving all the pressure on Shenzhen, Taobao had already divided the load among the rest of the country.
This greatly avoided congestion at the distribution centers and minimized the pressure on the transportation capacity. Li Mu felt that Boss Ma was at his wit's end with this move.
Generally speaking, the choice of a storage base was a relatively central city with excellent land transportation conditions. For example, Yanjing, Shanghai, Yangcheng, and other cities, the land transportation was accessible in all directions. Moreover, these twenty trucks did not need to travel to the cities, counties, and towns. They only went to the provincial capitals, and the best land transportation conditions were between first-tier cities and second-tier cities. Therefore, almost all the trucks traveled at high speed throughout the entire journey, and the turnover rate was very high.
In Yangcheng and Shanghai, the two distribution centers that covered more than half of the online shopping consumers, a large number of temporarily recruited part-time workers, led by professional teams, packed, shipped, and sorted non-stop. Within three to five hours, regardless of whether the trucks were full or not, they had to leave as soon as possible to deliver the sorted goods. While they were rushing about, a large number of parcels continued to be sorted and prepared for the next batch of parcels to be shipped away.
In the postal distribution centers of each province, a large number of postal workers and vehicles were on standby. Under normal circumstances, postal workers did not have such high efficiency and professionalism. However, because Taobao's public relations work was very good, they had a very close relationship with the postal workers. With a word from each province's leader, the workers were required to work around the clock to ensure that Taobao's parcels were delivered first. For Taobao's parcels, they had to quickly sort, prioritize transportation, and deliver them in advance.
For example, in Zhe Province, where Boss Ma was located, a large truck drove from Shanghai to the outskirts of Hangzhou with parcels from Zhe Province. After all the parcels were handed over to the postal workers, the postal workers of Zhe Province worked overtime to sort the parcels from Taobao in the wee hours of the morning. After sorting the parcels according to the major cities under the jurisdiction of Zhe Province, they were loaded into dozens of vans that were on standby and set off.
Hangzhou was very close to Shanghai. When the first batch of parcels arrived at Hangzhou's postal sorting center, it was only five o 'clock in the morning. The rapid sorting continued until half past seven. Dozens of light vans from the postal workers set off one after another, heading to each of the prefecture-level cities under the jurisdiction of Zhe Province. The furthest of these places was only five to six hours' drive. In other words, at around noon, the first batch of parcels from Zhe Province would arrive at the prefecture-level cities where the consumers were located. Basically, the parcels from the remote areas would be delivered in the afternoon or the next morning.
Due to the continuous improvement of social efficiency, people in 2016 had to think more efficiently than people in 2002. Their demand for efficiency was also much higher than that of people in 2002. Therefore, Li Mu tried his best to ensure that the logistics on Taobao was rapid and efficient. His high demands and goals even exceeded the psychological expectations of the users.
Being faster than the users expected was also one of Li Mu's core requirements for his own logistics system.
Li Mu was at the scene of Taobao with Liu Xiaodong and the Taobao workers who were working overtime until two o 'clock. After the transaction amount exceeded eight hundred million yuan, he called Liu Xiaodong back to his office. At present, the progress of the Brand Day did not need to be monitored at all times. Its front and back offices were all operating well and were destined to create a miracle. He did not need to witness the birth of a miracle step by step with his own eyes. Patiently waiting for the results was the best choice. Moreover, Li Mu had more important things to discuss with Liu Xiaodong.
Now that the money was in the account, the construction of the self-built logistics system was about to start. There was nothing more important than that.
After the two of them sat down in the office, Li Mu said to Liu Xiaodong, "Senior, Wanying has already transferred the money. The construction of the self-built logistics system is about to officially start. Have you planned how to spend the five hundred million yuan?"
Liu Xiaodong knew that the money was coming, so he had been thinking excitedly for the past two days about how to carry out the work after the money arrived. Now that the money had finally arrived, Liu Xiaodong could finally realize the plan that had filled his mind. He briefly sorted out and said, "The first thing after the money arrives is to fully expand and upgrade our six major storage bases. We'll upgrade all of them into logistics centers with extremely high throughput capacity.
The second thing is to immediately make use of the middle and senior management of the logistics companies that we poached. We'll invest in the construction of logistics outlets all over the country and set up local teams to fully undertake the delivery and receiving work.
The third thing is to set up a logistics transportation network. In addition to obtaining the aviation resources as soon as possible, the most important thing is to immediately expand the scale of our fleet. The entire third tier of land transportation conditions are very good, and large volumes of goods require a strong point-to-point transportation capability. In addition, we also need a large number of trucks for point-to-point transportation. "
Li Mu nodded and temporarily interrupted Liu Xiaodong. He said, "Let me interrupt first. These three things you mentioned are all important and urgent, so naturally, they have to be ranked first. However, I have another important but not urgent matter. Recently, send someone who has the ability to go overseas to investigate the solution of logistics companies' automatic sorting equipment. We may not be able to play with this system right now, but this facility is something that we must implement in the near future. Only the automatic sorting equipment and our fully information-based logistics management system can truly create a high-speed and efficient logistics."
Liu Xiaodong immediately said, "I've looked into this before. Currently, the most advanced solution comes from Germany's Berman Machinery. The cost of solving a logistics distribution center is about 60 to 80 million. If it's a super large distribution center, the cost will be even higher. However, this system is currently not available in our country. The postal boss is still using a somewhat outdated sorting system, and the efficiency isn't very high."
When Li Mu heard Liu Xiaodong say this, he knew that he had been paying attention to the situation in this area for a long time. He was very pleased and nodded. He said, "Then send someone to Germany's Berman to investigate. We need to understand the operation and efficiency of the entire system, and more importantly, we need to understand its unit cost. If we can sort 50,000 parcels a day, how much would it cost to sort 100,000 parcels? Do a systematic investigation, and then we can determine the most appropriate time to implement this system based on our actual situation."
Liu Xiaodong nodded and said, "This system is indeed very important, but I don't think we should consider implementing it in the first two years. The cost is too high. If we set up the sorting centers in various logistics distribution centers, manpower and conveyor belt sorting can support us for at least a few years. The domestic logistics industry will not develop to such a high demand in the next two or three years."
Li Mu smiled. "Whether we need this system or not depends not only on the future development of Taobao and the demand of the market, but also on our capital operation. If we have enough capital, we should invest in this kind of cost sooner or later, so the earlier we invest, the better."
Liu Xiaodong agreed and said, "That's right. The specifics will depend on how you plan the capital operations."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Li Mu smiled slightly and said, "Also, you just mentioned building a logistics transportation network. Land transportation is indeed very important. Heavy trucks responsible for point-to-point transportation, and small and medium-sized vans responsible for point-to-point transportation. These two will be the top priority for our next bulk purchase, especially the heavy trucks. Each truck will carry dozens of tons of logistics and express items, and they will travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers on the road. The quality of the trucks must be extremely reliable. Otherwise, if one of the trucks breaks down in the middle of the road, it may affect the delivery time of tens of thousands of people."
Liu Xiaodong said to Li Mu, "I've learned about this. The key to heavy trucks is the towing head. The requirements for towing in the plain area are not very high. Brands such as Dongfeng, FAW, and Steyr can do it. We need at least 50 such heavy trucks in the first stage, and the overall investment is about 20 million."
Li Mu waved his hand. "We must not save money on heavy towing. In the future, all our heavy towing will have an average monthly dispatch rate of more than 90% and travel at least 800-1,000 kilometers a day. To ensure efficiency and stability, we need more reliable towing heads to complete these tasks. Therefore, my requirement is that we must use pure imported towing heads. It's not a problem to be 50% or even 100% more expensive. The key is stability, stability, stability!"
Liu Xiaodong thought for a moment, nodded and said, "I've also learned a little about imported towing heads. The better truck brands are generally from Europe and Japan. Europe has Benz, Volvo, Iveco, and Scania. Japan has Isuzu and Hino. The European ones are more expensive."
Li Mu nodded. "Just buy European heavy trucks. I agree with the Japanese on other things, but I personally don't trust them on heavy trucks."
Liu Xiaodong said, "Then I'll ask my men to investigate and get in touch with the domestic general distributors of several European heavy truck brands."
Li Mu said, "OK, don't save money on this stage. You can remove Iveco from the European heavy truck brands you just mentioned. Buy some from Benz, Volvo, and Scania. Research data is sometimes not as good as our own accumulated data. Let our drivers judge which brand of vehicle is more suitable in actual use. This not only involves the performance and control of the vehicle, but also involves the failure rate, the convenience of maintenance, and several other aspects. When we really find the most suitable brand for us, then we can increase the purchase later."
Liu Xiaodong said, "OK, I'll arrange it."
Li Mu continued, "I'm afraid we'll need at least a few hundred small and medium vans in the first stage. No matter which car company we work with, I'm afraid this will be a very large order. Our core demand for this kind of vehicle is not the load, but the stability, lightness, speed, and ease of maintenance. I suggest you send someone to talk to Jinling Iveco. I personally feel that Iveco's light passenger cars and light trucks are very suitable for spot to spot transportation."
Liu Xiaodong smiled and said, "You know so much about trucks? Jinling Iveco, this is also a contribution to the company in our hometown. "
Liu Shixiong and Li Mu were both from Nansu Province. Jinling was the provincial capital, and the joint venture Iveco was located in Jinling. In the hearts of the people in Nansu, it was naturally considered half a hometown company. However, Li Mu did not really want to help the development of the company in his hometown. It was because in his memory, most of the black SF transport vehicles that passed through the city were Iveco, and the red JD transport vehicles that also passed through the city were basically Iveco.
These two companies, one was the largest express logistics company in the country, and the other was the largest B2C e-commerce logistics system in the country. Both major logistics systems used Iveco vehicles as a solution at the end of logistics and transportation, which proved that Iveco must be one of the most suitable solutions. There were many suitable solutions, but since there were predecessors who had explored the road for him, why should he waste his effort to explore a new direction?
After talking about Iveco, Li Mu said, "Oh right, Liu Shixiong, ask your people to find a suitable motorcycle manufacturer and order ten thousand motorized tricycles. The requirements for motorized tricycles are that they must have sufficient power and endurance. Ask the manufacturer to add a unified container and front windshield for the motorized tricycles. Also, like our heavy trucks and small and medium vans, they must be uniformly painted."
Liu Xiaodong looked at Li Mu in surprise and asked him, "Ten thousand motorized tricycles? Do you want to use motorized tricycles to solve the last step? "
Li Mu nodded. In fact, in Li Mu's mind, motorized tricycles were the real king of terminal delivery!
Nowadays, gasoline tricycles were rarely used for terminal delivery. Small deliveries were basically bicycles and motorcycles, and large deliveries were basically light trucks. The former's carrying capacity was weak, and the deliverymen had to constantly return to the business point; the latter's turnover efficiency was low, and sometimes they couldn't get out of a congested and narrow residential area for half an hour. Therefore, motorized tricycles with small containers were the best solution.
In the future, when the express delivery business flourished and the industry's operating methods became proficient, the postal service, SF Express, Shentong, Zhongtong, Jingdong, and other express delivery systems would solve the last step of logistics by using deliverymen and motorized tricycles. This was the best solution that had been summed up by hundreds of logistics companies for more than a decade. At present, the logistics industry had not yet developed, and motorized tricycles had not yet made a name for themselves in the express delivery industry.
Liu Xiaodong could understand why Li Mu needed ten thousand motorized tricycles, and he could also see the huge advantages of motorized tricycles. However, when Li Mu mentioned asking the manufacturer to uniformly paint, he couldn't help but ask Li Mu, "After talking for so long, what is the name of our self-built logistics?"
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