Lu Mingliang paused and continued. "Currently, we already have 4,000 Upwind Courier stations. You have to know that some domestic express delivery companies only have slightly more than 2,000 outlets in the country. We have already surpassed them in terms of numbers.
"If Upwind Logistics continues to incur losses, we can only rely on other businesses. This is not a long-term solution. We have to reduce our losses and increase our profits in order to develop further.
"Therefore, I think we should start preparing for a regular cross-city express delivery service and snatch the profits from other express delivery companies!"
Upwind Logistics had always been doing the dirty and tiring work that other express delivery companies were most unwilling to do.
The problem of the "last kilometer" had always been a huge problem that plagued the express delivery industry. It was very convenient to transport the goods from the transfer point to the express delivery network. One could just haul the goods over. However, it was very costly to deliver the packages one by one from the express delivery network to the customer's doorstep.
It was the same delivery business. Other delivery companies focused on the most convenient and profitable part of the business. Upwind Logistics, on the other hand, focused on the most troublesome and least profitable part.
Upwind Logistics solved the problem of the last kilometer for other express delivery companies. On average, they only charged two to forty cents for each package. Although most of the packages were small, it was still a huge loss. The effort did not match the returns.
Some platforms offered to set up express delivery cabinets and let customers pick up the packages themselves.
However, the problem was that the express delivery cabinets collected money from the express delivery companies. They saved a lot of money for the express delivery companies, but they pushed the burden of running the last kilometer to the customers.
Consumers had to walk and move their packages. The space occupied by the express delivery cabinets was provided by the community. In the end, it saved the express delivery companies a lot of trouble and allowed the express delivery cabinets to earn money. Consumers did not benefit from the express delivery service that they were supposed to enjoy.
Some customers liked to pick up their packages from the express delivery cabinets because of their commuting hours. However, this was only one option. Those who did not want to go out could not be forced to pick up their packages themselves. This was too sneaky and violated the legitimate rights and interests of the consumers.
Upwind Courier stations could allow express delivery men to deliver the packages to the customer's doorstep and allow customers to pick up their packages themselves. They could even earn points for doing so. This was the best solution to protect the rights and interests of the consumers.
Lu Mingliang was naturally very unhappy with this situation where other express delivery companies could only benefit while Upwind Logistics could only benefit.
He won't force other companies to drink the soup, but why can't I eat the meat?
Wasn't it just collecting the packages, sorting them at the distribution center, loading them into trucks, transporting them to the target city, sorting them again, and then sending them out?
Why couldn't Upwind Logistics make a huge profit?
He didn't do it in the past because there were too few stores and the coverage was not enough. He had to set up a layout first.
Now that he had opened more than 4,000 stores, was it appropriate for a big and strong man to only drink soup and not eat meat, and in the end, he was crying out in hunger?
It was obviously very inappropriate.
Thus, on one hand, he was here to report Upwind Logistics' current situation to Boss Pei. On the other hand, he wanted to test Boss Pei's attitude on this matter. He hoped that Boss Pei could expand Upwind Logistics' business as soon as possible.
Even if he couldn't turn the losses into profits quickly, he could at least start the cross-city express delivery business first to reduce some losses.
Otherwise, if he continued to lose money like this, it would seem that he, the person in charge, had been doing nothing all this time. He wouldn't even be able to raise his head during the gathering.
Pei Qian's expression immediately became very serious.
Shit!
Obviously, Lu Mingliang had been working diligently in Upwind Logistics for more than a year. He definitely wouldn't be satisfied with opening a store again and again.
Lu Mingliang was the only one who could bear with this for so long. If it were any other person in charge, they would have come half a year earlier to protest and ask to expand the business.
Pei Qian thought about it and decided that he couldn't reject this directly.
Lu Mingliang was a down-to-earth person. He did things steadily, took his tasks seriously, and had strong execution skills. The fact that he took the initiative to suggest this meant that he had thought about it carefully and repeatedly. He had come looking for Pei Qian because he couldn't hold back any longer.
He already had more than 4,000 stores. The most difficult 'last kilometer' problem had already been solved. Cross-city express delivery was just a matter of convenience. Why wouldn't he do it?
Pei Qian could not think of any other reason to reject Lu Mingliang's suggestion apart from the fact that he wanted to lose money on purpose.
However …
Should he just agree to Lu Mingliang's suggestion?
Of course not!
Logistics was a profitable business. Upwind Logistics was incurring losses. If it turned its losses into profits, Pei Qian would vomit blood on the spot.
Thus, he had to make some adjustments to Upwind Logistics' business. He had to appease Lu Mingliang and make sure that Upwind Logistics continued to incur losses.
Pei Qian quickly thought of a good idea.
"Yes, you're right. It's time for Upwind Logistics to make some adjustments.
"However, there's one thing we have to take note of. Although Upwind Logistics has more than 4,000 stores, they are all distributed in four regions. With Jingzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as the core cities, they are all distributed to the surrounding areas. However, other than these four regions, there are no stores at all in the vast areas, such as provincial capitals and second-tier cities, let alone those small counties. "
"If we want to develop cross-city express delivery services, how can we compete with other express delivery companies if we can't deliver to one city or another?
"Other express delivery companies might only have two thousand stores, but they cover every city in the country. They even cover some small county towns. That's a fundamental difference.
"Their stores cover a huge area. Although there are many parcels, deliveries are slow, and parcels are often lost, they can guarantee that they cover most cities in the country. We can't."
Lu Mingliang couldn't stay calm anymore. "Boss Pei, are you saying that we can only start regular express delivery services when we have stores all over the country? How long would that take …? "
Pei Qian smiled. "What I mean is that we can do it, but we have to differentiate ourselves from other express delivery companies.
"If we just rent a warehouse, buy some equipment, and rent a few trucks to transport the goods, what's the difference between Upwind Logistics and other express delivery companies?
"My idea is to make full use of Upwind Logistics' current advantages and be faster than other express delivery companies!
"If we want to be faster than other express delivery companies, we can no longer use the traditional land transportation method. We can use air transportation!
"We can negotiate with airlines and rent planes to transport the goods. With Jingzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as the core cities, there will be at least one round-trip flight every day. That way, there will be twelve flights a day to transport the goods to the corresponding cities.
"After that, these goods will be sorted and sent to the surrounding cities using the traditional land transportation method. That way, we will be faster than other express delivery companies! Of course, this is limited to the regions that we cover.
"We will not provide any delivery or pick-up services outside these four regions for now."
Lu Mingliang was stunned.
It wasn't that Boss Pei didn't agree with him; he was thinking ahead!
At the moment, express delivery companies in this world mainly relied on land transportation. It would take three days to send a package from Guangzhou to Beijing. If there were any delays, it might take four days or even longer.
Boss Pei's idea was to use Jingzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as the core cities that Upwind Courier stations covered as the core cities. Then, he would divide the surrounding cities into one land transportation region.
If they used air transportation between these four cities, they would be able to shorten the three-day delivery time to one day.
Within the region — for example, from Jingzhou to the other cities in Handong Province — they could use regular land transportation methods. Although they might not have an obvious advantage over other express delivery companies in terms of speed, Upwind Courier stations were owned by Tengda itself.
For the same goods, Upwind Courier stations would definitely prioritize their own express delivery before other express delivery companies.
That way, Upwind Logistics would have a better experience than other express delivery companies in the regions covered by Upwind Courier stations.
The more than four thousand Upwind Courier stations were not built for nothing. They had to be effective now.
What Pei Qian really cared about was very simple. Using air transportation had a higher threshold, and he could spend more money!
How could the cost of fuel for a flight be the same as a few trucks for a long journey?
What's more, air transportation would definitely cost more than ordinary express delivery companies. Not many people would use it in the beginning. What's more, there were strict restrictions on air transportation. Many things could not be carried on planes.
Even if the planes were full or not, they would have to take off as scheduled. Wouldn't an empty flight be a waste of money?
What's more, working with airlines, renting planes, building their own airports, buying planes, and so on would all cost a lot of money. There was a lot of potential for them to burn more money in the future.
Of course, if air transportation could be done, land transportation would be easy as well.
As Upwind Logistics developed further, Upwind Courier stations would definitely expand to more cities. Long-distance transportation could not only be done by air transportation. Slowly, land transportation, rail transportation, and long-distance freight transportation would also be used.
However, those were things to worry about in the future.
In the short term, Upwind Logistics would only be doing air transportation across regions and land transportation within regions. That would definitely incur losses.
As for which goods could be delivered, which could not be delivered, which places could be delivered, and which places could not be delivered, these would all be checked by the lowest ranked courier.
Before customers sent their goods, the courier would check if the goods met the standards and if there were any Upwind Courier stations at the destination.
If there were, they would use Upwind Logistics. If not, they would use other express delivery companies.
After the business expanded, the Upwind Logistics section of Tengda Life App would also have to be updated to allow players to check the location of their express delivery companies in real time.
However, these were things that Lu Mingliang would have to worry about in the future.
Pei Qian said, "That's the gist of it. Of course, we have to work with airlines, rent planes, rent factories in the suburbs, and build sorting centers. We also have to update the entire logistics system to make the various steps smoother …
"All of these require a lot of preparatory work.
"How about this? I'll give you three months to make preparations and discuss the business. Three months later, I'll give you a special fund to gradually implement the new business."
In fact, the main reason was still the problem of funds.
Tengda had just recovered from the previous money-burning war. Although it was recovering quickly, Pei Qian had already thought of many ways to spend the money again.
Upwind Logistics' business upgrade this time was an unplanned expenditure. Pei Qian had not allocated any special funds for it. Renting planes and building sorting centers in various cities was not something that could be done with a small sum of money. It would be difficult to squeeze in the funds.
What's more, there were only two months left until settlement. It was obvious that they could not make it in time.
When the next cycle started, the movie's payback would probably arrive. The various departments would also have saved up a huge sum of money. They could burn it all into Upwind Logistics.
Lu Mingliang was very happy. He had gained a lot from meeting Boss Pei this time.
He immediately nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. I'll make the arrangements now. I'll make sure this matter is done beautifully!"
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