Chapter 1105 E-commerce Logistics
"By the way, uncle, let me ask you a question."
"you say."
"Is my dad really that naughty when he was a kid? Not only did he get into trouble but he also skipped classes? He was always beaten by my grandfather? And he beat him to death?" Song Yangming asked curiously.
Zhang Jianguo choked on a puff of cigarette and suddenly had a violent coughing fit. His face turned red and tears were about to come out.
After finally stopping his cough, Zhang Jianguo glared at Song Yangming: "What? Are you planning to go and verify this with your dad?"
"Hey, how dare I? I'm just curious... Yeah, I'm curious..." Song Yangming's head shook like a rattle in an instant. He was so bold that he could ask his old man about this directly? Wouldn't that be asking for a beating?
"Let's not talk about this anymore. What would you like to drink?" Zhang Jianguo waved his hand and put what had just happened aside.
After all, this was Song Yuanchao's past, and Zhang Jianguo was also involved in the fact that Song Yuanchao was beaten by Song Guangzeng when he was a child. Many times, it was Zhang Jianguo, who was a dozen years older than Song Yuanchao, who led Song Yuanchao to do mischief. If this matter was really clarified, where would Zhang Jianguo's face be? He is now a grandfather and a grandfather-in-law.
"Haha, whatever." Song Yangming was very smart. He immediately understood Zhang Jianguo's intention to change the subject. Then he thought about how Zhang's mother had said when they were little that this uncle was also a mischievous guy. He knew that if he continued to ask, Zhang Jianguo might get angry and embarrassed, so he quickly followed his advice.
"Let's have some tea. It's just right that you brought some tea with you. Your father's tea is not available outside. It's all good stuff." Zhang Jianguo went to get the tea brought by Song Yangming, and then started to boil water, wash the tea leaves, and make tea. There was a full set of tea sets in his study. As he got older, he also liked to tinker with these things, and he was very good at it.
After a while, the tea was ready. Zhang Jianguo picked up the teacup and sniffed it. He nodded and motioned Song Yangming to drink it with him.
After tasting a cup of tea, Zhang Jianguo picked up the teapot and continued to pour tea. When it was full, he put the teapot down and said to Song Yangming, "You came here this time for the cooperation between the express company and Si Te's online business, right?"
"Yes, I called you last week about this matter and asked someone below to send you a document. You..."
"I don't have any problem here." Zhang Jianguo said very straightforwardly: "The express delivery business has developed rapidly in recent years, especially with the rise of Internet shopping. The company has always wanted to adjust in this area. This time, your company's move from offline to online products is also a good opportunity for our express delivery company."
"By the way, wait a moment." Zhang Jianguo stood up, walked to the side, took out a document from the drawer of the desk, then came back and handed it to Song Yangming.
Song Yangming took it and opened it to take a closer look. It was an internal document of Zhang Jianguo's company, and the content inside was the plan to adjust the company's business structure.
Looking at this plan, it is very well formulated, with clear division of future business processes and ideas including the shift from traditional logistics industry to express delivery industry, etc.
Zhang Jianguo's logistics company is very large, and the express company was established on the basis of the original logistics company. The initial express delivery business was mainly document express and intra-city express delivery, which was basically handled by the post office before. However, the post office had two major problems: one was high fees, and the other was service timeliness. These two problems made it difficult for companies that needed fast express delivery to meet their needs.
On this basis, some people who saw business opportunities began to try to get involved in this industry. The earliest private express delivery business was established based , and its main job was to provide services to companies that had demand for document express or same-city express delivery.
For example, freight forwarding companies and customs brokers that are involved in import and export trade usually need to transfer documents and information every day, and this transfer requires extremely strong timeliness. In addition, these documents and information are generally large in number, and because of the particularity of the industry, generally speaking, most of these companies are located in areas near the Air Transport Exchange.
For example, a medium-sized customs declaration company needs to handle hundreds or even thousands of customs declarations every day. However, in this era, customs declarations are all paper-based, and customs brokers need to go to the Shipping Exchange in person to handle the customs declarations.
A medium-sized customs declaration company usually corresponds to more than a dozen or even dozens of freight forwarding companies or import and export companies. Therefore, someone needs to be responsible for handling the transfer of customs declaration documents between these companies, and promptly send the information that needs to be declared from the freight forwarding company or import and export company to the customs broker of the customs declaration company. After receiving the information, the customs broker verifies the information and then submits it to the Shipping Exchange in the shortest time possible, thus completing the customs declaration business.
If the work is handled by employees of these companies, then someone must be responsible for it every day. Moreover, due to the differences and distances between customs declaration companies, as well as some unexpected situations, it may be difficult for one person to take care of everything. To do this job well, at least two or even more people are needed to do this job. However, for a company employee to only do this job is not cost-effective in terms of labor costs or corporate needs.
Besides, business has busy and unbusy times. Sometimes a lot of information may be delivered on one day, but sometimes very little on the next day. It is not necessary to hire such a person. In addition, there are many companies with similar needs. In a region or even a city, with the continuous growth of import and export volume, the base is very large.
For this reason, a business was naturally formed, which was the establishment of certain business service companies, and then a group of professional personnel were employed to be responsible for the delivery of documents and information for these companies. These people also had a special name, which was called "running orders".
Runners are usually responsible for the business of several commercial buildings or companies in an area. It is definitely not cost-effective to hire employees in a single company to run orders, but the situation is different when the business volume is concentrated. Runners can be divided according to the routes of running orders, and then planned in a unified manner. Run orders back and forth, pick up documents and materials at two fixed time periods every day in the morning and afternoon, and then deliver them to the destination.
If there are temporary expedited documents, just make a phone call to the business service company, and the business service company can send the nearest runner to pick up the items and then deliver them to the destination, which brings convenience to everyone. Whether it is for freight forwarding companies, import and export companies or customs declaration companies, this is the lowest cost and the highest efficiency, and business service companies and runners can also gain profits and returns from this business.
This is the initial form of the domestic express delivery industry. Of course, it is not limited to the three aforementioned freight forwarding companies, import and export companies and customs brokers, but also includes factories and private businesses with similar needs. Moreover, the delivery of express delivery is not limited to documents and materials, but also includes other items, such as small samples, personal belongings, etc.
Compared with postal services, this service is low-cost and efficient, and soon became popular. Express delivery business also began to take shape on this basis.
As the largest private logistics company in China, Zhang Jianguo's company would naturally not miss this opportunity. At that time, Zhang Jianguo thought this was a good project, so he established an express delivery company for this purpose. The earliest business also started from this aspect.
However, Zhang Jianguo's logistics company has a solid foundation, and it also has its own storage centers and fleets across the country. On this basis, Zhang Jianguo began to gradually develop from the most basic delivery business to the same-city, non-city and even cross-regional express delivery business. After two years of development, its scale has become larger and larger, and its business model has gradually matured.
Now, the rise of online Internet, or e-commerce business, has brought opportunities to the express delivery industry. Zhang Jianguo and his team also keenly noticed this. When Song Yangming contacted Zhang Jianguo, Zhang Jianguo's company also discussed this issue. It can be said that everyone's ideas were the same. Zhang Jianguo's express delivery company has decided to vigorously enter the Internet e-commerce express delivery industry, divest part of the original logistics company, and assign part of the storage center including logistics transportation to the express delivery company, further improve the structure of the express delivery company, and lay a solid foundation for subsequent development.
"Do you mean to form a regional warehouse, and then have the warehouse distribute the express to improve the coverage and timeliness of express delivery?" Song Yangming closed the document and handed it back to Zhang Jianguo, and asked.
"That's about what I mean. In addition, we plan to find some online partner companies for comprehensive cooperation. Haha, your company, Si Te, is the first choice. I didn't expect that you would bring it up before I even opened my mouth." Zhang Jianguo said with a smile.
"Comprehensive cooperation? What are the details?" Song Yangming asked.
Zhang Jianguo briefly talked to Song Yangming and told him that the express company hoped that Si Te could allocate part of its previous warehousing services to the express warehousing services, which means that all products would be pre-stored in the express warehousing center, and then the express company and Si Te would be connected to the Internet to form a new warehousing management system.
In this way, as long as a customer places an order on the Internet e-commerce platform, both Sit and the express company will receive the order information through the system at the same time, and then automatically allocate the purchased products, delivery destination and other information based on the order information, send the picking information to the main warehouse or branch warehouse closest to the delivery, and then print the waybill, distribute the goods, package them, and deliver them to the customer.
If this model can be successful, it will form the most efficient and convenient overall service, which will be of great benefit to both the delivery company and the courier company. More importantly, the timeliness from order placement to delivery of goods will be greatly improved, which is also a great advantage for e-commerce.
