Recently, FAW Jiefang announced that its "Youda" network freight platform trading volume exceeded 100 million yuan after half a year of public testing. The achievement of this achievement not only highlights the strength of FAW Jiefang in this field, but also causes the industry to think deeply about the prospect of commercial vehicle enterprises entering the network freight platform.

 

What is the intention of self-building platform

 

In fact, FAW Jiefang is not the first commercial vehicle company to launch a cargo platform.

 

As early as 2014, Dongfeng Motor cooperated with China Unicom to launch the "quick pickup truck", which closely linked goods and trucks through network media. In March 2020, FAW Innovation, Dongfeng Assets, Beiqi Foton and other enterprises jointly invested in the construction of "truck home" to further promote the development of the network freight platform; In July 2020, Shanghai Transportation Group and SAIC Motor set up the city network platform "Sharing transportation", and launched in Shanghai, Xi 'an, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing and other cities; In November 2021, FAW Liberation network freight platform "Youda" was officially launched, which can customize network freight solutions for users and provide efficient and convenient intelligent logistics services; In January 2023, Sany Group launched the city freight platform "Xingbeida" and launched it in Changsha, Hunan Province. The platform takes two modes of grab and send orders, mainly for trinity users, and also provides charging, rental, car and other services, and promises "no membership fee" and "never cut."

 

In the view of the industry, commercial vehicle companies have entered the network freight platform, which is not only a wise move to comply with the market, but also an effective strategy to achieve marketing innovation.

 

In recent years, with the commercial vehicle industry entering the inventory competition stage, the traditional automobile sales business has gradually entered the bottleneck period. In this case, by building a network freight platform, commercial vehicle enterprises can extend their business to the logistics industry chain, tap new growth points, and achieve diversified development. On the one hand, they can use the freight platform to promote logistics vehicles, use the source of goods to bind users, and promote the development of main business; On the other hand, the freight platform can also help enterprises expand financial services, freight insurance, truck refueling, ETC and other aftermarket business, further enrich the product line, to meet the diversified needs of users.

 

In addition, the online freight platform also provides an excellent window for car companies to understand the needs of truck drivers in a more direct way. Through this platform, car companies can gain insight into the various challenges and pain points encountered by card friends in the transportation process, and integrate these feedback into the development and improvement of the car, thereby improving the adaptability of the vehicle and market competitiveness. This user-centered research and development strategy helps car companies grasp the pulse of the market more accurately and create models that are more in line with market demand.

 

"The establishment of the freight platform also provides strong support for commercial vehicle enterprises to build a new model of development of the ecosystem and industrial chain." Logistics industry expert Kong Zhen said that the automobile industry chain is long and involves a wide range, car companies want to achieve benign and stable development, must build an ecosystem around the business, the network freight platform is to improve the end customer viscosity, to build an important means of car companies to develop the ecosystem. Through platform empowerment, car companies can effectively integrate industry chain resources, realize resource sharing and complementary advantages. In addition, the massive data generated in the process of vehicle operation has potential value, and the car companies can collect and analyze these data through the network freight platform to provide strong support for corporate decision-making. At the same time, these data can also provide data support for automobile companies to carry out innovative business models such as precision marketing, and help enterprises achieve more efficient marketing and brand building.

 

What are the advantages of cross-border layout

 

As a typical representative of the digital economy in the highway logistics industry, the network freight platform has become an indispensable part of the modern logistics supply chain by virtue of its intelligent and efficient operation mode, which can quickly open up the upstream and downstream material circulation of the supply chain.
In recent years, the network freight market has shown explosive growth. According to industry statistics, as of the end of December 2023, the number of national network freight enterprises has reached 3,069, with access to social transport capacity of 7,989 million vehicles and 6,476 million drivers; In the whole year of 2023, 130 million waybills were uploaded, an increase of 40.9%.

 

With the continuous expansion of the industry scale, the network freight market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, the agglomeration effect of the head enterprises is becoming more and more obvious, the city freight field has emerged in the shipment of Lala, Didi freight, fast dog taxi and other leading enterprises, and in the field of trunk transportation, Manbang Group and ZhongChuzhiyun also stand out. Nowadays, commercial vehicle companies have turned their attention to the field of network freight transport, which is to value the huge development potential of this market.

 

So, compared with other competitors, what are the advantages of cross-border layout of car companies?

 

In this regard, some people in the industry believe that although as a rising star, automobile manufacturers have unique advantages in the layout of freight platforms.
First of all, commercial vehicle companies, with their professional understanding of vehicles and deep technical accumulation, can provide highly adaptable vehicle resources and advanced vehicle management systems for network freight platforms. They understand the performance characteristics of different models and can accurately deploy vehicles to meet various transportation needs, ensuring efficient and safe transportation.

 

Secondly, commercial vehicle enterprises have long been deeply engaged in the field of highway logistics, accumulated rich industry experience and resources, and have a keen insight into the dynamics and trends of the freight market. This enables them to more accurately grasp the market demand when building a network freight platform, develop operational strategies and service models that meet the actual situation, and provide more targeted solutions. At the same time, they have established long-term cooperative relations with logistics companies, cargo owners and other partners, which can provide stable supply and transport capacity protection for the platform.

 

In addition, car companies master a large number of subdivision scenarios and vehicle operation data, and have a national maintenance network and resource integration capabilities, which can provide timely and convenient maintenance services for vehicles on the platform to solve the worries of drivers in the transportation process. At the same time, each brand has a huge user base, has accumulated a good brand image and reputation for a long time, it is easier to obtain the trust and recognition of users, they are more willing to choose its network freight platform to carry out business.

 

Not only that, with the rapid development of intelligence and networking, many vehicle companies have strong vehicle networking technology and product reserves, can constantly innovate and optimize the functions and performance of the platform, to achieve the accurate matching of supply and capacity, real-time tracking and intelligent scheduling of the transportation process, while improving the user experience, but also to strengthen the supervision of the transportation process. Ensure transportation safety and efficiency.
Can solve the cargo platform chaos

 

At present, the network freight industry is in a critical period of development, but unfortunately, there are very few enterprises that can achieve benign operations and stable profits. In actual operation, some freight platforms have been interviewed by relevant departments for many times because of vague positioning, ignoring the nature of the industry, taking too high a percentage, and arbitrarily increasing membership fees, and truck drivers have complained about freight platforms. So, with the entry of vehicle enterprises, can it effectively clear up the chaos of the network freight industry?

 

In this regard, Kong Zhen said that the participation of commercial vehicle enterprises will bring a certain normative role to the network freight industry. With its professional ability and rich management experience in the field of automobile manufacturing, it is expected to establish more fair and transparent trading rules and operating mechanisms, so as to effectively curb undesirable phenomena in the industry. For example, through the implementation of a reasonable pricing strategy, the legitimate rights and interests of truck drivers can be effectively protected, and the low freight rates caused by vicious competition can be prevented. At the same time, with the help of advanced technical means, car companies can ensure the authenticity and accuracy of information, and reduce the negative impact of information asymmetry on the industry. At present, the successful case of FAW Jiefang "Youda" network freight platform is a strong proof that the active layout of many car companies is reshaping the ecological pattern of the network freight industry.

 

However, Kong Zhen also pointed out that although car companies can play an important role in the network freight industry, they also face many challenges. For example, how to balance the interests of all parties to ensure the sustainable development of the platform; How to deal with the competition of other Internet enterprises and traditional logistics enterprises. In addition, he stressed that if you want to root out the chaos of the freight platform, it is not a matter that can be solved overnight, and the joint efforts of the entire industry are needed, including the strengthening of supervision by the government, the role of self-discipline by industry associations and the active cooperation between enterprises.

 

"Today, the competition of network freight platforms is becoming increasingly fierce, and it has gradually upgraded from a contest between platforms to a competition between ecosystems." If car companies want to attract and stabilize a large number of users, they must deeply consider the truck industry chain and the core pain points faced by users." A person in charge of a heavy truck company said that at present, the profit model of most network freight platforms is relatively simple, and the depth of consideration of the interests of transportation practitioners is lacking. In the future, with the addition of more and more vehicle companies, the traditional traffic expansion strategy is increasingly difficult to adapt to the current market environment, forcing the network freight platform to re-examine and adjust its service and profit model, which will be a very positive change for the entire industry.

 

China Automotive News, June 18, 2024